From Weekend Projects to Fulltime Income: Alicia's Furniture Flipping Journey

In this conversation, Alicia Thibault shares her journey from a traditional work mindset to embracing her creative passions through furniture flipping. She discusses the importance of finding joy in work, and the fulfillment that comes from creating and transforming furniture. Alicia emphasizes the significance of pursuing one's passions, the thrill of creativity, and the balance between work and family life. Her story serves as an inspiration for those looking to explore their own creative paths.

creativity, furniture flipping, work-life balance, entrepreneurship, passion, artistic journey, home decor, self-employment, personal growth, inspiration

Takeaways

Alicia loves Mondays and feels fulfilled in her work.
The conversation highlights the common dread of Mondays and how to overcome it.
Alicia's childhood experiences shaped her view of work and creativity.
She found joy in creative subjects over traditional academic ones.
Alicia's journey into furniture flipping began as a hobby to furnish her home.
She realized she could monetize her creativity through furniture flipping.
The transition from real estate to a creative career was driven by a desire for freedom.
Alicia emphasizes the importance of balancing work and family life.
She encourages others to explore their creative passions without fear.
Alicia believes that pursuing what you love leads to a fulfilling life.

Chapters

00:00 Embracing Mondays: A Positive Outlook on Work
01:07 Creative Beginnings: The Influence of Art in Childhood
02:49 The Journey to Self-Discovery: Realizing Creative Passions
07:55 Navigating Career Choices: From Real Estate to Creativity
12:47 Trading Time for Dollars: The Struggle of Unfulfilling Work
18:30 The Thrill of Transformation: Starting Furniture Flipping
24:08 Finding Fulfillment: Balancing Motherhood and Creativity
29:12 Turning Passion into Profession: The Birth of a Business
32:14 The Evolution of a Passionate Business
36:32 The Joy of Creative Work
43:09 Finding Your Unique Path
52:32 Encouragement for Aspiring Creatives
58:03 Recognizing the Call to Change

Transcript

Kindra Morse 
You know, I remember at a, I think it was a conference that I had gone to where someone had said, do you know, and it was funny because I'd never thought about it until I heard him talk about it. But he said, do you know that pit in your stomach that you get on Sunday night? And I thought, my gosh, yes. Like I know exactly what he's talking about. He was like, imagine a life where you don't have that pit in your stomach on Sunday night because you don't dread Monday. anyways, I never ever thought about it, but ever since he said that I've never not thought about that. So going back to,

Alicia Thibault (00:45)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Yeah.

Kindra Morse (00:55)
When you were growing up and what you thought work, like a work life, what it should look like, what were the examples that you saw in your world? What did you think it was going to be?

Alicia Thibault (01:06)
I thought that people worked nine to five jobs that you work Monday through Friday from nine to five and then You live for the weekend and then you're back in the work week looking forward to the next weekend like that's that's kind of What I saw that's sort of what my what my parents did. That was my example And so that's what I thought I would do

Kindra Morse (01:36)
Yeah, that's like what looked normal. So I know you're so artistic and creative and I'm so excited for people to hear what you do for a living because I like I'm your number one stalker. You might not know that. But growing up being creative, what I want to know a little bit about what it was like to how that looked and how that showed up in your life growing up. But then also how it felt to have this joy that you felt in being creative and feeling like that wasn't a path.

Alicia Thibault (01:38)
Yeah.

you

you

Kindra Morse (02:06)
you could take when you were growing up.

Alicia Thibault (02:10)
Yeah, so anything that had any sort of creativity or where I wasn't, know, math, science, all the things where there's an answer and you have to get the correct answer, like those are not subjects that I enjoyed in school. The things that I enjoyed, we had, it was called Junior Senior Studio in high school and

It was one period during the day that I always looked forward to. We did pottery and we...

did paint it on canvas. It was just, we did all kinds of different things. It was just an art class, but it was like something that I always looked forward to and I loved it so much and I took it every quarter, junior and senior year. And I got so close with my art teacher that she started just letting me kind of do whatever I wanted to do. And she would grade, you know, the class would all do one thing and I would just do kind of whatever I was passionate about at the time. And she would grade that like it was the assignment that everybody else

else was doing. it was even in that class, like she didn't put, it was Miss Tramp and she didn't put, she didn't put rules on, on my creativity, which I thought was awesome. And another reason that I really loved that class.

Kindra Morse (03:36)
You were wired from the get-go to not have a boss, right? Or you were creating the life that you wanted to live where you weren't talking to me.

Alicia Thibault (03:40)
Yeah. Yes.

yeah. And it's like, I always, I thought that, let's see, it's saying picture and picture, okay. It's, I'm getting some weird pop up on my thing.

Kindra Morse (03:59)
I can cut it out too.

Alicia Thibault (04:00)
Okay, okay. It said picture in picture mode closed to maintain recording quality. I don't know what that means. Okay, I just wanted to make sure it was still, okay, not do the whole thing and be like, oh, actually, it didn't get any of that wiggle. I'll see you next Friday. Bye, Katie Ru.

Kindra Morse (04:03)
What did we say?

Okay, I think that's fine. I don't know, we'll find out.

I still see you.

my gosh, no, I probably cry. Yeah, I actually had to cancel and I'm like, I am behind and overwhelmed and thinking, okay, I need to do two a week for like five weeks so that this doesn't feel so heavy and like all this pressure. I mean, it's exciting and it's fun, but I had two of three basically cancel.

Alicia Thibault (04:31)
Yeah, that was nothing.

But you have things that you can't get.

Oh no. Oh, that's good.

Kindra Morse (04:54)
Yeah, mm-hmm.

Anyways, so going back though, so when you were in your art class and you were creating this life where you had no rules, did you realize it then?

Alicia Thibault (05:06)
Yes, I did and I loved it so much and I thought, I always thought in the back of my mind like, oh man, it would be so great if I could, you know, do this for a living. But in my mind, like doing art and being creative for a living meant...

Kindra Morse (05:08)
Did you?

Alicia Thibault (05:27)
painting pictures. It was like a small thing or doing pottery or something. I didn't realize. And I think also back, I don't think when I was in high school, there was the amount of people that were refinishing furniture. There wasn't Pinterest. There wasn't Facebook Marketplace. Thrifting was still kind of a thing that was like.

not cool. I remember my mom taking me to antique stores. My mom loves vintage and antique stuff and always has appreciated it. But I remember her taking us to antique stores and just being like, it smells bad in here. Like I don't understand why anybody would buy something old when they could buy something new, which is now literally the opposite of how I feel.

but it was just kind of different times. And so I never thought outside of the box. I loved being creative, but I never thought that there was any way to do it other than being an interior designer or painting pictures and then not being able to sell them and be poor for the rest of my life. That was just like how I thought about it. That's what, I mean, we talked about it earlier, but the starving artists and just not, you know, there was just this.

Kindra Morse (06:37)
Right.

Alicia Thibault (06:46)
I don't know, just it wasn't something that I thought that I could do for the rest of my life and succeed at it.

Kindra Morse (06:56)
And when you say succeed though, you mean that you felt it wouldn't be either just profitable enough or you at that point in your life put more priority on the size of your income.

Alicia Thibault (07:09)
I think I put priority in, I think in high school a lot in, you know, what people thought of my career, or if it was going to make my parents proud, or if I was going to be able to provide at all. I think more that way, like I wasn't thinking entirely of, you know, if a business would be profitable back then, I wasn't, you know, it just,

didn't seem like it was something that could be a reality. So.

Kindra Morse (07:44)
Right, right. So then what did you go into for work after high school? What did you pursue thinking that was the right path for work?

Alicia Thibault (07:55)
real estate. started at Century 21 in marketing just to see if it was something that I wanted to do. My thought was that I would be a real estate agent, but I started doing marketing for a while just to learn the ins and outs and kind of get my foot in the door.

in real estate, but I knew pretty much right after I started that that wasn't something that I wanted to do because there was a lot of, a lot of, I just in my head thought that they didn't work a lot and they made a lot of money. And once I got into a real estate office, I realized, they're actually working a lot. They're earning what they're making. it was, and it wasn't that I didn't want to work and earn money. It was that I didn't, wasn't,

ever really interested in real estate other than going in people's homes and seeing the decor and the design and that stuff. Like that is the part also that drew me to real estate was just because I love design and just seeing just seeing the way things look and feel. so that's kind of where I started, but it was I knew that that's not what I wanted to do.

Kindra Morse (09:18)
How soon into it? Because I think a lot of us growing up think, okay, this is what I can do to make a lot of money or make a good amount of money or enough money, whatever that might be. But how soon into it were you like, wait, this is not, don't, how long did it take for you to figure that out?

Alicia Thibault (09:34)
so quickly, I think because I realized,

So we talked about how my parents worked nine to five jobs and I knew that I wanted to have a family. And when I realized how much, especially the ones that were just starting out, how much they worked on the weekends doing open houses, things like that, I realized right away that I didn't want to work on the weekends and have someone else dictating my schedule. I knew I wanted to have a family, be at my kids's, I wanted to be a soccer mom and be at the kids's games.

and not just be working every weekend and have people calling me and have access to me seven days a week in real estate, I think is really that way. So it was quick, it was fast. I realized I didn't wanna do that, yeah. Not that there's anything wrong with working in real estate. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is, it is. And I have friends that are in real estate and it's awesome and I work

Kindra Morse (10:31)
Yeah, real estate is tough.

Alicia Thibault (10:42)
also with my sister staging homes and I still love going in and seeing homes that are for sale but I like going in and decorating them and helping helping themselves so.

Kindra Morse (10:57)
It's interesting because once you are actually part of an industry like that, you do start to see every aspect of an industry. You kind of have to be working in it to see all the different ways that you can be involved in an industry. Because I'm the same as you. loved as a realistic agent, I was an agent for five years. I loved going in people's houses. I loved admiring the way that their house was decorated. And I never, never crossed my mind back then that there would be any career in that. Like I wouldn't have even had any.

Alicia Thibault (11:18)
Yeah.

Kindra Morse (11:25)
idea that there would be options like you've kind of created for your life in that direction. So it's just interesting, like as a young person, you think there's just these like five main paths that you can take. And then as you get older, you realize there's actually a lot of different ways that you can show up. So you decided pretty quickly, okay, becoming an agent is off the table. You got into marketing, you marketed for that real estate office for how long?

Alicia Thibault (11:37)
Yes, right?

I was there for probably five years.

I was there for five years because I just, knew it's not what I wanted to do, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. And so that was a safe place and I liked my coworkers and it just, you know, it wasn't horrible, but it didn't fill me up by any means. It was just one of those jobs where I was just watching the clock a lot. So yeah.

But I stayed five years before. Yes, that's exactly how it was. That's exactly how it was. It was trading time for dollars. And that is, that's not a good feeling. Not a good feeling. Yeah.

Kindra Morse (12:26)
Yeah, what did that feel like? Trading time for dollars?

Yeah, how at any point in there did you know there is something else and I just don't know what it is or did you feel like this is all there is?

Alicia Thibault (12:47)
no, I definitely knew there was something else. I just had no idea what to do. And I still almost thought about being.

an agent and doing that because then as you get older and you're getting ready to exit college and you're in your, you know, getting close to mid 20s, it's like, my gosh, I can't believe I'm mid 20s and I still don't know what I want to do for the rest of my life. And it almost felt just like embarrassing, like how am I a full grown adult? And I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. but I just had never

I knew that I wanted to be a mom. I knew that I wanted to have a family and I wanted to be able to provide. I just did not know how to do it or what it was going to look like. And now how would I have, you know, it's like, I never would have thought this career up for myself. You know, I just didn't know it was, it was an option.

Kindra Morse (13:53)
Yeah, so again, there's so many things out there that are possible. There's endless possibilities and that is what this is all about as far as opening up our minds to all the different ways that you can create the life that you want to live in a way that is filling your cup, feels purposeful, fills you with joy. So talk about how you kind of fell into or discovered this career that you've created.

Alicia Thibault (14:00)
huh.

Yeah, so I did my first furniture flip, I guess you would say, for our own family, for ourselves. We had just built a house and started our family, and we were in a position where we could not afford a lot of furniture to fill our new home with. So I started searching on Marketplace for furniture that was

secondhand that I loved that I thought I could do something with and my first furniture piece that I refinished was a dining room table for our new home and we ended up selling it when we moved but I still think about about that table I should have probably held on to the first piece but yeah yep that was the first that was the first one and after that it was things for our home I still you know I knew that

that I loved doing it, but I didn't realize until a year or two later that there was actually a way to monetize it. So it started out just as a hobby, something fun that I was doing to fill our home with furniture on a budget. And then, you know.

Kindra Morse (15:40)
Was

it, was that something that you had to learn to do? Like you had never done it before you needed to do that for yourself.

Alicia Thibault (15:48)
Yeah, never had I done it, never.

I'd never done it before. think I probably before Facebook and Instagram and all those things, I loved magazines. Like I had a subscription to Better Homes and Garden. had HGTV magazine and I used to just look through magazines all the time and you know see pieces of furniture that I loved and decor that I loved and wanted to decorate my house a certain way. But we were on a strict

budget and I thought I need to make this happen but on a budget and that was the way for me to do it was to buy things on Marketplace or a thrift store and make it look new and the way I wanted it to look instead of dated and and old and dingy so yeah

Kindra Morse (16:44)
So how did that transition to being able to create an income flipping furniture? What was the first experience that opened your eyes to wait? I could maybe do this as for a living.

Alicia Thibault (16:57)
Yes, so shortly after I did the first couple of pieces, my sister, we lived in southern Idaho at the time, and my sister was a vendor in an antique mall doing signs and they did.

a couple different things. They just had this little booth there and she was thinking about opening a store that had a bunch of vendors in it. And so when she opened that store, I thought it was a great idea, which in retrospect was not because we were eight and a half, nine hours away. I said, when you open your store, I'm going to get a trailer and haul a bunch of stuff to the store and upkeep a space.

that's eight hours away while I'm still living in southern Idaho. So we did do that and we made a couple, our first couple loads of refinished furniture was hauled from Jerome, Idaho to Spokane, Washington. It was a long trip and the first one ever, I didn't pack it very well. And so a bunch of the stuff that I had found and...

you know, for our space there, we get there and so much of it is broken and it was not good. It was not a good experience in the beginning. it was, mean, that was, that's how kind of we got started. It was that way. And then we still have.

Kindra Morse (18:26)
you

So

when you started

Alicia Thibault (18:33)
No, go ahead. I think there's a lag.

Kindra Morse (18:35)
When you started

doing that, I know there is, when you started doing that, did you have like imposter syndrome or did you struggle with what if no one buys my furniture or were you 100 % confident that you had quality? I love your work. Anyone that's listening should follow and or maybe I shouldn't tell people where to find you because then other people will be buying your stuff. I love your work, it's great.

Alicia Thibault (19:01)
think in the beginning, yes, I want it, you know.

Yes and no. I wanted things to look a certain way, but when we first started, I very much was intimidated by other artists or when there were people that were bringing in refinished furniture, I would be comparing what I did with what they did or my sales with their sales. And there was a lot of comparing and there is to this day, a lot of competitive

between, you know, the shops that have vendors in them. And it took a while to realize that they are not my competition. They're not my competition. And that takes the joy out of it because then, and also for a while,

you know, when we started having a lot of success, it just turned into, okay, we just got to keep pushing out more furniture and there was less thought in it and it just, it can still feel like a job. And whenever it does, that's when I know, okay, I need to kind of reanalyze, reprioritize, get back in balance and...

Kindra Morse (20:15)
Uh-huh.

Alicia Thibault (20:26)
when I'm putting my heart in it, that's when it feels right, not when I'm just trying to push out as much stuff as I can and keep a space full. And so we actually, the last couple of years have reduced the size of our space in there just so that we can be putting in quality items and not feel rushed and be able to just...

do it with heart. That's why I started doing it in the first place. So yeah, but no, competition anymore. Oh, go ahead.

Kindra Morse (20:58)
So when you first.

When you first started putting things in her shop, the Bohemian, for anyone in the Spokane area, check it out, it's awesome. Did you, you were still working full time?

Alicia Thibault (21:11)
huh.

No, I was not. when I, when my husband and I got married and started our family, we moved to Southern Idaho and I, while I was pregnant with our first daughter. And so I was a stay at home mom during that time. And so when, when we started doing the furniture thing, I was a stay at home mom during that time. I had already quit my, my job in real estate.

Kindra Morse (21:39)
Thank

Alicia Thibault (21:48)
and started moming full time. Yeah, yep, for.

Kindra Morse (21:49)
I did not know that. So when

you're a mom in full time, we've never talked about this, but I'm like super curious. Okay, so when you're mommy full time after being a working woman, did you feel any part of you was missing and not providing?

Alicia Thibault (21:58)
Yes, yes.

yeah, definitely, definitely. Yes, my husband was farming at the time, which is a lot of work and a lot of time and he was gone a lot of the time. It's a seven day a week job and it was a family farm. he was

was very busy and I was lonely and I felt like something was missing big time. Like it was really hard for me to stay home. Like it was great. I loved being home with the kids, but there was definitely a longing for something more. Just.

in a hobby kind of way, like something to do to fill my time that brought me joy. But also I really like providing like that is it's a challenge and it's something that I have always enjoyed. And I thought maybe there's a way I can stay home with the kids and also help provide a little. So yeah, that was definitely something that I was thinking about.

Kindra Morse (23:25)
Yeah, I think that it's interesting as women, we're supposed to feel fulfilled or I think we are made to believe that we're supposed to be fulfilled being a mom and I almost feel that there's a side of us that feels guilty that we need more, we want more or we feel guilty that we want more but we need more. We need something that is filling our own cup, whether it's.

for a profit necessarily or just to have that creative outlet where you're creating something in the world outside of just raising children and then also talking to other adults because it's very lonely at times.

Alicia Thibault (24:02)
Definitely.

Yes, yeah, definitely. Yeah, and we had just moved there and it was in Idaho. You know, I had my in-laws and his family, but I, other than that, had no friends there. No family other than his family, which was my new family and our kiddos. But I definitely, you know, especially when your kids are infants and tiny, they sleep a lot and there's a lot of time to fill.

doing other things. And so that's kind of when I started redoing furniture for our own home. It gave me something fun to do that I enjoyed. And then you can only do so much furniture for your own home before you have to find a way to to have an outlet for your hobby. And so it was kind of perfect timing. When she opened the store, it was an outlet for my hobby.

Kindra Morse (25:06)
So did,

Alicia Thibault (25:07)
Yeah?

Kindra Morse (25:08)
yeah.

So were you already thinking, I want to do more of this, I love doing this, I don't need it, were you wanting to do more furniture flips before you even knew that you were going to have an opportunity to have a booth in your sister's store?

Alicia Thibault (25:24)
Yes, yes. I mean, after I did the first, after I did our dining table, which I still, I mean, it was kind of crazy. I went to, I drove like an hour and a half to Boise to get our dining table. And it was like wicker back chairs and a huge table and upholstered seats. And it was so like, now I've been doing this for,

I don't know, seven, eight years. And I wouldn't tackle the project now that I tackled for my very first project because it was a big, and it took so long. It was for our family, so it was like worth it. And that's how I was viewing it. But it took a long time. I sanded down every single chair to restain, which was kind of crazy. But yeah, I definitely, after.

Kindra Morse (26:19)
when you

don't know what you don't know.

Alicia Thibault (26:22)
Yeah, no, you don't. Yeah, it was, it was, it was a lot. But after I did that first one, just seeing the transformation of an old dated table, it was probably from, you know, 60s or 70s, sanding it down all the work, all the effort, all the love that went into it. And then seeing it in our dining room after I was done with it. And it was a labor of love. It was just so rewarding and satisfying.

And I was like, I'm going to do that again. So yeah. Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Kindra Morse (26:58)
It's

something that you would do for free, right? Like you would do that because you enjoy the process so much and you also enjoy what you created.

Alicia Thibault (27:06)
Yep, I would. would. I still people have asked, okay, if you had millions of dollars, would you still be doing this? And absolutely, I would like I really would. I enjoy the creative process of it so much. And just I love it. I love finding things like the thrill of finding something that is valuable for not a lot of money like that.

thrill never goes away for me. And so even, you know, it doesn't matter, you know, how much money is in the bank, like it's still I'm still a thrifter, I always will be. And I'll always be creating in some way, shape or form for sure it's inside me like it's not I've tried to make it not inside me, it's not happening. So

Kindra Morse (28:02)
We cannot get rid of that part of me. Well, and I think that there's something within all of us that we're born with, that we're wired to be interested in something, and you have to listen to that. That's telling you something. If there's something in your life that you're like, can't stop thinking about this, I can't stop dreaming about this, or I can't stop thinking about the ways that I can maybe do something with this, listen to that. So when did it become a full-time career? This is how you...

Alicia Thibault (28:03)
No.

huh.

Yes. Yes.

Kindra Morse (28:31)
guys provide for your whole life now, which is so amazing. There's so many aspects of what having your own business does and the amount of control you have in your time, how you spend your time, how you're able to show up with your kids and do things with your kids. I know we spent last summer a week on the other side of the state and you can pick up and leave and come back. There's obviously stresses about it as well, but when did it become your full time, this is how we live our whole life.

Alicia Thibault (28:33)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

When we moved here, when we moved to Washington, we were able to start

buying more things and sourcing furniture at the different, you know, on marketplace and at thrift stores. And we filled space there and our things just kept selling and selling and selling. And so it was, I mean, that's when we...

realized that we could do it and people were actually going to buy our things, which is still kind of, I mean, I still, we've been doing it for a long time and I still can't really believe that people buy our furniture. I don't know, but they do. And so it just, as long as people keep buying stuff that I refinish, I'll keep refinishing things. And even if they stop, I'll still do it. I'll just have to get really creative, I guess, on where I'm going to put all the things.

you

Kindra Morse (30:06)
When you moved here then though, did one of you or both of you have jobs? When you moved here, did you think you were both going to?

Alicia Thibault (30:12)
No, so when we moved here,

we were very lucky. And I realized not everyone has this kind of situation where we were able to kind of a lot of people who do what we do and are vendors in stores like the Bohemian. there's a there's a whole bunch around here. But

A lot of them do it part time because they can't afford to do it full time and it can be a roller coaster financially. This can be so when we moved here, we sold our home in Jerome and we also had a rental home there. So we moved here having just sold two pieces of real estate and we had the financial freedom to be able to kind of fully jump in.

which was awesome. was, yeah.

Kindra Morse (31:12)
That's amazing. So when you had your rental property, was that something that was in the plan that you were probably going to use that to be able to

Alicia Thibault (31:19)
with.

We didn't really, it wasn't really a plan at all. just, we had the rental home when we bought, we had built a home there. And when we bought the piece of property that we bought, it had a rental home on it. But it was a just older, smaller farmhouse. And so we turned that into a rental and built a home.

you know, on the other side of the property, but we were able to sell them both before we moved here. but no, didn't, we didn't really, you know, it wasn't like, okay, we're gonna take all this, the money that we made from our real estate investment and then, you know, shift it over to Dabble Decor and,

Kindra Morse (31:57)
amazing. So

Alicia Thibault (32:14)
you know, start a new business. just kind of happened organically. just, you know, I kept doing it because I loved it. I enjoyed it. And it just kind of proved to be something that we were going to stick with.

Kindra Morse (32:34)
Now you have a space at the bohemian, but then you also sell out of your home. Do you feel that the majority of the income you are bringing in is coming from having this space or from selling from home?

Alicia Thibault (32:49)
I think right now it's probably selling at home just the sales that we have on Marketplace and we have markets here in the spring, summer and fall and right now that's going really well.

But it's been back and forth. Just some months are great at the Bohemian and then some months are great selling from here. So it just depends. In the beginning, definitely at the Bohemian. I think more so the reason that we're making more from home is because I kind of am focusing more on selling from home rather than keeping our space at the Bohemian fully stocked all the time.

just because when we get busy, that kind of falls off my to-do list and I focus more on home. Our space is in the Valley, which is a drive. And when our kids have a lot of activities, which they have lately, I don't make the trip out as much, but I still want to and need to be providing. So I just throw stuff in the shop and sell it straight from here.

Kindra Morse (34:09)
Well, you've also built a following online. You've put a lot of time into showing up online and I love following your stories. Like when you have a cat in your truck at the thrift store, things like that. But you connect with your audience so authentically. I love watching your stories. But you've built a relationship and that's a big part of why you're able to have so much business through social media because you've put that in.

Alicia Thibault (34:18)
Hahaha

thank you.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, and that has actually, I hadn't really even thought about it a whole lot until you say that. when I started, I started, you know, we've been in the Bohemian for probably six years or so. But I, within the last couple of years decided to, they do a lot of marketing on our behalf, but I decided to start our own Facebook.

double decor page and that

has helped our business tremendously at home, just because I do a lot of times I'll post something just on our page and it sells before it even has a chance to make it into the Bohemian or even into our shop. Like we get custom work that way. A lot of the things that I've done lately are things that I haven't even shared on our page because people have reached out

to us specifically from there. So it has helped a lot our business here at home. So that's been, that's been huge. And it is fun. It's a whole nother, it's a whole nother part of the process that I enjoy, that I didn't realize I was going to enjoy. I resisted social media for a long time because I didn't think I wanted to spend time doing that. And after I started, I'm like,

This is actually a lot of fun. like taking, you know, taking photos as part of the process, just creating little cute pockets in our home, in the shop, at the Bohemian and photographing them and sharing them. It's a lot of fun too. So, it's just another part of the job that I enjoy.

Kindra Morse (36:32)
It's such a fun job. I'm so tired of being sick. How would you, I really am, but I'm super curious. How would you compare what work feels like back then when you were doing a job, trading time for dollars, and what work feels like now? How much do you feel like you're living in your purpose in what you get to do for work?

Alicia Thibault (36:51)
Yes. Yes.

my gosh, well, when I say during our conversation today, when I say work, I'm not actually working. I am doing a hobby that I love and enjoy. It never feels like work. It's like

I wish that I could duplicate myself so that one me could do all my responsibilities and tasks and that the other me could just be painting and, you know, being creative all day long because it does not feel like work. Time flies when I am in the paint garage and just, man, time flies. It really does. just, there's never.

enough time in the day to do it and it's not working. It's not working at all. Any other job I've had before, it's you know time goes by real slow but when you're doing something you love and are passionate about there's just not enough time in the day.

But don't think a lot of people feel that way.

Kindra Morse (38:01)
Yeah, how,

just one question. No, and I think there's a lot of people that don't know. There's a lot of people that don't know that there's other ways to live your life, that you can create something like this that you do love, that does not feel like you're working, that you feel like time is flying. There are so many things that you can do in the world to serve the world and provide something for other people. And also, do you find that...

Alicia Thibault (38:06)
go ahead.

Mm-hmm.

Kindra Morse (38:30)
I don't know if you hear from your customers once they bought furniture from you, but I'm assuming you've got a lot of people telling you they absolutely love your work. And how does that feel compared to how it felt to get a paycheck?

Alicia Thibault (38:33)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

my gosh, it feels amazing. I do, get people. I got a gal last week who we did a custom vanity that she's had in her family forever. I think she saw a piece of furniture that I had posted on Marketplace and she reached out and said, do you do custom projects? I have this that has been in the family and I don't want to get rid of it, but it's the veneer is peeling off and I can't use

it anymore just because it's in such bad shape. And so she drove like an hour to bring us that. And she said, if you ever find a dresser, I would love to have a dresser to match it. And so a couple of days later, I had found a dresser, sent her pictures, and she asked if I would do the dresser to match her vanity, which I did. And her husband and her father-in-law came and picked that for her.

And the second it got back to her, she just sent me a message saying, I love it so much. just, and it feels, it feels amazing. Like that I was able to do that for her and turn something that it, it was, it was in shambles when it got brought here and she didn't know what she wanted done with it. And a lot of people, they'll see something that I've done on marketplace or they'll see something on

our Facebook page and they'll give me creative freedom to do you know something.

that I would do with their piece. And that in itself is like, my gosh, I can't believe you're trusting me with this piece of furniture that's been in your family for three generations and just letting me do what I want with it. And then I do what I want with it and she loves it. Like that's just, I mean, it's awesome. It's totally rewarding. And yeah, I love it. Yep.

Kindra Morse (40:47)
hardly work, right? How can we make a living doing something?

Alicia Thibault (40:49)
it

It's just, it's, and, some people, some people don't like it. Like I, I don't know. Everyone has their own thing. It took me a very long time to find my own thing. And I think, you know, just.

Just because it's my thing doesn't mean it's someone else's thing. Like I sometimes think I can't believe everyone doesn't want to refinish furniture for a living or be creative or whatever, but not everyone does. Like some people don't want to be creative or they don't have an eye for something. I actually was just, I had coffee with my sister this morning and she had at her house and she had a table with all of her spring decor just thrown on it. This is not the sister that

the bohemian. Her and I, our minds, our creativity, same flow. This is a different sister, but she had put it all there and just said, while you're here having coffee, you need to put out my spring stuff because I don't like, I just don't understand how you put two things together and then it looks good. So I did a little decorating while we drank coffee and just she, some people don't like it. I do. I love it, but I'm glad not everyone loves it because then they wouldn't be buying furniture.

for me, they should be doing it themselves. But I also highly encourage anybody that is creative or they think it might be fun to do it because it is so fun. And even if you're just doing it for your own home, not everyone has to find a way to make a living by doing it. Like it's fun just to do in your own home too. If you want to create a outlet.

I don't think it's difficult, it just takes time and effort and it's super rewarding.

Kindra Morse (42:47)
I think for the creative mind, it's a natural, that comes naturally to the person that is a creative when it comes to furniture. And like you said, you grew up always loving furniture and always dreaming about how you would decorate your home. So there's something about each listener that is innate in you. And it's maybe it's not this, maybe it's something else, but I wanna know what would you say going back to Alicia at...

Alicia Thibault (43:00)
Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Kindra Morse (43:14)
I don't know, 16, 17, being a, like loving art, but thinking that what you were told or what story you believed about being the starving artist, like what would you tell her now saying like, what's possible? What would you tell her?

Alicia Thibault (43:17)
huh.

to think outside the box. think, you know, I remember.

I don't know if it was in middle school, elementary school, where they had like career exploration, like different, these are the careers that are interesting to me. And it's like, there's six things and they're so specific. And it's a checkbox. And I remember doing that. And I didn't realize that being creative and being an artist that there were so many other

opportunities out there, you know, that exist. And I don't even know if the one that I'm doing specifically, I know interior design existed, but I don't know if people were, other than for their own personal use, were flipping furniture when I was 16 year old Alicia, like I'm not sure that that was a thing. But I never

if it was and never occurred to me, you know, I just thought an artist, there's this little box and if you, you know, and that just felt so small and impossible.

Kindra Morse (44:52)
Yeah, right. I think that for all of us, I hope that's not loud, I don't know. I think that it's so easy to think that there's like you say those six paths, the police officer, the doctor, the nurse, know, teacher, and there's so many other ways that you can show up in the world. And you do, you have to think outside the box, but you also have to listen to that inner knowing that says this is what you love.

Alicia Thibault (45:07)
Yeah, right. Yes. Yes.

Kindra Morse (45:22)
This is what you're good at. This is where you should be providing and sharing that gift with the world. We're all given a gift and it's our job to identify what it is and figure out how we can share it with the world in a way that serves others. So, and yours, I freaking love, I love your work.

Alicia Thibault (45:22)
Yes. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. Yes.

Thank you. And you're a great customer. I appreciate you as a follower. You're always very supportive and I really appreciate it. It's nice to have friends and people that...

Kindra Morse (45:58)
in my head

joking like don't my husband's gonna listen to this don't tell him how much I buy

Alicia Thibault (46:03)
Ha

You're not too bad.

Kindra Morse (46:08)
I'm kidding. What

would you, you actually spoke to this earlier and I think that this is something that some people may benefit from or may want to hear. If you are the creative or you are, maybe not even just the creative, but you're the self-employed person that does get to those moments where you're like, okay, wait a second. This is starting to feel like work. There's an aspect of what we do, like none of us, we all have to do things we don't love to do.

We all have to put time into things, into our businesses or whatever it is. But what ways have you, when you said that earlier, I thought I want to know what ways have you A, known, okay, I need to make some changes, and then what were those changes?

Alicia Thibault (46:37)
Right, Yep.

I think just when I feel hurried or like I'm rushing something or doing it for the wrong intent just to

fill space or make money or if I'm doing it for any, know, and I know that I need to keep our space full at the Bohemian and that, you know, obviously this job has to provide. But when I focus on one thing instead of as a whole and especially when I'm just feeling hurried, that's when it starts feeling

not good. And then I just have to re rebalance. Sometimes it's taking a break. And anytime I take a break from it, it like makes me appreciate it that much more. And then when I just, you know,

when things get busy, if I just slow down and intentional with my time, then it feels good again. But if I'm not, if I'm out of balance, if I'm out of balance, just doesn't, doesn't feel good.

Kindra Morse (48:19)
I think especially in your job because you are creative and you have to be able to look at the furniture and imagine what it could become and that you can't rush that. can't imagine you can push that. It's something that you do have to kind of have time to sit with it and see where you think it's going to go.

Alicia Thibault (48:36)
Definitely, yeah, it's definitely something. It does take time, also if I'm in the right head space and if I am doing it from a good place, I actually am pretty efficient and quick because when I start a project, I used to joke for, I mean, with people that I talk to our business about.

that if I can't finish a project in a day, I'm not starting it because I love the whole time I'm working on it. I am just so excited to see the outcome. And that is also what makes time fly so fast because when I start a project, it's like, I wanna get it finished. I wanna get the after pictures, not because...

not because I'm in a hurry to profit from it, but because I can't wait to see the finished product. Like I'm so excited. Plus all these eight, you know, HGTV, all these shows where you see a whole home started and finished in an hour. It just, I don't know. I just, I like doing things quickly. I like, you know, I love the before, but I love getting to the after. So I'm, I'm pretty quick. It takes, it takes a...

It does take a lot of, you know, thought. But a lot of times I'm up. If I am not sleeping, I'm thinking about, which is so dorky, but I'm thinking about how I'm going to refinish the dresser that I'm starting tomorrow. Like I literally stay up thinking about what I'm going to do. And so when I get out there, I already have the picture in my head of what's going to happen and it happens quickly.

Kindra Morse (50:25)
That's how you know you're doing what you were made to do because you're thinking about it and you enjoy every aspect of it. And I'm thinking too that you're the reason, the reason that you're so excited to see the finished project, to me in my head, I think it's like opening your Christmas present.

Alicia Thibault (50:29)
Yeah

Yep, yep, I do, I do.

It is, it is, it's awesome. It's like when I find a piece of furniture, I'll see it. If I'm buying it on marketplace, I see it for sale. Or if I see it in a thrift store, sometimes the uglier, the better because I know the transformation that's going to happen. And then when I see the before, for instance, I got a dresser in Coeur d'Alene a couple of days ago and it was a cubby.

at a preschool or I mean, I think it had five and so it had to have been like preschool or elementary school and it was a cubby for kids as clothes and it had stickers all over it. It was like falling apart in bad shape. But the second I saw it, I visualized it being finished. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. And I still haven't finished it because I haven't had the time yet. But it's like

I can't wait to get to that thought that I had of what it looked like when it's completed. So I'm just excited to get there. then, you know, all the silly little things are fun for me too when something's finished. I love just staging it and decorating it for sale and then being able to post it and share it and share the before and after because that inspires people to do their own furniture. It's just...

It really is. I enjoy so many pieces of this job. I mean, the great majority of them that you've seen on social media, the things that I don't like, like there are some dirty, there's some gross things that come along with it. But yeah, I just love it.

Kindra Morse (52:38)
What advice would you give to someone listening that is maybe interested in starting a business like this? Where would you tell them to start?

Alicia Thibault (52:48)
Go for it, get a single piece. It's not a business that takes, if you're starting a lot of businesses, it takes funds to get started, you need a lot of supplies. This one, really don't need a lot. It's not a risk to try to refinish a piece of furniture. You can.

buy a piece at a thrift store or on marketplace and with minimal, you know, paint, we do, we spray our pieces. Now we started, we hand painted everything in the very beginning, which now kind of makes me laugh because that, I mean, it took a lot more effort to hand paint things and it wasn't the effect that we now like, but

If you're just starting out a paintbrush, get a good paintbrush, paint a piece of furniture, and just look on Pinterest or whatever Instagram and you can turn something. You know, I don't know. It just, it's, it's a lot of fun and it's not, it's not a big risk. So I would encourage anybody to try it. It's, it's, it's a great hobby. And if you love it, do another one.

And then another one.

Kindra Morse (54:17)
I'm still shocked by how fast you do them because it takes me like an entire season to do a piece and you do them in a day. like, how do you even, I can't even imagine, but I'm guessing that that took some time to get to that as well.

Alicia Thibault (54:23)
huh. Yes. Up.

It did. It took, it did take time. So originally when we first started, we did hand paint with a brush every piece of furniture that we refinish. And that is way more labor intensive than using, now we use an industrial spray gun. And I still do enjoy sometimes using a paintbrush because it's kind of therapeutic.

but I like the spray gun because it gives a finish. But yeah, we're pretty quick at it. And it's all the little detailed things. I think a lot of people can pick up a spray gun and paint a piece of furniture. It's the little, when I really want to go creative on a piece, that's the stuff that takes a little more time and energy.

But yeah, I work pretty fast. I just, start and I'm in like, I think just because I'm anticipating and excited to see the end result. So when I get going on something, like I am working fast.

Kindra Morse (55:36)
Yeah.

That's awesome. And this is something that you and your husband do together now, 100%. You both, this is all you guys do.

Alicia Thibault (56:02)
Yes, he, it's fun, it's awesome. Like it's great that we get to spend time together all the time. And it was kind of when we moved here, so he farmed for a long time when we lived in Southern Idaho. And we kind of decided as a family that we wanted to spend more time together. Farming was a lot of,

Kindra Morse (56:03)
I wanna know what's it like to work with your husband full time.

Alicia Thibault (56:32)
he was going to miss out on a lot of things and that wasn't something that he wanted. And we kind of, you know, in his family, it was like, that's just kind of how it was. Like the dad misses out on games and misses some of the time with his family. And that is something that we kind of wanted to break the mold on. And so we wanted to do something where we could

both spend time with the kids and both be able to catch all the games and both have the schedule to where, you know, we can, you know, our daughter's games are at 3.45. That's during a lot of people's work day. And so they have to get permission to leave or, you know, notify someone in advance and give us a schedule to an employer. And for us, it's just so awesome.

that 345, we're at the game like every game.

Kindra Morse (57:39)
Yeah, that's amazing. There's so many people that dream of that and it is possible. It's absolutely possible. What, what I guess the last thing that I would like to ask is how would someone know, how would you think that you would tell somebody that they would know that there is something different and that they should take a risk? Like if they're feeling a certain way or if they're like something is going on in their world where they're, how would they know?

Alicia Thibault (57:44)
Yeah, it is.

Kindra Morse (58:09)
to pursue something else, that it's time to maybe look at pursuing something else.

Alicia Thibault (58:13)
I just, I feel like there's just kind of this draw to something more inside of you. Or just, I just felt like I was missing something. Like this just doesn't seem, I don't know. I just felt like I was missing something until I.

found a job where I was able to create and I don't know, I just feel like there was this missing piece that I hadn't figured out yet. And then just trying different things, you know, like when I worked at the real estate office, I was creating little cards and little, know, it wasn't, it took me doing,

you know, some other creative things to realize kind of where, you know, where I was going to end up. But yeah, I think just keep, keep searching. And if there's something that you love, that's part of where we got the name Dabble Decor is because I, you know, we refinish furniture.

But that's not the only thing we do. Like we do a lot of things. I go through phases where I like creating in other ways. there was a time where I did, a lot of our space was filled with succulent planners. Like just a bunch of like arrangements of things still creating, but in a different form. It just, you know, keep trying things. If you feel like you're missing something, keep trying different things. See if there's a way where you can

Turn your hobby into something that provides if you need to provide otherwise, you know, just keep keep Seeking things and keep doing your hobbies

Kindra Morse (1:00:12)
Every woman needs that one thing that's theirs and what to compare and contrast How does it feel to be doing something that does fill your cup on a very regular basis? Like what is the after if someone takes the courage has the courage to pursue something different?

Alicia Thibault (1:00:28)
You're looking

forward to your days instead of, you know, instead of dreading Monday. It's like, you know, once you've had that Saturday, Sunday, or whatever your schedule looks like with your family, you are excited to get back to work. You're thinking about it when you don't need to be thinking about it. It's kind of always there, but it does take, it does take...

you know, time, I think, to kind of figure that out or figure out how it's going to happen.

For me, it took a long time.

Kindra Morse (1:01:08)
And it probably won't

actually materialize the way you think it's going to. So as you're going through this process of figuring out how you want to show up in the world, the end result probably is not anything like what you thought it would be even when you first started.

Alicia Thibault (1:01:25)
Yeah, never would have imagined when I refinished that first dining set that I was gonna be refinishing furniture seven, eight years later for a living. Like it never even occurred to me. It was just, I did something, I enjoyed it and then...

things start falling into place because you start thinking about it more. How could I do this? And how, you know, you make a way. You figure out what you're passionate about, what you want to do, and then you make a way.

Kindra Morse (1:02:11)
It's almost like a pole, that inner magnet that's pulling you. You know it's there and you have to pursue it.

Alicia Thibault (1:02:17)
It's yeah, it's definitely it's definitely a pull and like I said earlier, it's something that I couldn't get out of me even if I wanted to and I think if you find that thing that you can't get out of you, even if you want to, that's probably your thing.

Kindra Morse (1:02:38)
Yeah, that's definitely your thing. Well, where can people find you online if they're not in this book in area?

Alicia Thibault (1:02:45)
Our Facebook, I don't do Instagram. It took a while for me to even do Facebook at all, but we stick to one thing. We have a Facebook page. It's Dabble Decor, and we post all of our furniture and our decor, our sale dates, all that kind of stuff. And it's not just meant to sell the furniture that we do. It's a...

I like just inspiring people with different things and then also getting inspired by other people's things. And so I share, sometimes share other people's things or just things that I enjoy on Pinterest. It's just a page to share what we do.

Kindra Morse (1:03:27)
And then if someone's local does bokeh on, what's the address to the bohemian?

Alicia Thibault (1:03:32)
It's 12019 East Sprig. That is where the Bohemians at. We have space in that shop with many, I don't even know how many artists they have at this point, probably 60, 70 local artists who sell from that location. All people like me. Yeah, thank you.

Kindra Morse (1:03:58)
Well, thank you so much. I love it there.

We went I took the kids there which I don't recommend moms. Don't take your kids there There's lots of things and knock over and break but I love I just absolutely love the whole store. It's amazing It's just yes, I could go there and it's almost like going to the what's the place that you told me about? It's almost like going to a garden and just like appreciating all of this super fun eclectic

Alicia Thibault (1:04:04)
Hahaha!

Hahaha

Kindra Morse (1:04:25)
things that you can't find just anywhere. It's so different than going to Target and getting the, I mean, no offense to the people that go to Target. I go to Target, or even the decor that you can get at Target, like it's all fine, but I love.

Alicia Thibault (1:04:36)
I like

Yes, I love Target too. And I love, you know, I love Target, TJ Maxx. I love all those places. But for me, there's something about finding something at a really good deal that not everybody else is finding and just being in the right spot at the right time. And so a lot of the artists that are at the Bohemian are people that are, you know, going to estate sales or they're thrifting or they're

you know, at flea markets, wherever they're at. Kyle's making faces through the window. They are...

Kindra Morse (1:05:18)
Ha

Alicia Thibault (1:05:21)
finding things that you can't find at the big box stores. And so I love going into those shops and just seeing what they have and still antique stores to this day. I went to the coast with my sisters and mom this last spring and we just went to so many different antique stores and I just love old things. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or if my taste has matured or what, like I just there, I just love old things.

know old books old bibles old paintings old anything anything with a story to me speak so much more than just something that's on the shelf at target no offense to anyone that likes target I too like target but our home is probably it's probably 90 percent

vintage hand me down and that is what, that's what I love that with. That's what makes our home home to us. So I like stuff of the story.

Kindra Morse (1:06:34)
Yeah, and that's exactly what you'll find there. It's all stuff like that. So, well, thank you for your time. I so appreciate you sharing your heart and your story. And I know there's a woman listening that is going to pursue maybe flipping furniture or something in a creative artistic avenue because she heard your story. So thank you.

Alicia Thibault (1:06:40)
Yes.

Thank you, I hope so.

Kindra Morse (1:06:58)
All right, bye Alicia.

Alicia Thibault (1:06:59)
Okay, bye. Thank you.