Meet Alaina Duran

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alaina Duran a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alaina, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

For 2 generations I have watched hard work and excellence, in all things, between my grandparents and my parents. My grandparents were entrepreneurs, they started and ran a very successful upholstery business. My grandpa was mister fix it, he could fix anything. He refinished our kitchen table top several times, he rescreened all of our windows, he tended to our scraped knees, the list goes on and on.
My parents were the original DIYers, before social media. The house I grew up in went through many transformations, all by the hands of my parents. They put up a fence, installed an entire sprinkler system, built a screened in back porch, painted the exterior of our home, grew a thriving garden every year, tiled the kitchen and laundry room, remodeled the secondary bathroom, and so much more, all while my mom homeschooled my sister and me, and my dad worked fulltime. My mom now runs her own interior design business.
When I look at my family history to where I am today, it is suiting that I would start my own furniture refinishing business. It runs in my blood. My family is full of hardworking entrepreneurs.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

RepurposeLain is a business born out of desperation and creativity. My husband and I moved into our home in fall of 2020 . We were a 1 income household, as I was strictly a stay at home mom. Our financial needs continued to increase, as did our stress levels. I knew I need to find a way to help contribute to our finances, without leaving our home.
Since we had just moved into our home and we didn’t have much money to furnish it, I picked up a few pieces of inexpensive second hand furniture. I bought them with the intent to redesign them to fit the aesthetic of our home. The vision was there, but I lacked the knowledge on how to accomplish the look I wanted. Youtube became my best friend as I searched video after video on how to refinish furniture. In my search I found several women who were flipping furniture for a profit. Something in me clicked, I knew I could do it too. I made my list of needs, went to the hardware store, came home and started flipping a set of outdated end tables we had in our garage. After I finished them, I sold them for $100. I was instantly hooked after that first sale.
The beginning of my flipping journey started in the fall of 2021. The last three years I have spent learning and refining my furniture flipping skills. My business has expanded into the social media world. I aim to inspire others to pursue a creative outlet and find a new source of income. Furniture flipping has became my passion and given me a purpose I never saw in myself before. Furniture flipping has opened up opportunity beyond redesigning furntiure!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The three qualities that were the most impactful on my journey were, the can do attitude, the willingness to learn, and the unwillingness to quit. Furniture flipping began its spark in me as I watched Youtube videos of other flippers and immediately I thought to myself ” I can do that”. I had very little knowledge on the subject, but I knew I could learn. Furniture flipping didn’t start off easy, but I watched and rewatched all the videos I could to learn new techniques and faster processes on how to be efficient as I flipped furniture. When the challenges came I would commit to the process of trial and error until I found the solution. Quitting wasn’t an option. Finding a solution was the only way.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Furniture Flipping has opened more doors than I knew were before me. It has led to finding amazing friends, community, and partnerships. Collaborating is a great way to learn and share about other brands and creators. If you are local to Houston and you flip furniture, upholster, wood work, DIY, or are an interior designer I’d love to collaborate to promote your business you can find me @repurposelain on the social platforms or reach out at the email below. If you are a brand in the home improvement, design, tool, or lifestyle niche please email me at [email protected] to connect and create inspiring and engaging content to draw an audience to your quality products,

Contact Info:

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