Joining the retro shopping hub in the Raymond-University shopping district, Junk Love recently opened a storefront shop at 777 Raymond Ave. that perfectly embodies the old adage about one person’s junk being another person’s treasure.
Specializing in Americana salvage and restoration, Junk Love offers a wide variety of practical, surprising and sometimes quirky home décor and collectibles that owner Malia Schroeder has gleaned from farm auctions, junk piles and garages around the region.
She carefully, restores and sometimes reinvents every item in her shop by hand with an eye toward creative craftsmanship.
She hopes to make her work and process visible to the public in the new space.
“I definitely want to get a visible workshop going,” she said. “I want to bring that old-school vibe of the craftsman in the window to the block.”
Schroeder ran Junk Love as a pop-up shop out of her space at the Carlton Artist Lofts for the past four years. When Driftwood Community Arts moved out of the Raymond Avenue space this spring, she jumped at the opportunity to invest in a brick-and-mortar establishment surrounded by other antique and retro specialty shops like Succotash, MidModMen and Shag Studio.
“All of these shops kind of have their own style,” she said. “I know as a hunter of this stuff, when I go somewhere and I see there’s five other shops I can stop at, I’m stoked.”
Schroeder has big plans for the space including hosting community workshops and events, as well as music performances and art shows. “I want it to be my workshop where people can watch me do my work and then I also want it to be a place where fun things can happen,” she said.
