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JUNK REHAB OWNER NOT SCARED TO DIVE IN FOR SPECIAL PIECES
By Bob Fitch
"You just never know what might be a treasure,” says Kim TeGrootenhuis, owner of Junk Rehab in Alton.
Kim can rehabilitate almost any forgotten farm object into something useful or decorative. She loves to create conversation starters. “My motto is rethink, redo, reuse. You never know what you're going to find out there. I love to take a ‘lost object’ – something somebody else would throw away – and bring it back to life. When the right person walks through the door and they’re ecstatic about work I’ve done, it’s an awesome feeling. I enjoy their reaction.” She does all of the rehab work herself, except for any welding work.
Kim got her start in the 1980s and 1990s when crafts and craft shows were really big. She took her creations on the road and then operated a buy-sell shop called The Old Wagon Wheel in Orange City. “But my true love is rummaging through the junk. The hunt is what I enjoy. I'm not afraid of diving into raccoon poop in the attic of an old house or the loft of an old barn. To find a special piece, I’ll dive right in.”
When Alton holds its junk days, she drives around town to save a table or a set of shelves on the likelihood she’ll have a vision for how it can be reimagined into something a customer will love. “You just never know. Right?”
The basement, attic or back room of an old, multigenerational farmhouse is often filled with “raw material” full of “character and personality.” At the invitation of locals moving off the farm, or in cases when children are looking to empty the house of a parent who has died, Kim is happy to look and salvage material that might spark a brainstorm within her. “You know, farmers and farm wives didn’t throw things away.” She attends fewer live auctions than she used to, but actively monitors online auctions for treasures. If she buys something, but doesn’t know what it actually is, some of the local good ol’ boys usually can identify it as something their mom or dad used in days of yore.
Friends or customers will also bring in interesting pieces for her to consider rehabilitating. However, she said, “Sometimes junk is just junk.”
Kim sees potential where others see something for the burn pile. She said old wooden ladders are a good find. People will mount them in their bathroom to be used as towel bars. Others use them as quilt racks. “I sold one to the owner of Headquarters for Hair who is going to place the ladder horizontally for use as a clothes hanger in her little boutique.”
Old suitcases are cut in half and used as “floating shelves.” The head of a rake becomes a hanger for kitchen tools. A chicken feeder or the hub a wagon wheel are transformed into indoor planters.
Kim has a knack for creating interesting rolling bars that are a good fit for “man caves.” She bought 30 furniture dollys and has been marrying them to interesting pieces of antique barnwood or even a cleaned-up workbench, complete with its original vise. “I try to preserve as much as I can.”
One of her weirdest creations was a bar made of an antique metal exam table. “I sold it to a doctor actually. It was so creepy, but it was also awesome.”
Visitors to her shop sometimes say they have to walk around the space five times to be able to see all the fun items she tucks into nooks and crannies. “Our customers keep coming back. I love it when I hear them laugh. You’ve got to have fun in life.” Frequently called “a hidden gem,” she said Junk Rehab is a good stop to enjoy along with having lunch at Alton restaurants, The Train Station or The Yard Bar & Grill.
Kim is a native of Alton. In addition to Junk Rehab, she works at The Eyecare Center in Sheldon. Her husband, Kirk, is a Purina Feed dealer. She has three children and five grandchildren.
Kim opened Junk Rehab about a decade ago on the east end of downtown Alton, in the former hardware and plumbing shop owned by Jim Hentges. As a specialty destination, the shop’s open hours are limited. Visit Junk Rehab this summer on June 7-8, July 12-13, August 2-3 and September 6-7. Friday hours are 1-5 p.m. and Saturday hours are 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
