A piece of furniture does not usually begin with a free object found on Facebook Marketplace, a little foam and a sheet of printed paper. For Oskar Flodstrom, a 23-year-old artist based in Los Angeles, those inexpensive materials became the starting point for an unusual pill bottle-shaped side table. He had been making music and experimenting with art while working as a swimming instructor to cover his expenses. Furniture was not a business he had set out to build. Yet a video showing his creation eventually attracted enormous attention online, bringing sales that he had not anticipated. In a conversation with Entrepreneur, the product generated $150,000 in gross sales over two weeks, following an initial investment of roughly $120.
How Flodstrom developed his creative interests outside college
Flodstrom had enjoyed drawing and making things since childhood, though he did not initially see art as a practical career. Engineering briefly appeared to offer a compromise between creativity and a more conventional profession. The disruption caused by the pandemic during his final year of high school also influenced his next steps. He decided not to attend college, citing the expense and doubts about whether a degree would help him pursue his interests. Instead, he began making music, drawing inspiration from American record producer and DJ Kenny Beats, while working out how to support himself.Teaching swimming lessons provided a source of income. His creative projects continued alongside the job, but they did not immediately develop into a reliable business. Flodstrom was still experimenting with different materials and ideas, without a clear route from making art to earning money from it.
A free find from Facebook Marketplace became furniture
The idea for the pill bottle table emerged while Flodstrom was looking for inexpensive ways to furnish his apartment. Browsing Facebook Marketplace, he came across a clear, rounded acrylic base being offered for free. He did not have a car, so collecting it meant travelling by bus and carrying the object home himself.Flodstrom had an idea of the shape he wanted but had not settled on the materials needed to complete it. Eventually, he used foam for the upper section and added paint and a paper label to make the piece resemble an oversized medicine bottle.The finished object was assembled on a modest budget. Since the acrylic base cost nothing, the remaining materials accounted for most of the approximately $120 he spent bringing the design together. The printed label alone cost around $12, according to his account to Entrepreneur.It was an unconventional piece of furniture, but the concept was straightforward. A familiar household object had been enlarged and repurposed as a table. The design also left room for other uses, something that would become important when Flodstrom began showing it to a wider audience.
How Flodstrom turned discarded materials into creative furniture
The pill bottle table was not Flodstrom’s first attempt at making furniture from discarded or inexpensive materials. He had previously created a chair resembling an avocado, which sold for around $500. He had also found useful objects left on the street in Los Angeles, where people sometimes leave unwanted belongings outside when moving home.These projects were part of his wider interest in making things rather than an established furniture business. At first, he considered placing the pill bottle table in the background of a music video. He eventually decided to document its construction instead, using the process as material for a social media post under his creative name, Erik Oskr.The video gave viewers a way to see how the object came together, rather than presenting it simply as a finished product.
A manufacturing partnership helped turn the design into a product
The original video attracted attention in June 2026, bringing Flodstrom’s work to the notice of NO LOGO, a company that helps creators and businesses develop products without having to establish their own manufacturing facilities.The company offered to produce a sample using photographs and measurements of his design. During the process, the partners made a change to the lid material to improve its stability. NO LOGO also helped Flodstrom establish a Shopify website through which customers could buy the table.Until then, the project had largely been an individual experiment. Developing a version that could be sold required a different set of decisions, including how to reproduce the design and present it as a commercial product.Flodstrom was still living out of a car he had bought when the sample arrived, having found himself between places to stay. A representative from the company asked whether he would take part in an interview about the table. He agreed, without expecting the conversation to lead to much.
Instagram views surged after Flodstrom showed a new use for his table
When the table was ready to sell, Flodstrom began preparing more videos to introduce it to potential customers. The early results were disappointing. Instagram flagged one of the promotional videos because the bottle carried an Adderall label, complicating his initial attempt to reach an audience.He had expected to make at least 10 to 15 sales on the first day. Instead, around 36 hours passed with only a couple of orders coming through. The response was considerably smaller than he had anticipated, and the first promotional videos had done little to change that.In his interview with Entrepreneur, Flodstrom recalled Instagram generating around one million views per hour for approximately 10 consecutive hours. He attributed roughly 200 sales to the surge in attention.The sudden change in response was striking compared with the slow opening days. A product that had struggled to attract buyers was now reaching viewers at a pace he had not previously experienced.
The pill bottle table generated $150,000 in two weeks
According to Entrepreneur’s September 17, 2026 report, the pill bottle table brought in $150,000 in gross sales over a two-week period. That figure refers to revenue from sales, rather than the amount Flodstrom personally earned after manufacturing expenses and other costs.He told the publication that daily sales had subsequently settled into a range of approximately $1,500 to $4,000, depending partly on advertising activity. NO LOGO takes a portion to cover manufacturing costs, while Flodstrom estimated that his margin was about five times larger than the company’s cut. The report did not provide a detailed breakdown of expenses or net profit.The commercial response gave him an opportunity to build on a project that had started with a free acrylic base. It also left him with a new set of questions about what to make next and whether the initial attention could be sustained.
Plans for more unconventional household products
Flodstrom has said he does not want to be known exclusively for the pill bottle table. He sees it as an early step in a broader effort to develop products from ideas that might otherwise remain personal art projects.Among the concepts he mentioned to Entrepreneur were a large mirror shaped like a razor blade and a lava lamp made from a Sprite bottle. He had also created a bong from a milk jug. The ideas reflect the same interest in transforming recognisable everyday objects into something with a different purpose or appearance.