Round Top Round Up: Spring 2022
As you’ve probably noticed by now, we do things a little differently around here! Antiques and designer pieces are the love language of our interiors. Here at Moore House Design we focus on creating interiors that feel gathered, collected, and layered — interesting pieces are a quintessential part of our formula. Antique and designer pieces evoke an eclectic feeling in your home resulting in a distinctively unique space.
Antiques are the backbone of our practice here at Moore House Design. Naturally, we focus on sourcing only the best of the best which is a painstaking process. Roundtop is our first stop other than sourcing directly from the European market. We've rounded up some tricks of the trade as well as some of our favorite spots and finds from our time in Texas.
Tricks of the Trade…
No. 01 - Flights
First things first… book your accommodations and flights well in advance. This is a very large draw for those in the industry globally. It might sound crazy, but we’d recommend getting logistics squared away a year in advance. We’ve gone to both the spring and fall shows, but one should be enough if it’s your first time going! It will take a few times to gain your bearings on this one… well, it did for us anyway.
No. 03 - The Spots
Make a plan and do your best to stick to it. Our favorites are The Compound, Market Hill, Blue Hill, Marburger is great & Excess I & II. If you like to rummage for the best deals its better to go towards the middle of the show time but if you like to see things curated you 100% should go to the Marburger show! This one is not overwhelming and the booths are very curated. This may sound simple, but when there is so much to see and so many people to talk to it can be rather difficult. We usually divvy up different spots within RT by day with the goal of hitting a bunch of places super fast the first day, then going back for things that caught our eye. It can be a little hectic, but it’s best to know all your options before making a choice, right?
No. 02 - Keep it organized
You must know what you’re after!! When we go to events like this we’ll see so much good stuff it becomes seriously hard to stay on task. Taking the time to pull together a master document of all the pieces we need before we go is KEY. This document keeps us organized amidst the sensory overload that is antiquing for four days straight. Even with this document (aka a 15-page clipboard with lots of scribbles), we tend to go a little haywire, but it’s all part of the fun!
No. 04 - Keep it caffeinated
These are big days! Although Texas wakes up later than Brimfield you should be getting started around 8am and sometimes not ending until 8pm. So keep yourself hydrated and caffeinated. In Blue Hill there is our favorite Espresso Bar called Neon Moon. The coffee is so good we always take some beans home to NY & RI. Yes its that good. In every field there is something to nibble on and drink including cocktails everywhere so have fun!
No. 05 - Shipping
This should come before everything, but if you’re going to be buying a lot of large items be sure to organize a shipping service to get all your goodies home — that is if you’re not planning on driving a truck up yourself. We’ve done it both ways, but driving back after an event like this can be pretty exhausting!! White-Glove shipping services are expensive, but then again so are a lot of the items we are purchasing… not to mention the fact that they’re often one-of-a-kind finds. We’d say it’s worth it! Also, when you’re deciding whether or not to purchase an item, be sure to take into account how much it will cost you to get home to help you decide if it’s worth it.
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. We catalogued everything we could think of all in one neat little post!
Though the amount of money we spent makes us a little ill, we nabbed a lot of really spectacular pieces for our clients and a few for our warehouse / Ecomm. We tend to be “I want it, I got it” type of gals in these situations because if you snooze you really do lose! Here are some of our favorite stops and finds :)
Big Daddy’s Antiques
Before you ask, yes — Big Daddy is a real man and he’s the bomb diggity. He comes out to Texas every year from California to bring us all the tonal textured pieces with that effortless vintage-chic vibe. We sourced some epic outdoor pieces for our clients in Jamestown including these big balls… what can we say… we love them! If you need something, chances are Big Daddy can make it happen.
Excess 1, Excess 2 — and Marc!
Marc is another super cool dude. A Texas transplant from New Jersey, he’s got one of the biggest areas in all of Round Top and always has the good stuff… and a lot of it. Specializing in frames and pieces that are often a little rough around the edges we love picking through his yards. We got this travertine table and another larger stone table for other clients of ours and we’re in love. Plus, we scored this epic mid-century piece with original glass for our new office space. She’s going to look glorious and we cannot wait.
Eneby Home — *Heart Eyes*
Otherwise known as home for every famously cozy shearling chair you’ve ever seen on IG… We had to restrain ourselves from rubbing our hands all over every piece. Lol. This couple has highly polished pieces that are usually ready to install which is great when you’re working with tight timelines like we are. We did purchase this amazing Charles Dudouyt side table from them. Blair knows all the goods when it comes to a deal with an ultimate designer piece and we snapped this one up for our clients before it even got off their truck! Totally psyched.
We also met their friendly Norwich Terrier and he seems to know his house has the best furniture.
Market Hill
We always find lots of good stuff at Market Hill, so we’re sure to stop there early on in our trip. We got this absolutely gorgeous stone coffee table. It’s perfect in every way so we couldn’t justify leaving without it! We also picked up some sweet little vessels and this Russel Woodard iron outdoor set! How cool are the little bobbles on the ends of the arms? Love. And we snagged this gorgeous mirror for our clients down in DC as well as a couple yummy smelling candles.
Though it wasn’t at the top of our list, we bought a ton of art on this go-round. Here are some of the gorgeous pieces we purchased from various vendors throughout Round Top.
We’ll dub this category “honorable mentions” as we loved them but they either weren’t on our list or weren’t within budget. If there was ever a time where we wished our pockets ran miles deep, Round Top was certainly it!
Said Expensive Bird. ^^^
Blair totally had a moment with this little metal bird — she thought he was wonderful in every way. He was a very pretty, but sadly very expensive bird… so we left without him.
We wanted this couch SO badly…. it’s like Brom’s dream couch, but unfortunately, she was out of our personal budget on this trip. Look at the fabric!! Dead.
This couch. ^^^
We also met a fan, Aileen Fitzgerald!! This was an amazing moment for us. We love meeting you awesome humans in person!! So fun. P.S. She also happens to be a dope landscape artist — you can check out her feed here!
That rounds up our trip to round top this year. We’ll likely be back in the fall for more vintage goodness. Thank you to all our amazing vendors for bringing all the design goodies for us — And thank you for reading!
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