When Megan Rix was nine months pregnant, she found herself crawling among the rafters in a barn just outside of Edmonton, trying to coax a shy great horned owl out of hiding. “His name was Cecil,” Rix recalls fondly. Back then, she was a full-time wildlife biologist who treated 6,000 wild patients per year at WILDNorth Northern Alberta Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation.
Some time after the owl rescue, Rix decided she would find a new vocation. Her husband, Dave, a Search and Rescue tech in the military, is frequently posted across the country. She knew that whatever she pursued next, it would have to be something that could move with them.
From wildlife rescue to furniture
She wasn’t quite sure what her next step would be, but she loved crafting, thrifting, and frequenting garage sales. After the couple moved to the Comox Valley in 2022, inspiration hit when Rix saw a pair of beat-up old bedside tables at a garage sale and decided to pivot (at least for a while) from rehabbing wildlife to refinishing furniture. She brought them home. “I ended up messing them up—but that didn’t stop me!” she remembers.
Her next project sealed the deal: a tallboy dresser, stained dark brown, that she picked up from the Salvation Army for $30. “It was not nice, or modern,” she remembers. But she saw the potential.
“Word of mouth spread, and soon people started reaching out, asking for custom pieces. Flipped Side Furniture was born.”
Up until now, she had never restored furniture. “I knew nothing about painting and woodwork,” she admits. But she was creative and had watched hours of YouTube tutorials. She scooped up the dresser and got to work. She cleaned, sanded and primed it, and painted it before applying a wax effect to add some shadow and depth. She put it on Marketplace. Four days later it sold for $200.
With one sale down, momentum started. Before long, Rix had sold enough restored furniture to cover the cost of her new sander and paint. Word of mouth spread, and soon people started reaching out, asking for custom pieces. Flipped Side Furniture was born.
A modern touch on timeless antiques
Now, she works on a couple of big pieces per week. Most popular are big-ticket items like nine-drawer dressers and large cabinets. “I love classic, antique, timeless pieces,” she says. “I don’t restore pieces back to their original; I add a modern touch.” Her style is clean and elevated—warm wood tones with rich accent colours and minimalist-but-chic handles. “I like simple, clean-cut hardware that elevates the piece.”
Almost all of Rix’s furniture is sourced here in the Valley. “There is so much stuff here,” she says. “Everyone seems to have furniture around that they don’t want.” Clients will pass along pieces, saying, “This used to be my grandma’s. I don’t want it—you take it.”
She has also built relationships with local vendors like ReStore, where she often finds her next pieces to work on; she sometimes does in-store live demos at ReStore.
Rix’s shop, in the basement of their small house on the base, is filled with projects on the go: a mid-century, four-drawer dresser; a 1940s Knechtel dresser that she plans on sanding down to raw wood and staining, and a scruffy china cabinet. Under a gazebo in the yard, she tackles the messiest jobs: sanding, stripping, and priming. Then she takes the furniture to the basement for painting and detail work. One of her signature details is pole wrap—a sheet of decorative wood that adds some flair. Once a piece is finished, she stages it in the living room for a photo shoot. “This part is half the fun,” she says.
“When I’m being creative, painting, working with the wood, working with my hands, it takes the stress of everything else away.”
Rix estimates that she has refinished hundreds of pieces since she began. The turnaround is quick—once a piece goes up on Marketplace, it is often a matter of hours before she gets an offer. Her larger statement pieces can sell for up to $2,500. But for Rix, the work is about much more than money. Because she’s an environmentalist, her furniture restoration feeds a deeper purpose.
Keeping furniture out of the landfills
“Keeping things out of the landfill is so important to me,” she says. Just as meaningful is the calm it brings. “When I’m being creative, painting, working with the wood, working with my hands, it takes the stress of everything else away. I will put on some good music. It’s therapeutic. It’s my happy place.”
