

When Rhianna Romero and her partner Colton Toth relocated to Sarasota from Tampa in 2021, Romero was puzzled about how to take gain of their rental home’s lose workshop. Fascinated by vintage furnishings and inventive hands-on things to do, Romero resolved to merge her passions and use the space to refinish a midcentury contemporary dresser that she observed on Fb Market. A 7 days following listing the piece on Etsy, the dresser offered, and the pair realized that they experienced stumbled upon a successful aspect hustle.
“I’ve always been thrifty and enjoy repurposing issues,” says Romero, “and when we offered the dresser, Colton regarded a business prospect.”



They introduced their shop, Retro Revival SRQ, on Etsy in 2021 and began collecting and refinishing a selection of pieces. A lot less than two yrs afterwards, on Dec. 17, the enterprising pair celebrated the grand opening of a 1,600-sq.-foot brick-and-mortar place.
With each other, Toth and Romero realized how to mend and refinish classic items, a course of action that has introduced them even closer. “We could not do this business if we didn’t have each and every other, simply because we both of those provide our have sets of abilities and passions together to make this prosperous,” claims Romero. “We are grateful that we get to work together with each other each and every working day.”
When they opened the Etsy shop, Toth, now 26, worked as an accountant, and Romero, now 27, was an government assistant. Eleven months into the venture, Toth left his task to pursue the enterprise whole-time. Romero saved her work but proceeds to pour her totally free time into the business enterprise, which carries lots of dressers, bed room sets and chairs.
Most of the parts on offer are midcentury modern day, article-modern day or Danish modern day, and have been created through the 1950s to 1980s. Romero and Toth are generally on the hunt for new pieces, but mainly resource them in Florida. Over and above obtaining an inherently sharp eye for locating the pieces, though, there was a discovering curve.
“When Rhianna first refinished the dresser, she painted it sage green, which we discovered is a large no-no when it comes to midcentury furnishings for the reason that the aim is to keep the piece as shut to its authentic condition as possible,” claims Toth. The far more pieces they refinish, the additional the few discovers how to assure the home furniture stays interval-suitable and is refinished to the maximum specifications.
“Six months ago, we would’ve just coloured in a chip on a piece, but now we choose the time to degree and paint it, resulting in a larger top quality end-item,” Toth says. The pair mostly spruces up the tops of pieces and fixes chips, striving to strengthen the complete of each individual piece. When pricing relies upon on the piece itself, most array from $500 to $3,000.



“Older household furniture has extra charm and character and is developed improved than what you get today,” claims Romero, an aspect that has contributed to midcentury furniture’s increase in popularity in latest yrs. Toth also adds that source chain concerns have produced vintage home furniture extra interesting to people who can acquire it proper absent and provide it home the very same working day.



Supplied Sarasota’s record as a revolutionary metropolis in the midcentury modern day movement, it’s no shock that the couple’s enterprise is booming.
“Sarasota is a great location for us since of the record of midcentury homes and collectors in this place,” says Toth. In the upcoming, the pair sees by themselves continuing to curate an upscale shop and giving Sarasotans the prospect to store for impressive classic midcentury household furniture domestically.
Retro Revival SRQ is situated at 6579 S. Tamiami Path, Sarasota. To discover far more and look at out the parts, stop by the store’s Etsy website or adhere to it on Instagram @retrorevival_srq.
