So what is it??? I was introduced to it by my daughter! She told me about this place that takes old items and upcycles them. She's a local TV reporter and ended up doing a story on the place after it had been in business for about a year. So after her story aired, we went that next weekend. The place that started it all five years ago - Good Ju Ju! Now there are more than a dozen buildings. One building is a four story warehouse! Lovely old wood floors and brick with old architecture filled with treasures that have been brought back to life, appreciated in their original condition or to be used in a new way - repurposed! Fantastic fun!
The West Bottoms is a historic warehouse district, raw beautiful vintage at its best. Inside these warehouses, there are many different booths where you can find many treasures. Tucked in here and there is a little place to have coffee or a bakery or even a sandwich shop. Everything you can imagine. Some people call it the Antique district, but I think that's just because they don't really know what to call it. Yeah, there are antiques here and there, but it's so much more than that! It's what is better described as vintage style. Fixtures with Edison light bulbs and burlap with deconstructed originals. You can find an old metal desk from the '50s painted a high gloss white. Then there is the painted furniture that once was sitting on the curb or for sale at a garage sale for $25. Now it's been brought back to life with some chalk paint and a coat of wax, and for sale at a reasonable price, like $125.
We picked up this set a couple of months ago. It is a Drexler and is so sturdy. My son's former middle school art teach has a booth at Good JuJu and found this table and chairs at an estate sale. She did her magic to it and the whole set was only $315. Believe it or not these are the most comfortable chairs.
In fact, some of this furniture starts out at a thrift store and is redesigned by those folks like me who love to do this and then displayed for sale at their booth. . In the last couple of years the price of sturdy vintage furniture at the thrift stores has gone up, supply and demand!
Today my husband was with me. In fact, there were a lot of guys there today. We had been to the four story warehouse when we decided to go in to the next shop. I have a regular routine that I follow! So as we walked in to the next shop, we ran in to a friend. She told us that, Jennifer Bertrand - HGTV Design Star Season Three Winner, was in the building. She was actually demonstrating her painting skills. She was painting a floral design on a table top using one of my favorites, Annie Sloane chalk paint.
Jennifer was so gracious when I asked if I could take a picture with her. You can see she's holding her paint brush. In fact she said, "Thank you for asking and oh, here let me hold my paintbrush up!". She's very animated and personable. We were talking about how there were a lot of guys there today. She mentioned that there are booths that have "mantiques". Funny, because Will and I noticed that very thing earlier. There are booths that have old tools and vintage pictures of planes, etc. Definately, something for everyone. Jennifer is from the KC area and has a new radio show starting. You can find her on facebook, too.
I keep a list of things I'm looking for in my head, but I'm going to figure out a better way of doing this...Hmmm, saw on-line that they are casting for the next Design Star. Very interesting!
Oh and uh, it looks like I'm right in style with my glasses! :)
