When I called Oskar Flodstrom on a Wednesday, delayed morning, the 23-year-old Los Angeles decorator politely asked whether we could conversation during he was "kind of operating on something."
He was restoring a Sonneman Orbiter lamp he had picked up on Facebook Marketplace for concerning $30. If he cleaned it up well, he said, it could be value thousands.
"I live on Facebook Marketplace," Flodstrom told me.
He has developed an eye for overlooked objects: He lately established a Paul Smith rug for $50 that he believes could fetch far more, up to 10 grand, following a expert cleaning. In Los Angeles, at least, he's noticed that convenience can outweigh price, and many sellers, particularly those alongside money, would fairly have an item gone than clasp out for a improved offer.
That intuition for salvaging and transforming abandoned materials helped rotate Flodstrom into a operating creator — although he motionless appears amazed by the title.
"I awaken up, and I'm an artist, which doesn't equal awareness genuine to say," he mused.
Flodstrom grew up in Peru, Illinois, a town of approximately 10,000 group that he describes as "the center of nowhere." At 18, he chose to skip university and drove west alongside concerning $400, an flat established through Roomster, and a scheme to create rent by delivering DoorDash orders.
"Besides those details, there was, like, no direction, and I was chill alongside it," he said.
Cracking the Instagram code
Flodstrom initially moved to Los Angeles to prosecute music, but he figured out how to monetize art and scheme first.
Growing up, he never idea of himself as an artist. Still, he liked making things alongside his hands — "little ballgame bats out of wood," he stated — and modifying old toys. Today, he describes the bodily act of creating and construction as a benevolent of meditation.
For years, he made pieces during stringing together earnings from flank hustles, including float lessons. He sold the occasional artwork, but "nothing was really popping," he said.
Over time, he came to acknowledge that going viral on social media wasn't entirely a matter of luck. He studied what appeared to create videos execute well: a fast, three-second hook and involvement signals specified as retention, comments, shares, and saves.
Flodstrom began posting short, fast-paced videos documenting how he made his art. A video of a masonry block mirror he made for his own area drew concerning 3 myriad views on Instagram. He followed it alongside another offbeat pieces, including an avocado place and a elephantine pill-bottle flank array that afterward drew tens of millions of views throughout social media.
Turning views into dollars
The pill-bottle flank array began, akin many of Flodstrom's designs, alongside an item he established on Facebook Marketplace: a part of curved acrylic. He transformed it into a two-foot-tall pill bottle, wrapping the basis in orange translucent vinyl, forming a lid from foam and plaster, and printing a prescription-style tag at Staples.
The archetypal version, which he made for his apartment, disbursal approximately $50.
People wanted to buy it immediately — hundreds of DMs inundated through, he recalled — but turning the handmade part into a merchandise presented a distinct challenge. Flodstrom stated he contacted manufacturers and established that producing the scheme in the US could disbursal concerning $400 per component before shipping.
Around that time, NO LOGO, a business that helps artists bring designs to market, reached out and offered to create a example at no cost, he said: "If they had told me to pay for the sample, this never would have happened. I would not have had the belief in it."
Flodstrom reviewed the sample, promoted it on his website, and connected his Shopify shop to NO LOGO's manufacturing system. The final product, a $225 sculptural flank table that buyers can customize, generated $150,000 in income revenue in its archetypal two weeks, he said. Business Insider reviewed a screenshot of his revenue dashboard showing $253,000 in revenue complete a 90-day duration commencement February 27, 2026.
The viral hit quickly changed Flodstrom's finances. Before the array took off, he said, he was living on concerning $1,000 a month, using EBT for food, and chiefly instruction swimming to create ends meet.
"I was, like, piecing together 500 bucks, and afterward all of a sudden, I could pay my rent," he said, adding that he has since stopped instruction swimming and moved into an flat alongside his own area for the archetypal time.
The logistical challenges of a viral product
The pill bottle's quick achievement additionally introduced Flodstrom to the small glamorous parts of operating a endeavor built about a viral product. At the period of our interview, he stated hundreds of orders were delayed in customs. He estimated that concerning $80,000 in Shopify finances was unavailable to him during the orders remained unresolved, equal as he continued paying for production.
"It's fair excellent stressful," he said.
His endeavor is additionally extremely reliant on Instagram, anywhere nearly all of his revenue originate. One of his "worst fears," he said, is having his document restricted or removed. "I wouldn't have a endeavor without it."
Flodstrom stated he hopes to diversify through YouTube and continue evolving new work. He's wary of treating one viral merchandise as evidence that he has arrived.
"I don't desire to get onward of myself," he said. "It's a big pill bottle. I'm not Van Gogh out here."
When our call ended a small following noon, Flodstrom planned to go to Home Depot and perchance downtown Los Angeles to origin materials. He additionally needed to edit a video of him restoring a place and create another ad for his pill-bottle flank tables.
Being an creator is additional akin a accepted job than group power assume, he said: "Every job is fair the next task."
