Repurpose, Refresh, Renew: Simple and Easy Design Tips for the New Year | FunCycled Repurpose Design Ep. 163

Did you know that your home's design can impact your mood, focus, and even how safe you feel? The good news: it's simpler than you think to reset your space — and the start of a new year is the perfect time to do it.

 In this episode, Sarah Trop, founder of FunCycled Repurpose Design, shares easy, budget-friendly ways to refresh your home and make it feel more comfortable, more functional, and more like "you." From trauma-informed design to repurposing items you already own, she explains how small changes, like color and texture, can calm your mind and nervous system.

 Her tips will help you find your style and actually enjoy being home!

 You can get Sarah Trop’s book, Created to Create: Designing Spaces That Renew the Soul, on Amazon! 

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Email: info@trumancharities.com

This episode was post produced by Podcast Boutique https://podcastboutique.com/

Transcript

Teaser: From Trash To Treasure

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What if that outdated piece of furniture that you're about to toss could become your favorite item in your house? And what if the colors in your home could actually help calm your mind? Today's guest knows exactly how. Welcome back to the Truman Charities Podcast. I am Jamie Truman, your host. Today we're joined by Sarah Tropp, founder of Fun Cycled Repurpose Design and winner of HG TV's Flea Market Flip. She's built a career turning old, overlooked items into stunning functional pieces and creating peaceful, meaningful spaces that support emotional well-being. We'll talk about her most creative transformations, her powerful, trauma-informed design work for nonprofits, and simple ways you can refresh your home in the new year without breaking the bank. Plus, she shares exciting updates about her new book that is available now and the charity that is close to her heart. But before we speak to Sarah, please take a moment to rate and review our podcast. We are a hundred percent volunteer-based organization, so reviews are the best way for new listeners to find your podcast. All right. Now let's welcome Sarah to Truman Charities. All right, Sarah, thank you so much for coming on and talking with us today. Thanks for having me, Jamie. So fun to be on here. I know, I'm excited to talk to you. Um, I did read that you're the HGTV uh flea market flip winners, which I want to talk a little bit about that later. But so you're the owner of Fun Cycled Repurposed Design. Tell me a little bit about your background and why you decided to start this business and what exactly you mean by repurpose design.

The Roll-Top Desk Transformation

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Sure. So when we started Fun Cycled in 2012, I knew I wanted to do, I wanted to start a company where we've recycled as much as we could within the products that we were selling, but I also really love painting. So through my high school years, I took professional painting lessons and I thought this would fill the artistic side of the design for me, but also recycle while I'm doing it. And that's why we started with just repurposing furniture and telling a story about that on our blog. Over the last 14, almost 14 years, we've gone and expanded into interior design where we focus on repurposing as much as we can within the designs. And we do light remodeling where we'll repurpose through the remodel, like painting kitchen cabinets and doing facelifts in that way, adding accents of vintage pieces that have been repurposed. And we kind of combine that in the design, and that's where the repurpose design comes from.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Okay, can you tell us the hardest item that you've ever, you know, had to repurpose? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

So one was really hard. I don't know that it was the hardest, but it was it was hard. I went in for an interior design job, and one of my clients had one of those really ugly orangey yellow roll top desks. Have you seen those where you can like pull it down? Yeah. Um, yeah. And my client's husband's grandmother's uh piece. So they didn't want to get rid of it, but it was just an eyesore. Like it did not work in this space at all. And so I said, why don't we repurpose it into something really creative and make it like the focal point of the room? And what we did was we actually removed the roll top portion and we painted the whole piece, made that the backsplash, like we attached to the wall, took the top part, mounted it above the backsplash, did wine glass holders in the center where you'd normally sit. We did a mini fridge, we installed a sink with soapstone counter, we installed a little copper, yeah, it was a copper sink with a drink rinser. And so it was this whole custom drink making like station. Even the drawers had like food safe storage, those metal containers that you could pull out and rinse, so they could put their ice in there, or they could put lemons or limes or whatever for their cocktails. And so it took something that was super updated, made it a really unique piece. It was quite uh extensive repurposing project, but in the end, they adored it. I mean, it just it came out so nice. That was probably one of my favorites.

Trauma-Informed And Biophilic Design

SPEAKER_01 3:58

I do think that people that are artists, you have your mind works in such a different way than say mine, because I would have never thought of something like that. But that sounds so unique and so fun. So I want to talk a little bit about some of your pro bono work that you've done and kind of explain to us exactly what this means. So you've done some pro bono work for uh where you've gone in and you've designed trauma-informed environments for organizations that are sort of vulnerable communities. So tell me exactly what that means and what do you do for them?

Designing For Shelters And Constraints

SPEAKER_00 4:30

So one of our clients is a sex trafficking home where women who are taken out of those situations, they come into homes and they live there for one year, two years, three years, and they're different houses and they walk through all different things from the starting is more psychology and counseling and stepping in through that. And then it's getting back into the workforce and it's giving them new skill sets so that when they leave, they're prepared to, you know, provide for themselves and be in a good emotional and mental space, right? So when I said yes to that, I spent a lot of time looking into you know trauma-informed designs, biophilic designs, and they kind of go hand in hand in the sense that we're picking colors, fabrics, textures that are all things that bring kind of a calming, peaceful response emotionally. And so things like green and blue, those colors on the wall tend to cause emotional response that's more calming. Picking things that are less abrupt in their shape. So it might be like a more curved-edged coffee table, bringing in wood elements, bringing nature inside, all of those things. You look into it, there's a lot of research around the fact that more of a nature bringing nature in can have such a calming effect for us. And so even in those homes, there's this room called the blue room. And so in those spaces, we try to pick rooms where you get as much natural light as possible all throughout the day. The walls are painted blue and it's there's no electronics, there's no noise, it's just a meditative prayer, spiritual kind of sacred space for the women to just come in and be quiet, be still. And so it's it's that, but carrying it throughout a space to bring emotional support to the women in there. And we did the same thing for a homeless shelter as well in their front entryway. And we wanted the place where they walk in, everything we could do within design to help bring comfort. So sometimes in trauma-informed design, our our job is to try to understand the trauma. And even if they don't understand how the design is helping with it, it is. So that's the heart behind trauma-informed design.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

So, what did you do for the homeless shelter?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

So, similar, we did it was a little harder for a homeless shelter than a regular home because you have to be careful with what elements you put in there. Like we couldn't put actual plants, but we still try to do tones and colors that are more soothing to the body. And we we kept wood elements. We brought in quotes that are more calming with natural, like botanical style around it, even though we couldn't go with like linen. Normally I love to use linen, even though we can't use linen in a home or shelter, it just wouldn't hold up well enough. We tried to do faux leather that felt more natural as opposed to a plastic, like or all just plastic chairs, which is what they had before. It felt very sterile, it felt very almost like a hospital room versus a warm, comforting space.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

What is the feedback that you've gotten from these organizations that you've worked with?

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Oh, I mean, I was just talking with people from the sex trafficking home last night. And the what they had they're having their first graduate actually this week. So it's very exciting. But great responses. I mean, I even I brought my own staff in walking in, even I got emotional. Like I walked into the space once it was done and cried. Like it just was, and it wasn't because it was the most luxurious space you've ever been in, but you could just feel the peacefulness in the space. You could feel the intentionality, the energy from that. So yeah, we've gotten really good responses from it.

Personalization And Client Self-Knowledge

SPEAKER_01 8:04

I wanted to know a little bit about how you do your work with your different clients. So, do you think you talking about these different spaces and getting different emotional reactions going into a space, do you think it's important for you to learn a little bit about your clients' say personality? So, say if they are under a lot of stress a lot or they have anxiety or something like that when you're working with them and talking about how to design their space in their house.

New Year Home Refresh Tips

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Yeah. So it's different a little bit when I'm working for non-for-profits because I have to do it based on like overall groups versus an individual. But when I'm doing a residential project, it's like anything else in life, right? You have to know yourself enough to have feeling, right? You can't have feeling until you understand your own self. So I'll say to them, most clients are unaware of what they even like. So some people want that like joyful, spirited vibe when you walk into their space. Well, I'm gonna design that very differently than someone who I met with someone just this week who said, I really just love everything to be calm and one-tone and wood elements. And I'm like, that's great. Like she was aware of herself. But I'll say, Hey, go to some friends' houses that you know are very different styles, or go to some restaurants that are different styles. Notice your senses, like see what makes you feel excited or what makes you feel stressed, or what makes you feel excited. And so that is sometimes a practice that even I have like when I first opened a storefront, I went to a dozen or more stores and said, What do I love about this? Like, what smells have I had be what I could sense when I come in? Like the smell, the visual, what music are they playing? So in homes, it's always different. Like I had a vet that he was traumatized anytime there was a low sound. So having a like a wall unit heater air conditioning, that would bother him. Like he's like, that's triggering to me. Or having a humidifier. So we had to be aware of a lot more of sound for him than anything. So it just varies a lot, each client, but the understanding of yourself or helping them understand themselves is a huge part of what I do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

We're doing the interview now and it's December, but we're talking now, but this is gonna air in the new year. So in the new year, a lot of people like to do, you know, new you, new house, start fresh. So, what are some ideas of some kind of tips if someone wants to just give their kitchen or their bathroom just kind of a little like facelift, you know, a little something.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Yeah. So again, personality depends a little bit on this, but I would say tips is a lot of times when I go into clients, it'll be clutter is what brings chaos. Our mind does not like clutter. So they they think a design will fix it, and I'll say, that'll help, but we have to start with clearing out what's in here. It's way too much. And so I've never had people ever say, I got rid of too much. I've only ever had the opposite where they still have too much because they're like attached to it. So it's working through like, why are you attached to something? Let's clear that out. Put it somewhere for two months. If you didn't miss it, it's okay, let it go. Take a picture of it so you always remember your grandmother's whatever. But let someone else use that. This like clarity of mind that then translates into your spaces when you can really get rid of and hash out what do I like, what don't I like? That's one of the first things I would say. Clear out what you don't like and then take some time to learn what you do like through Pinterest or AI or whatever and understand a style. And then it's pretty easy to bring in some little, whether it's artwork or a color change on your wall, or you might want, if you have a tiny little bathroom, you might like a little accent wallpaper. It's peel and stick, it'll cost you$30, probably to do just a little wall behind a mirror. And people just love little spaces where it feels like them, you know? And so understand your own creativity a little bit, or take time to look through creative things and see what you like and support those people.

Behind The Scenes: Flea Market Flip

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Yeah, I do, I do notice that I get all like most people get a little like uh when there's too much stuff. Yes. Like I just like every once in a while, I just want to purge, like take everything and just throw everything out. Yes. So tell me a little bit about because I love HGTV. I do. I think it's so fun and it's such a great, it's a great station. And you learn so much about kind of renovations and all this great stuff of watching it. So tell me a little bit about the flea market flip winner. What was that like?

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Oh, so it was so much fun. I kind of applied on a whim. A friend of mine said, You just need to apply. And I said, No one gets on TV unless they know so, but I'm not doing it. She really encouraged me too. I found an email address that some other person had applied to, and I just threw it out there. I didn't hear for six months, and then they took me and responded six months later and said, Yeah, we'd love for you to be on the show. So that's how it worked. But once I got there, it's more intense than it looks. So you have one day to shop if you know flea market flip, then you have one day to redo everything, and then one day to sell it. And when you record something, as you probably know just from recording this podcast, it takes way longer than you think. So when you only get one hour to shop and they're doing like, oh, let's go from this angle, let's say it again. It's a deal, it's a deal. That's live one-hour time. So it feels like 15 minutes of shopping, right? So we get there, we what feels like an hour is 15 minutes. And there's recording six teams. Well, at least the day we did it. They did six teams at once in one day, but then you do one at a time. And we were the first team up. So we had no time to look at the market to see what we would actually want to buy and do it. So it felt like 15 minutes to decide what would work, what we can make the most money on, and make all the deals. I'm like, ah, it was so stressful. And then the flip day, the day you go remodel, it was so long. We worked, I think, till almost, I think it was almost midnight that day. It was a long flip day, but that we did it for a living. So to us, it was second nature. We what did you do?

SPEAKER_01 13:56

What did you pack?

What Not To Toss: The Humble Hutch

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Yeah, so they actually picked the categories for you, but for us, it was we took an old cable spool, like a little version of a cable spool, and we we had to have mixed textures. So we put it on an old subway line telephone, like pole, and made it a standing bar. And then we inserted fabric in the inside, not fabric, it was like old grain sacks on the inside, and then drilled holes so you could put wine bottles all the way around it, and then wine glasses between those would hang. So it could be a standing bar in New York City. Because I knew I needed to make things small enough that it would sell in New York. And I was like, New Yorkers love like a good spot where you could stand and have a drink, or you could pull up a bar stool and have it be your dinner spot. So I did that. And then something had to have multiple uses. So we bought an old trunk, flipped it on its back so that the top flipped down. It became a secretary's desk. We built a table base for it, so it was a secretary's desk that flipped down, and then it would flip back up and you could grab the handles and it can come off as well. It had these latches, so it could be a coffee table or it could be a secretary's desk, whichever you wanted. And then we had to do modern Americana, so something very American-made at vintage reuse. So we took an old tracker gear that was probably, I don't know, maybe 30 inches high. We welded it on a plate so it stood up on its own. And then we took a vintage ironing board and then attached it to it with mid-century modern legs and it became a coffee table. It was really like a piece of art. It was really cool. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

You are very talented. What do you think is one item that people typically will trash, but you wish that maybe they would keep because it'd be an item that'd be very easy to repurpose? Hutches.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Yeah. I think a huge hutch can be really ugly when it's wood and outdated, but I think you can redo it in ways that are super cool. And buying a large piece of furniture is very expensive. So if you consider why don't we repurpose what we have, like take the doors off and let's make it a wine bar, or we've done so many different things over the years where we've converted hutches into other things, or just simply even just painting them. It can look like a pottery barn hutch so quickly by painting the interior white, painting exterior black, and getting some new hardware. I see people throwing stuff away that I'm like, ah, that could easily be a$5,000 hutch if you just took a little day and painted it.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Oh my gosh. So do you ever go over to people's houses before they're about to get rid of things, just so you can come in and use your expertise to be like, you know what, you might not want to get rid of this. We could repurpose it and do this, that, and the other with some of these items.

Advising Clients On What To Keep

SPEAKER_00 16:32

I do that primarily in design work when I'm doing when I'm actually designing the space. Not so much when a client is asking us to redo it. Usually they'll just send me a picture and say, How do we have this redone? Unless, so sometimes we have where like a parent will pass away and they'll have a house full. And someone will send me pictures and say, What do you think is worth passing down, investing in redoing? And I'll say, not these, those are laminate, that won't hold up well. Like, why don't we do these? And so in those in those ways, yes.

Book Launch And Art Partnership

SPEAKER_01 17:01

So tell me a little bit about how you see fun cycled repurposed design in the future. What are your plans?

SPEAKER_00 17:07

So I just uh launched a book last week, which I think helps talk about a lot of the things that we talk about. And so I'm really excited about that. It's called Created to Create, and it's talking about creating spaces, no matter the budget, no matter the style. It's really how do we create peaceful, sacred, emotionally supportive spaces in our home? And it's a short read, it's like 61 pages, it's not complicated, but the response has been overwhelming already. Like we won number one in the hot new release in interior decorating on Amazon. So we're just super thrilled by the response, and I'm really hoping that helps people and really brings some awareness to how our emotions are affected by design. So that's one thing that I definitely see more of information that you'll see from us in it. I've been kind of waiting for that to launch before I share even more about it. Another exciting thing that I haven't announced until right now is that I've been doing original artwork and I do a lot of it on reclaimed things, well, old art or whatever, or by I use vintage frames and things like that. And I don't know if you know Jean Stoffer from The Established Home. It's a really popular show on Magnolia Network. She just asked to partner with me and launch a line of my artwork in her store. So that's coming out. It just went in. I haven't even announced it on my own socials yet. But since this isn't going out until January, that is super exciting for us. So she'll, it'll be in Stofer Home. That's another big exciting part. But we're also just really focusing on the design packages, the design work that we're doing, and really informing people about how to create spaces that bring joy and peacefulness without having to break the bank. You know, that's really what I'm passionate about.

Welcoming Homes In A Lonely Era

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Oh my gosh. These are huge things. You have a lot going on. Congratulations. We'll make sure to put in the show notes where you can purchase your book. Thank you. And I want to know how can people follow you?

SPEAKER_00 19:01

They can follow me on my website, which is funcycle.com, and on all the major Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest. We have a huge Pinterest following. So we do a lot of tutorials on there. And I also do for any podcast I'm on, it's funcycle.com forward slash free. And we do a PDF of like my top favorite products that I find that a lot of people like and enjoy. So they can read through it and why, and feel free to hop on there and grab that if you'd like as well.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Oh my gosh, I love that. So is there anything that we haven't covered that you think people should know?

SPEAKER_00 19:34

AI is becoming more and more a thing, right? And I think more and more I see people that are lonely. And that's why I'm more and more passionate about how do we make home a space that feels comfortable and also makes people want to come into it. I think there's something to be said for that, that we need to kind of think through our spaces and go, how do people feel welcome and warm here? And how do I feel welcome and warm in my own space? It's so important, so important. So I hope they look into that, follow us. Listen to podcasts like yours and keep continuing to grow in that.

Colors And Comfort At Home

SPEAKER_01 20:03

Yeah. I do agree with you a lot because when I first met my husband and I moved into his house, and I his design and my design are two different things. They're very different. And I never really felt very comfortable in the space until I was able to redo it. Like he had kind of these like yellows and orange. It was interesting, you know, but also a bachelor. So um, but I'm more into the common colors. I like the blues and the beige and things like that. And it really does make a very big difference when you're able to make the space your own. Like I know from my experience that it really changed like how I felt about being home. So it really is a big deal. You are helping so many people. And before I let you go, so every one of our guests, we donate$250 to a charity of their choice. So I wanted you to tell us a little bit about the charity that you chose and why.

Charity Spotlight: CF Best For Life

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Sure. I chose CF Best for Life. And it's because our good friends of ours run that organization. It's amazing the things that they're doing. Our friend has CF, which is a lung disease, and they support people in third world countries, mostly children, actually, where they send them vests that actually help them breathe. They just opened a clinic in Mexico City and they help kids in all over really extend their life. And it's like the real deal. They're in the weeds trying to save people's lives. So it's really important to us to see the impact that they're making.

How To Connect And Free Resources

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Oh my gosh, you have some incredible friends. And we'll make sure to have that in the show notes too, so people can look over to that organization and make a donation if they choose to. So, Sarah, I want to thank you. Of course, Sarah, I want to thank you so much for coming on and talking with us. I got some tips that I found to be very insightful, and I'm excited to get your book now because I think new year, everybody kind of needs to start fresh. And starting fresh with some new ideas for your home is perfect way. So thanks again. And I want to thank everybody for tuning in to another episode of the Truman Charities Podcast. I don't know about you guys, but I am definitely getting Sarah's book. I really loved all of the tips that she was giving me. As I mentioned, I am not creative at all. So this is perfect for people that need some help in that department. If you want to get in touch with Sarah, please look onto the show notes so you can get in touch with her and she can help you repurpose some items in your home and help with your design as well. If you would like to follow Truman Charities, you can follow us on Instagram at Jamie underscore Truman Charities, Facebook at Truman Charities. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Jamie Truman. And so you don't miss any of our upcoming events or our Bethesda's best happy hours, please go to Truman Charities.com and sign up for our newsletter there. Again, as I mentioned, we are a hundred percent volunteer-based organization. So the reviews really do count. And I read each and every one of them. So please take a moment to review our podcast on Spotify or an Apple. That will help new listeners find our podcast. All right, thanks so much for tuning in to the Troop Charities Podcast. Until next time.