From bonjour to howdy - we're going to the Round Top Antiques Fair!

From bonjour to howdy - we're going to the Round Top Antiques Fair!

Designer dossier: Lauren DeLoach Interiors Reading From bonjour to howdy - we're going to the Round Top Antiques Fair! 4 minutes Next Atlanta loves Melissa Payne Baker

Next week, we're exchanging our bonjours and ballet flats for howdys and cowboy boots.

Yes, we are packing up a giant truck and bringing our Huff Harrington goodies and one-of-a-kinds to Round Top, Texas for six fun days of selling at the famous Marburger Farm at the Round Top Antiques Fair. Howdy and welcome to Texas! (Marburger Farm/photo: Southern Living - Wynn Myers)

Are you a Round Top newbie? That's fine - because we are too.  We first heard about it a few years ago (from our good Houston friends Lynn, Karen C. and Karen M. as well as fellow retailer, blogger and designer Paloma Contreras) but it wasn't until curiosity got the better of us that we booked a couple tickets to Austin last fall to check out all the fuss.

Round Top's population blows up during the fair - from about 90 to 250,000! Buff Strickland country living

And such a fuss!  Little Round Top sits prettily in Texas hill country between Austin and Houston and is dotted with rolling hills, barns and the sweetest longhorn cattle.   It's a cute town with a mishmash of barns, fields and buildings that host the 50-year-old antiques extravaganza along a 20-mile stretch of State 237.  There are endless flea-market style fields, shabby-chic pop-ups and colorful old houses that have everything from hide rugs and  antique wagon wheels to crunchy doors, windows and shutters.  There are vintage signs, cowboy boots, old brown furniture and salvaged and repurposed metal as far as the eye can see.

Buff Strickland for Country Living

Mixed in with all of this are sleek, but charming, modern-barn structures that house permanent showrooms and vendors selling very fine, very curated antiques.

The Compound at Round Top.

And then there's the lively Marburger Farm, where from April 2nd through April 6th, we'll be camped out.  We'll be set up in one of nine tents, 11 buildings and among more than 350 world-class antiques vendors.

We just love how Marburger promotes the fair: "(the fair) caters to the interior designer, the collector, the treasure hunter and shoppers alike. For some it is a bucket list item, for some it is a tradition, but for all it is an experience that cannot be matched."  I mean...we couldn't have put it better ourselves.

When we were there last fall, we were blown away by sheer number of people, vehicles and trucks crawling along the road.  Shoppers from all over the country converged on this tiny little town for a full-on, bonafide shopping experience.  And it makes sense: at Marburger Farms, the goods were gorgeous and beautifully displayed - and the dealers really knew their stuff.

A gorgeous vignette at Marburger Farms (with their photo)

We're bringing a big truck filled to the brim with goodies and treasures that literally arrived in the nick of time from France.  Take a peek at some of these yummies (these images are not the beauty shots. We took them as we were buying up a storm!):

Six pale blue wooden planters (that have stolen my heart)

Stripped oak Queen Anne style old and crackly leather chairs. We have six.

This 18th century barometer is absolutely pristine - and just beautiful.

We fell in love with these carved, stripped Italian chairs with nubbly linen and curvy lines. We have 6.

We never pass up an impeccable French oak, stripped Louis XVI commode from the 19th century - and with great hardware, too.

This is a super fun console made from a couple of old crunchy ladders and a vintage wine rack.

We also couldn't help but notice that everyone was having a really good time. Maybe it's a Texas thing (fun fact: I'm married to a cute and very fun guy from Dallas) but the atmosphere was infectiously like a giant party with delish Texas truck foods, margaritas and cold beers. What's not to love about that?

So, if you are headed to Round Top and need that little French fix, come by and see us at Marburger Farm.  We'll have our French loot and art on display and we'll be looking forward to kicking up our heels with you (maybe even in cowboy boots!)  And don't worry, we're never trading Paris for Texas or steak-frites for tacos, but it sure will be fun to give it a whirl for a week.

Bienvenue, y'all!

Huff Harrington: Marburger Farm, Tent C, D6

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