SEATTLE — What’s old is new again, thanks to the growing trend of “furniture flipping” and people like Amanda Whitworth.
She runs a small business from her home in West Seattle, turning unwanted furniture into stylish and usable pieces.
"I just like taking the most dilapidated piece of furniture you can find and completely transforming it into something you'd never recognize,” she said.
She showcases and markets her ability via fun videos displaying “before and after” projects on Instagram. More than 27,000 people follow her account Sawdust and Soul.
But Whitworth's feed isn't dedicated to purely pretty things. She also posts openly about her most important DIY project: herself.
For more than 20 years, she's been on a winding and unpredictable cancer journey.
It started in 1999 when her mother called with devastating news: she had endometrial cancer.
“I remember my whole world just slowing down and my first thought was, ‘Oh my god, my mom is going to die,’" she said.
Her mother survived, but three years later Whitworth’s brother was diagnosed with stage 2 colon cancer.
Eventually, the entire family was tested and doctors discovered they carry a genetic mutation.
“We have something called Lynch Syndrome,” Whitworth said. "It increases our lifelong risk of getting various forms of cancer. I was diagnosed in 2017 with metastatic cancer of an unknown primary source.”
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At the time, she'd just begun woodworking, and the hobby became a life line.
"It was like my therapy,” she said. "It saved me mentally and emotionally, and it gave me something to plan for."
After undergoing surgery and radiation, Whitworth beat the cancer. But the potential for another battle remains.
"I still have a chance of getting other cancers, and that's pretty terrifying to live with,” she said. “But at the same time, it motivates me to live a life that feels the truest to me, in the most authentic way I possibly can."
She said that means doing what lights her up, and listening to her gut. In September of 2021, her intuition told her to begin flipping furniture for a living.
"We only get one shot at life, and if there's something you want to do and try, you might as well just try it, and even if you fail, that's okay,” Whitworth said. "There's nothing wrong with failing because eventually you're going to succeed."
She hopes her followers and customers are inspired to follow their own callings — whether they involve woodworking or not.
"We can change lives by the more honest and transparent we are with our own,” she said.
Whitworth is also a wood artist specializing in landscapes. Her work is available on her website, and she’s now taking commissions for both furniture and art. She also vlogs on YouTube.
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