IN THE market for some flipped 1970s furniture on the Gold Coast?

Look no further than Suns midfielder Lily Mithen's small business, Designed by Dopamine.

The 28-year-old is always on the hunt for a project, and has spent the last six months carving out quite a successful side hustle.

Given the demographic of the Gold Coast region, the area is full of older people downsizing and clearing out furniture, or people moving on furniture from deceased estates, meaning there's plenty of a specific style available.

"I've got a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit within me. I love my family, they all own their own businesses, and I wanted to do something myself. I was looking at some sort of homewares line, to have a go at it and upskill myself in the e-commerce world," Mithen told AFL.com.au.

"Our sharehouse (which includes former Sun Tayla Gregory and ex-Swan Kiara Hillier) needed a little house makeover, and I volunteered myself to be chief decorator. It meant I was attending a lot of random warehouse sales, op shops, you name it.

"I kept coming across little gems, and I was like 'oh, that doesn't work with my house, but I like it', and I'd send it to my friends. They wouldn't often like them when they were styled and positioned awkwardly in shops and random corners of warehouses, but once I took them home and gave them a wipe down or a bit of love, and some better photos, they'd say they would actually look really good."

From there, Mithen decided to focus on sourcing furniture gems, giving them some TLC, and selling them through Facebook Marketplace and advertising on Instagram, rather than go down the path of a full-blown e-commerce business.

"I thought I'd give it a crack while I had the time over the off-season. One thing led to another, and I was effectively doing it full-time there for a second. I had a sizeable storage shed in the Burleigh Heads industrial area, and was having a heap of fun with it," she said.

"Met a lot of different, random people through Marketplace – it's a weird, wonderful world out there.

"I'm not doing it as intensely at the moment, given pre-season is ramping up, but I definitely have my eyes peeled for good bargains to pick up, restore and hopefully make a buck on."

One of those random Marketplace people happened to be clubmate Bailey Humphrey, who wasn't aware Mithen was behind the Designed by Dopamine brand.

"There was a sideboard I picked up for around $60, and it was so cool, I didn’t know why they were getting rid of it. I had it in my house for less than 24 hours and I flipped it for $650, so that was a good one.

"People are going to say I'm ripping people off, and I'm a scammer, but it was genuinely worth that much. I was just able to have an eye for it in the nick of time.

"I had the generic Facebook Marketplace prompt come through of, 'hey, is this available?' from Bailey Humphrey, so that was quite funny. I responded with, 'hey, this is Lil by the way, but you're too late, I've sold it'. He was pretty flat on me for that, which is fair enough. Probably could have reserved it for him, but he was probably going to low-ball me and that's not what I'm in the game for."

Half the bargains in furniture flipping come from being able to take unwanted goods away, often heavy wooden pieces which are in good condition, but hard to shift.

"I've got a campervan, which I've tinkered away on, and it's come in use – it's less of a campervan at the moment, and more of a working van and delivery truck," Mithen said.

"Some of the things are ready to go, others might need a little sand back and re-varnish, or sometimes it just needs a really good clean or get some rust off. I've re-upholstered a few chairs and stools.

"I grew up on a (horse) farm, but my dad has no handyman skills whatsoever, so he was never able to show me the ropes from that aspect, but it's something I always thought I would enjoy. I like being hands on, and I enjoy projects, just depending on how long my attention span lasts with the project.

"I flipped one piece of furniture, and before I knew it, I'd been to Bunnings and bought a whole kit of power tools, which haven't been touched all that much. I put together a surfboard rack and a metal table, so there's been a few things I've done from scratch, learning from YouTube."

Mithen's handy skills have broadened to accommodate new interests, living on the Gold Coast.

"I've done a surfboard-making workshop, and I'm actually back to start another one. I shaped myself a twin-fin, and now I'm going to shape myself a longboard," she said.

"It's a course run by this guy who's almost 70, Richard Harvey, he's a bit of a local legend up here on the Gold Coast. Through some AFLPA funding, the club has organised that anyone can do it.

"I think maybe five of the boys (including Touk Miller, Avery Thomas and Will Graham) have also shaped boards, and we're all committed that we'll go out for a surf together, and take Richard along too. Yet to be organised, but it's a cool thing to have shared and be able to chat about crossing paths in the hallway."

And the hustle never stops.

Mithen needed to buy a lawnmower over summer, so decided to sign herself up on Airtasker to pick up a few odd lawnmowing jobs to help cover the outlay.

"I thought if I could do a couple of people's lawns locally, I'd have paid the lawnmower off in no time. Within a few months, I was the top-rated lawnmower on the Gold Coast, and had also got myself a new whipper snipper. Only lasted about six weeks, but I'll get a few lawns in again over summer," she said.

"I'm now just about to start a gig with Tall Boy Coffee, which is run by (former Sun and Cat) Zac Smith, doing some sort of sales and business-to-business work with him.

"It's definitely been the year of trying new things and having a project on the go."