REFURBISHED GENTLEMAN, LLC
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA

Welcome, my name is Mark DeRemer and I’m the owner/operator/artist behind Refurbished Gentleman, LLC. I’m retired Air Force - I spent 20 years from 18 to 38 doing that. Nothing artistic at all, but was proud to serve and sneak in my art on the side. My background is in graphic design which started way back in high school and then turned into photography soon after my daughter was born. From that need to capture every moment of her life, grew a passion for photography. And even while in the military I built a small newborn and children's photography business that I did in my spare time.   I truly loved that and figured when I retired, that's what I'd be doing. But God had other plans for me and I took my photography skills into this newest adventure and newest artistic outlet. I started painting furniture, all by accident really. I bought my wife a tall standing jewelry box for Christmas and never took it out of the box until Christmas morning... Well, it turned out to be the wrong color wood and I was mortified... She didn't seem to care, and told me she loved it, but I knew I could fix it. After all, I’m an artist so, I told her I’d figure out how to paint it a better color for her. So I spent the next month or so researching painting wood and furniture. I painted it and she loved it!!! She even asked to paint a couple more pieces for the house. Well, you can imagine what happened next... I decided to start my own lil business painting and selling furniture, which spawned into something bigger as time went on. I went from just painting pieces to sell, to now painting client owned pieces and teaching how to paint furniture. As an Instructor on Furniture Painting University I get to roll back to my military days of mentoring troops, and use those skills now to mentor and teach others in the business. It’s been a blessing to me, as loosing that camaraderie I had in the military was tough, but I’ve found it again in an incredible artist community.