Junkin’ Field Trip with Iowa Bloggers: West End Salvage

 

West End Salvage has been junkin’ since before junkin’ was cool.

The store, located in a 4+ floor, 50,000 square foot building in Des Moines, started as a garage sale almost 10 years ago.

Now, it’s a popular home décor store and coffee shop.

So popular, in fact, that it has its own reality TV show on HGTV!

West End Salvage, the show, originally aired in 2013.  There have been 12 episodes so far (on HGTV on Thursday nights, currently) and there is a possibility more will be coming.

On my first visit to West End, I got to meet the owner, Don Short, and make a fool of myself like a teenager at a One Direction concert.

I also met with some fellow Iowa bloggers.

Hey Nicole! Nicole shared some “Farm Girl Facts” with us, like the fact that a couple of ladies from Africa were coming to visit her farm this week!

And here’s Jenni! (I totally got Jenni mid-word.  Sorry, dear! I couldn’t help but take a pic, though – she was sharing such valuable blog information!  She’s been blogging for 8 years! Be sure and check out her blog!)

After coffee and chit chat, we took a little tour of the shop.

The cool thing is, I saw a lot of old junk similar to what we have at The HomeShed (and at a much better price! Junk costs more in the city!)

I also saw stuff that was much cooler than anything we have at the Shed.

But hey, when you’ve got 50,000 square feet, carpenters, welders and interior designers on your team, you can do some pretty neat stuff!

I’ll leave you with this sentiment, painted on an old door and propped in the narrow stairway that leads to the upper floors of the shop…interpret it however you want.