Round Top Round-Up (RTRU): Fall 2022
We’re back with our second RTRU, it has an acronym now, and we are thinking this content might be worthy of its own recurring column. That said, Round Top is one of our most important sourcing trips of the year — so important in fact that we’re starting to make our way down to texas multiple times per year. This antique show (we say “show”, but to be honest, it’s really its own town) is one of our favorites to attend because of its “one-stop-shopping” nature. The almost excessive variety, high quality, and unparalleled uniqueness of pieces at Round Top this past October, and every time we make the trip is so darn good that we feel like we’d be doing y’all a disservice if we didn’t share the goodness.
Note: For the purposes of this blog from now on we’ll refer to “Round Top” as “RT”.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year — RT’s fall season is here!
To say our team has a blast on this trip is a complete understatement. We walk like 30,000 steps per day, talk to dozens and dozens of people ranging from posh antiquities dealers to junk vendors to fans to fellow designers, we sip and shop — FYI the best Bloody Maria resides in RT don’t @ us till you try the fiery motivation-aiding libation (IYKYK) — we see incredible antiques from literally the ends of the earth, and on top of all that our team gathers SO much creative inspiration from just scratching the surface of the city that is this antiques show. That synopsis makes it sound rather glamorous… admittedly, we did feel pretty cool with our matching branded fanny packs, Everlane pants, tape measure holsters, R.M. Williams boots and clipboards… lol. What can we say, we were vibing. Anyway, the point of us going to RT can be divided into three rough reasons — it’s about finding unique, rare vintage pieces, saving time and money as well as gaining creative inspo for our projects. Don’t worry, we’ll dive more into these later in the blog. For now we’ve got to share our “whiffs + scores” from this trip.
Whiffs + Scores
Our trip this Fall was heavily client driven, with one of those clients being ourselves (AKA MHD’s e-commerce launch is coming in HOT this May). We’re always trying to see as much as we can while having to make purchasing decisions ungodly quickly in order not to lose out. If you snooze, you really do lose ‘round here! Speaking of losing out, here are a few of the misses that we wished we scored and why ~
This painting of a man drinking soup from a bowl was without a doubt one of Blair’s biggest L’s for the trip. She wanted this piece so badly, but unfortunately some hotel swooped in and got their paws on it first! Rude. That said, if you ever see this beauty in a hotel bar or lobby, give us a call because we want names!
This Louis Philippe chest made from bleached pear wood was also incredible. We took a moment to think about it and within that time it sold! This place is ruthless we tell you, completely ruthless haha. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for something like this in the future though.
This Asian sideboard/cabinet we say at Eneby Home with the coloring, patina, carving, and nail details was absolutely stunning. We regret not snagging it, but unfortunately couldn’t quite place it for our current projects.
THE Afra & Tobia Scarpa dining chairs OF OUR DREAMS. For those of you unfamiliar with this designer couple, we are completely obsessed. We love love love these dining chairs and have been forever trying to find a client/project that calls for them. We have a feeling something like these may end up in Blair’s house after the renovation is complete (which we must add, will be epic, no doubt).
With our depression from the misses aside, on a more positive note we did score some epic pieces for our clients and a few yummies for our ecommerce launch in May. P.S. the product procurement process is a massive segment of each project we take on. Our team spends a lot of time sourcing unique pieces. Sometimes we see pieces that we can’t place right away, but like the seasoned vintage buyers we are, we will never turn down a great deal or piece when we see it — our team knows when something is quality! Another added benefit of hiring us as designers ;)
We purchased this incredible Swedish cabinet + we’re swooning!
We’ve been looking for an antique armoire like this for a while now and were both stunned and thrilled when we saw this beauty against a back wall. We completely adore the neutral coloring of the Nordic pattern and the imperfections from years of use make it all the more lovely. Cabinets like this are rather hard to come by but we’ve linked a couple similar finds below in case you’re in love too!
We snagged this epic set of Danish Rolf Middelboe and Gorm Lindum Marquetry Coffee Tables!! We’re head over heels for the checkered wood inlay and can’t wait to place these in an upcoming project.
The kooky bronze bird — You may recall her from last year!! She’s a bronze sculpture from the 1920s and she totally spoke to us… Lucky for us, she was here again in the Fall, so we knew it was meant to be!
Okay, when you hear the term “antler mirror” maybe this isn’t exactly what came to mind, and that’s exactly what we love about it. We snagged this epic horned mirror and have just the project for it.
These travertine and cast iron nesting tables are one million percent what we’d classify as perfection. We love the little curling details and the tables’ overall dainty vibe — plus, the stone is in great condition.
Only the yummiest set of vintage Kashimas on the face of this planet!! These are all over instagram much like the ‘Camaleonda’ modular sofa by Mario Bellini for B&B Italia, but it doesn’t make them any less special in our hearts. We have to hand it to Michel Ducaroy — every time we see one of these, we want ‘em!!
We pulled the trigger on this incredibly yummy De Sede “DS 11” sectional for one of our projects. What lucky clients we have!! This beauty is in stellar condition which warrants the her price tag. Vintage pricing is something we really need an entire blog to dive into because there is a lot of complicated minutia that drives value — much like vintage clothing. Anyway, this sectional has clearly been taken care of. The leather has been moisturized and cleaned over the years — exactly what we’re looking for in a high-quality, vintage designer piece. We’re over the moon about this one and honestly wish she were ours. Look how cute Adin looks comfort testing! You may laugh, but if it’s not gorgeous AND cozy enough to plop into after 20,000 steps we don’t want it for our clients. Uncomfy seating is a no-go, 100%.
This set of iconic Confidential sofas may look a bit familiar — they are a classic italian find designed by non other than Alberto Rosselli for Saporiti Italia. These two have been reupholstered since their hayday, and though we love this funky fabric, it doesn’t quite fit our project’s palette. We plan to have a blast selecting fabrics for it which, as always, we’ll share in our IG stories when we get there.
On an unrelated note we saw one of our favorite actors ever (and major celebrity crushes from when we were teenagers) Adrian Grenier… We didn’t get a pic, but we kept it together and were distantly thrilled, lol. We also met a few fans of our own!! Some of whom we got pics with and some we didn’t. This is still a wild phenomenon for us since we don’t fully comprehend that strangers know who we are, but we love meeting people we inspire!!
RT Q + A
No. 01
Why is RT critical to the adventure that is product sourcing/procurement?
Uniqueness of product itself — RT is a hotbed for worldly goodness. The place is crawling with high-value, high-quality pieces that we just can’t get our hands on elsewhere. Something we’ve grown to appreciate about RT is the wide range of product origins. We see pieces from Spain, France, Sweden, and Denmark all in the course of a few footsteps depending on the vendor! HUGE for getting the biggest bang for our buck in terms of saving time.
No. 02
What’s the biggest value-add that comes from heavily sourcing from RT?
Timeline — The most amazing thing about RT is the quantity and quality of vintage/designer/antique pieces that have already made their way into the US. The variety of items makes sourcing much simpler and way less time consuming for our team which helps us cut procurement costs (and lead times) for our clients. Not to mention the fact that it gives us a sense of “instant gratification” which is always a nice pat on the back!! The fact that we can get these items back to our warehouse and into our projects much more quickly than if we were importing them individually from a range of European dealers is wonderful. The latter option can take 12 months or longer — which is an obstacle that doesn’t sit well with us or our clients a lot of the time. Though we do it when the pieces are too good to miss!!!
No. 03
How does the team benefit from this sourcing trip?
Creative inspo for the design team — RT is also massively important because it gives our team an eye-full I.e. the creative refresh we need more often than we get. This overstimulating trip tends to exhaust us but really does wonders for our creative spirits. There is a lot to be said for taking a moment to get inspired and for us, RT is one of the most effective ways to get our ideas flowing again, second only to a week or two of r&r up at our cottage in Maine which will be coming to us soon over Christmas thank goodness!
There’s so much good stuff we could make you scroll forever… so here’s a petite gallery featuring more of our favorites from the trip.
Note: Brom, we’re outing your Horse Girl tendencies… but in the best way. The plethora of horse pics and vids from literally everywhere we go 100% need further showcasing, so obviously we’re working on a reel for you guys.
If you’re feeling inspired, hit a few antique shops in your area this weekend, but before you go be sure to check out our blog on shopping vintage like a pro as well as our Round Top Round Up: Spring 2022 — We catalogued everything we could think of in two neat little posts! That wraps our RTRU for this fall. We’ll likely be back this Spring to secure more vintage goodness for our ecomm launch in May 2023. As always, thank you to all our amazing vendors for bringing the worldly design goodies, our clients for giving us such great homes to work on, our team for kicking butt, and you for keeping up with our MH madness!
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