Southern Junkers Vintage Market

Southern Junker Vintage Market
Creator & Founder Ruth Barnes

Southern Junkers Vintage Market is a quarterly event complete with about 65 antique & vintage vendors, concessions and food trucks, art and decorating demos and of course, appearances by the Memphettes.

Originally created as a Facebook community page for people who love antiques, vintage and repurposed items Southern Junkers has evolved into a top notch, high quality shopping event for those of us who love antiquing. 

I first became familiar with Southern Junkers when they were hosting an outdoor flea market event in 2012. My love of vintage drives me to not only purchase old stuff but to encourage The Mister to refurbish and repurpose forgotten pieces for me. You know, to “save” them from the dumpster. I guess you could describe my home décor style as pintrest-kitsch meets an episode of Hoarders. Southern Junkers, to me, had become that place to find that special starter piece for one of my projects.

The Selection of items you will find at Southern Junkers

When the Memphettes became involved with Southern Junkers it was due to the event's expansion and move into the Memphis Agri-Center International. Part of the expansion included entertainment for the guests which came in the form of a Vintage Fashion Show. The first time up we may have aimed too high…one hour long with over 100 outfits with ukuleles and a pirate…ummm…yeah…we overshot a bit. So to Ruth I would like to say I am grateful you found us and invited us but also allowed us to come back and continue to participate in these events. 

Outfits from our first vintage fashion show!

and from our second show which was Rockabilly /
Western themed and full of campy goodness

Southern Junkers Vintage Market has definitely grown into a wonderful shopping and antiquing experience. But, I must comment here with the growth of the market I have noticed more completed, fully restored items versus the starter pieces I have come to look for with this market. There are still plenty of vintage items for a retro gal like me but the selection of these items was smaller this time. So sadly, this time around I must admit my group of ladies and gents purchased less and I found myself breezing past booths which were stocked with those fully restored pieces. Southern Junkers has become an interior decorators dream market, but not so much the vintage lifestyle market I normally shop at. While Southern Junkers is an enjoyable event I do kind of miss the original format where I was able to find pieces I could repurpose with my own flair vs something already upcycled in someone else's style. 

OK so now about our fashion show. This last market represented out third endeavor in the fashion show circuit. This time around we decided to break away from traditional and create something unique for the audience. We went with a multi-media fashion show which integrated on stage models with a series of short silent movies. This time the focus of the fashion show was to highlight trends of the silent movie era and we did so by making our own silent films. It was a lot of fun now enjoy some photos of the market…

A decorators paradise!!

Wait WHAT?…your article is over with just a quick mention of the short films? Well that is a topic all by itself and I plan to share an entire post about the creation and showing of these films. This is what the industry calls a cliffhanger. 

So until next time kids, stay in school, eat your veggies, and listen to your mom when she's talking. See you in the next episode.

Vintage Stero Cabinet into Wine/ Coffee Bar

Cabinet Pre-Upcycle

My husband shares my love for vintage stuff and, being a guy, often has a different take on the creative process.  With the sudden surge of information about "upcycling" and "repurposing," it was only natural that he would find himself getting into it as a creative outlet of his own, outside of his passion for photography.  We often go thrifting together and he heads out sometimes on his own, and I always get a kick out of his excited phone calls about the latest treasure he has found.  When he called and said he had found an old console stereo he liked and wanted to do a project with I offered an encouraging word although I must admit I had some doubts.  He sent me a text with a picture of the console and it was admittedly a cool piece, but I sometimes have difficulty seeing what he sees.  But I put my faith in him, especially when he said he was going to build me a coffee/wine bar out of it.

Wine Racks replaced the
fabric covered speakers

So he went to work gutting the ten tons of electronic guts from the cabinet and cleared out the spiders and assorted critters that had come to call it home.  He removed the speakers and went to the process of sanding and prepping the wood.  He painted the piece inside and out, leaving me amazed at what he was able to do with spray-paint.  I never would have thought it could be used for a detailed project like this, but it performed remarkably well.  The top he finished with a gloss white enamel so it would be durable and bright, resistant to spills and stains. For the interior, he chopped and added some wine shelves he salvaged from a wine cabinet he got from a thrift store, and set in a hanging wine glass rack from Amazon.com.  



Once the piece was finished I was blown away.  Even my teenaged daughter raved about how awesome it was, and she doesn't get very excited about old furniture. When it was moved into place in the dining room, we moved all wine and coffee service items from our cabinets into the bar freeing up space for other things.

 


 So now every morning starts with a cup of Joe and my nights can end with a glass of vino courtesy of our favorite vintage restoration.



Storage includes wine glass rack
and plenty of space for
coffee and mugs


 

Completed Project...Coffee Anyone?!?






 

The Roaring Twenties

With my love for all things vintage, I keep a steady eye out for events that may tickle my fancy. Quite by accident I stumbled across one that I almost missed. Fortunately, the timing was right and with some quick action, my husband and I were able to get in on it. I am speaking of the annual SpeakEasy event in support of the Memphis Oral School of the Deaf. This event was spectacular and I highly recommend attending. SpeakEasy is a Roaring Twenties themed event which features food provided by local restaurants and caterers, a "casino", silent and live auctions, photo ops, a jazz band and dancing.

The biggest issue in preparation for the evening was of course was finding a 1920s themed dress that did not look like a flapper Halloween costume.

Being the thrifty girl I am, I immediately began searching for the perfect dress that I could repurpose. I wanted to create something that not only would be memorable and would translate "Roaring Twenties" but something soft and feminine in the vein of the Great Gatsby.

I was able to find a boring pink dress at a local resale shop for under $20. With the addition of A LOT of lace, T-strap shoes, a cloche hat (which the brim had to be cut to fit my face better) and a lovely vintage crocheted lace sweater this is the look I was able to come up with! 

I even MADE some natural colored back seamed stockings by following this tutorial.

Here are several photos my hubby & I pre-event and pre-adult beverages!

Of course a girl is only as good as her accessories!

During the course of the evening we received MANY compliments on the authenticity and originality of our attire with people stopping us to take photos all night. As a costumer I love to see other people get into the spirit of the event with their attire. Many of SpeakEasy's attendees were in twenties attire but of course, ours were a bit more over the top and dramatic than most...but hey what would you expect from a costume designer!?!

All photos are produced by Toy Robot Photography.