M aker

One Man’s Junk,

The Same Man’s Treasure

Meet the Junk Brothers: they filch people’s curbside castoffs, transform them, and give them back. By Rick Polito

IF STEVE AND JIM KELLEY HAD A TREASURE It’s an odd intersection of prank and project, but map, it would probably be scrawled on the back the brothers seem perfect for it. Growing up in the of the garbage pickup schedule. The power tool- sawdust of their father’s Ottawa furniture restoration toting stars of The Junk Brothers aren’t looking for shop, the Kelleys learned an appreciation of the diamonds in the rough, they’re digging through craft and what it took to rescue a neglected treasure. castoffs at the curb. And they each gained an eye for any object’s potential Their HGTV show has the Kelleys prowling — even before the production company found them. nocturnal neighborhoods in their pickup, scooping “We’re not necessarily dumpster divers,” says furniture and flotsam off the curb and carting it Steve. “But if we see something on the side of the back to their workshop where they turn trash into road it’s usually in the back of the truck in a minute.” treasure, or at least into unexpected reinterpretations It’s this attitude that turns a rusty lawnmower into and reprieves for landfill-bound refuse. a rolling drink caddy and an ill-used rowing machine Who knew a sink would make an interesting grand- into a chair fit for George Jetson’s den. We pulled the father clock? Or a pair of broken-down bikes could brothers away from the workbench to find out how become a karaoke stage! But the Kelleys don’t put they find the odd in the odds and ends, like turning their creations in a shop window with a price tag. They an old traffic light into a tasteful bedside table. take them “home,” back to the curb from whence they “You got to have vision,” says Jim. came. Then they ring the doorbell. And run. “And a big garage,” Steve adds.

52 Make: Volume 13