the Olive Basket: Round Top Antiques Week

One of the things that I have been wanting to do since I heard about it a couple of years ago is to go and experience Antiques Week in Round Top, TX. It's a huge, three week long, outdoor antiques market, held twice a year - Spring & Fall - and is supposed to be the place to go if you are an antiques lover or shopper of any kind. I have heard that even buyers from Pottery Barn attend these events just to get inspiration! The Fall event this year happened between Sept. 19 and Oct. 4, and since we now live only about 1-1/2 hours of a beautiful drive away, it seemed an easy choice to hop in the car and go check it out.

We had no agenda to find a perfect piece or vintage treasure, so my husband and I went as scouts if you will to see if we could understand better how to plan for future trips when we did actually have a more specific purchasing need.

This enormous outdoor market included miles of antique vendors that you could literally spend weeks perusing through, but our scouting adventure only included looking around at a few of the smaller venues. It was quite amazing to see rows and rows of rusty, chippy, well-loved items that most assuredly would find a new home soon enough. I only came away with a few pictures and empty hands this time around, but I have a much better idea of how I would plan a more purposeful trip in the future.

One of the stops that I wanted to be sure to make on this journey was at Old Glory Antiques located in Burton, TX, just a few miles north of Round Top.

Old Glory Antiques Burton TX Antiques Week Fall 2014

Old Glory is a well-known antiques shop based in Denver that has recently opened their second location here in Texas so they could participate in the bi-annual Round Top events. Since they are only open in conjunction with Antiques Week, I had to stop in while we were there to see a familiar favorite from my Colorado home.

Old Glory has long been well known for bringing together a beautiful mix of primitive antiques and modern-day home accessories, and their Texas shop was no different.

The space was just a bit bigger, but it was filled with all the furniture pieces and vintage finds that are so well identified with Old Glory in Denver.

So, if you love antiques or just like the idea of miles of shopping, then Round Top Antiques Week is definitely a trip worth taking. It is a much bigger venture than most outdoor markets you might be familiar with so you really do have to go with a plan. I came across a really helpful article from Country Living Magazine that gives a lot of good tips for planning a trip to Round Top, and I have linked that article for you in the notes below. Antiques Week is also held in some of the nicest weather times in Texas with Spring being a favorite time of year for seeing gorgeous displays of Bluebonnets. Whenever you decide to make the trip, I know you will love it and will definitely walk away with full hands, full cars, unique and treasured pieces for your home, and many wonderful stories of your shopping extravaganza!