To buy or not to buy? Can I sell it? That IS the question...

I have a lot of inventory right now. Not because I am a hoarder (okay, I am), but because when I find a really great piece at a great price, I buy it. No hesitation, no plan of what I am going to do with it, no consideration of having space to store it until I get around to working on it. The most important part of that? The price.

When I find a great piece, and I think it's priced too high, it's not because it's not a good price for that item as is. It's just not a good price for ME. See, I don't buy pieces and just resell them--I transform them. Transforming takes a lot of time, effort, and materials. For example: if I see a great desk (I buy a lot of them, hence two blogs posts on desks) for $100 and it it's in great shape, I have to look at the costs of all that it will take to "transform" it. Let's break it down:

If this desk had been $100.

Most likely, I am going to have to sand it:  Mouse pads $6/pack and sheets $10/pack = $16 and 1 hour of labor to sand it, and that's only if it isn't a really thick layer of poly or 14 layer of latex paint that someone thought would be AWESOME on their desk.

Desk $116 in just material costs, plus 1 hour of labor.

Now that I have it sanded down, I might still need to prime it. If that's the case:  (3) cans of primer $8/each = $24 and about a half hour of labor.

Desk $140, plus1.5 hours of labor.

After all that bidness, it's now time to put a finish on it. I do not love to stain, so I am not going to figure in the cost of that (materials or labor), but I will say that the labor is a lot. Let's say I decide to use chalk paint, milk paint, or any other specialty paint. I like to do two coats, no matter what it is. Quart of specialty paint:  $38, plus 2 hours of labor. I might need a new brush and since I try to use really good brushes, which makes for an even finish, let's just say a new brush is $16. 

*I rarely use the whole quart of paint on any one project, but what is left isn't really enough to do another large piece.

Desk $194, plus 3.5 hours of labor.

If I want to distress it a bit, I once again have material costs--sanding block $5 and Mouse pads (we'll just consider that I didn't use all of the first pack). Let's give it a half hour of labor.

Desk, $199, plus 4 hours of labor.

Wait--that's not it. There is still a top finish, or maybe even some dark wax that goes on before I can even get to the top finish! Since I tend to not dark wax an entire piece, I am also going to leave that out of my little estimate here, but dark wax is about $45/tin. If you use all over on a large piece, you can easily use about a quarter of a tin! The labor is crazy--just imagine wiping on and wiping off Crisco (but less pliable) on an entire armoire. Sounds like a party, doesn't it? So, back to the final finish--I like a satin clear coat. A desk takes about 4 cans of clear coat, if done correctly and for a smooth, even, durable finish. The clear coat I use is $8/can. Used labor is about 20 minutes 3-4 times, but I'll just keep it at an even total, and estimate the total labor up until this point at 5 hours.

That $100 desk is now up to $231, and there isn't even any labor added to this total, or wax.
Ouch!

Even knowing all of this, I tend to end up cutting my labor charges way down on almost every piece just to keep the end total down, which sounds like I am kind of getting the shaft on the only thing that doesn't come out of my wallet! Thank goodness I love what I do!

So, the next time you wonder why you saw a desk at that yard sale for $100 is not going to be $100 when it leaves the porch, you know a little bit about why.

There is a lot of material cost, time and love put into each Porch Productions piece, so I hope that you feel the love coming off of it every time you look at yours!

Want to see how this desk turned out? Visit www.facebook.com/porchproductions tomorrow to find out!