Normal weeknight around here. Nothing odd to see.

We don’t curate this. Nobody sat down and decided the shop needed inflatable hot dogs. They arrived, the same way everything arrives, and now they’re part of the room until somebody takes them home.

This is a dig slow kind of place. If thrifting stresses you out, you probably shouldn’t come here. But if the idea of not knowing what you’ll find is the appealing part — that’s the door at the end of South St. Patrick Street.

Have a look at the junk. Saturday and Sunday, 11 to 5.

World’s Biggest Slob. Super Schmuck. Neon City. Half of them are jokes from decades nobody in the room was alive for.

It costs about a dollar to find out which one you are. That’s the cheapest good time in Mid-City.

More of what’s in the shop, and where to find us. Saturday and Sunday, 11 to 5, at the end of South St. Patrick Street.

Give one a flick with your fingernail. Hear that? That’s glass that was actually fired, not squirted out of a plastic injection mold in a factory somewhere.

That’s the porcelain-and-glass half of the rule around here. Real materials get better looking with age. A little wear on the gilt just means it lived somewhere. You can’t say that about a set of tumblers from a big box store — those look worse the week you buy them.

Barware moves fast here, so this is a “come look” rather than a “we’ll hold it.”

See what else is on the floor on the junk page, and here’s how to find us. Saturday and Sunday, 11 to 5.

That’s most of what’s good in here. Not the stuff someone manufactured to be collectible — the stuff that was just around, doing a job, until it wasn’t.

New Orleans throws off more of this than most cities. Old businesses, old houses, families who’ve been in the same place four generations. When something finally moves, it moves through a shop like ours.

You can’t order that. You can only wait for it and recognize it when it shows up.

Come see what’s in this week — have a look at the junk, or find us here. Saturday and Sunday, 11 to 5, at the end of South St. Patrick Street.

The folks over at Sustainable Jungle put together their list of the best thrift stores in New Orleans – twelve shops across the whole city – and put Junk’s Above right there at number five. They called us “one of the most beloved thrift stores NOLA has to offer.” Beloved! We might get that printed on a shirt.

They also gave a shout to the figurine walls – Power Rangers, Toy Story, Disney, the whole crew watching you shop – and noticed the thing we care most about: the motto. Glass, wood, metal, porcelain. No flimsy plastic, no particleboard. They even listed us at one to two dollar signs on the price scale, which is a polite way of saying your wallet leaves happy.

Then there is Yelp, where eighteen reviews and counting keep saying versions of the same thing: 90s tees, old posters, funky hats, cool trinkets from decades past, and some of the lowest prices in the city. We did not pay anybody to say that. We do not have that kind of money. That is why the prices are low.

Road trip folks even map their routes through the shop on Roadtrippers. Imagine driving across three states and one of your stops is a warehouse full of doodads by St. Patrick Park. Honestly? Correct decision.

So do not take our word for it. Take theirs. Then come take some junk home. Saturday and Sunday, 11 to 5, 4626 D’Hemecourt St. in Mid-City. (504) 952-JUNK.

— The Junk’s Above crew

Fair question. Here goes the story.

Before there was a shop, there was just a pile of junk – a glorious, growing pile – stacked up on the second floor of a shoe store. The plan was simple: collect good junk, sell good junk. When somebody needed something from the stash, same answer every time: the junk is above, on the second floor. Say that enough times and it starts sounding like a name.

Now, the city had other plans. Code enforcement was not about to bless a junk operation running out of the top of a shoe store, so the whole pile needed a new home. It found one: the first floor of an old plumbing supply warehouse by St. Patrick Park in Mid-City. Solid building, good bones, and fun fact – it once held storage for Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville products. Rest easy, Jimmy.

Only problem? The new place has no second floor. The junk is decidedly NOT above anymore. But the name was already registered with the Secretary of State, and honestly, it had grown on us. So it stuck.

And before you ask – no, there is no secret second floor with the really good junk on it. And if there was, we sure would not tell you, because then it would not be a secret junk floor, would it?

Come see the first-floor junk for yourself. Saturday and Sunday, 11 to 5, at 4626 D’Hemecourt St. Call us at (504) 952-JUNK.

— The Junk’s Above crew

Walk in the shop and every piece of wood furniture you touch is real wood. Not veneer over particleboard, not “engineered” whatever-that-means. If it’s got drawers, they’re dovetailed by somebody who knew what they were doing, probably before your mama was born. Same with the metal – real steel, real brass, real cast iron, the kind of heavy that lets you know it’s not going anywhere. And the glass and porcelain? Give it a flick. Hear that? That’s the sound of something that was actually fired in a kiln, not squirted out of a plastic injection mold in a factory somewhere.

Right now on the floor we got vintage framed illustrations in real metal-and-wood frames, a leaded glass lamp shade with zero cracks (that’s a rarity, trust), real metal clocks that still keep good time, and a whole bin of metal lockboxes that have outlasted whoever locked them shut. None of it’s phony. All of it’s been somewhere and done something before it landed on D’Hemecourt St.

Here’s the thing about real materials – they get BETTER looking with age. Scratches on real wood tell a story. A little tarnish on brass just means it’s lived a life. You can’t say that about a laminate particleboard dresser from a warehouse store. That thing looks worse the day after you build it.

So when your money’s long, come find yourself something with some weight to it – something your grandkids will still be able to use. And if your money’s not so long, we got a dollar closet full of glass and porcelain knick-knacks that’ll do just fine too.

Real wood. Real metal. Real glass. Real porcelain. No phony particleboard. That’s the whole pitch.

See you Saturday or Sunday, 11 to 5.

— The Junk’s Above crew

Transforming an old piece of junk into a new piece of furniture never gets old. If you’ve ever taken a belt sander to a table or sewn a new cover onto an old chair, you know what I mean.

There’s just nothing in the world like fixin’ up a fixer upper.

When I came across these Samsonite stackable chairs from 1972, they were in pretty rough shape. They were buried under some vines in the New Orleans Bywater.

The metal legs were rusted, and the seats were grimey and had the stank all over them, but challenges just make life more interesting. So, I grabbed them up and took them back to the shop.

I Want Them Chairs Nice and Shiny

Step 1: Sand

Step 2: Paint

Once I removed the composite plastic seats, I sanded the metal legs down until that shiny chrome finish came back.

Then, I sanded the seats with 220 grit sandpaper to clean and smooth them out, and I shot ‘em with primer, then five cans of purple.

Maybe one can could have done, but when you start shaking that spray paint up and hear the propellant click click clicking, you just wanna keep spraying. Five cans gave them a nice, deep color that totally hides the faded ‘70s salmon underneath.

You would never know they didn’t pop right out of the factory yesterday.

Let’s Get Jazzed

Step 3: Jazz stripes

If you’ve lived in New Orleans for more than a year, just about anything will get you thinking about Mardi Gras. Looking at them purple chairs did just that.

As I was wondering where to go with them next, I couldn’t help thinking about king cakes and feather boas and all that purple and green jazz.

Five cans gave them a nice, deep color that totally hides the faded ‘70s salmon underneath.

So why not jazz them seats up a bit? A simple tape design and some green paint and you’re ready for the Mardi Gras season, champ. These are seats you can put out on your porch or on the neutral ground and not only be comfy but be comfy with some style.

Even better, put two stripes on one seat and only one on the other, and you done kicked it up a notch or three. Why two stripes on one seat? Art!

…and the bonus of covering the blemish I made when I dropped the circular saw on one of the chairs. Oops. Everybody who’s a human gets a case of the butterfingers once in a while, am I right?

But I can’t complain too much. You think a float rider on one of them Nola floats is gonna miss seats these bad boyz? Psh.

Putting the Finishing Move on Them Chairs

Step 4: Joining table

With the purple and green seats all nice and fresh, I reattached them to the shiny chrome legs, stood back, and had a look. They were certainly living a better life than before, but were they living their best life? Something was still missing.

I had a sit and a think, and eventually I figured there was just about no better way to put the finishing move on these puppies than to link them up.

You think a float rider on one of them Nola floats is gonna miss seats these bad boyz? Psh.

It’s always nice to have a spot for your drink when you sit — especially if you’re out on the parade route–and a little buffer between the chairs for those of us who like our personal space seemed to fit the bill.

So, I ripped some pieces of heart pine for the joiners and used some laths, on bead board for the tabletop.

Laths are used everywhere — under roof shingles, in walls and ceilings, in lattice and trellis work — so you can always count on them for some quick and stylish borders to your tables or anything you want to frame.

Three in One

Only thing left was to join the chairs to the table, and hooray! Five hours of labor and a $40 investment later, and we have ourselves a mighty comfy set of chairs with a joining table — three in one!

Not only do they hold me up, but the little table holds just about any canned beverage. Perfect for a parade, football experience, or a nice southern evening on your front porch.

The only question left is how much to sell it for. . . .

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