Paige Hull, co-owner of The Vintage Round Top, wearing our Draper James Honky Tonk Flutter Top. (Photo credit: Natalie Lacy Lange.)
For devoted antique seekers and yard sale fiends, mid-September calls for a trip to Round Top. Twice yearly, this quiet Texas town and its neighbors transform into a sprawling (18-mile-long!) fair featuring some of the best—and often weirdest, junkiest, chicest, or most unexpected—vintage finds around.
When it comes to Round Top royalty, Paige and Smoot Hull are the queen and king. The couple turned their local fixer upper into a jaw-dropping vacation rental filled with their own vintage finds and handmade items, then parlayed it into a thriving brand—The Vintage Round Top—with product lines, a web shop, a thriving social media presence, and more.
Here’s Paige with tips on shopping the Round Top antique fair like a pro, and stay tuned for her photo diary from shopping this year’s shows.
The Vintage Round Top antique booth at Marburger Farm in 2015. (Photo credit: Curious Details.)
How are you participating in Round Top this year?
While we’ve participated in the past as vendors and have also done special events, this year, we will participate as shoppers only for the first time. This is due to the construction of a new 2000-square-foot cottage attached to our existing home rental on our property and the rebuilding of our personal home in Houston that flooded several months ago. We’re looking for great pieces to add to our rentals and to our personal collection as well as those we can buy and resell on our web shop.
The main room of The Vintage Round Top Vacation Home Rental. At Round Top this year, says Paige, “We’re on a mission to find vintage pieces and materials we can use throughout the new cottage to complement our signature ‘Modern Vintage’ style.” (Photo credit: Laura Morsman Photography.)
Three must-visit shows?
That’s so hard as there are so many! (Check out the Round Top Shopping Guide on our website!) If we had to pick three, we’d say. . .
- Marburger Farm. It certainly is closest to our hearts, since it was the first place we sold to the public as retailers. It has over 500 high-end dealers and is extremely curated.
- Warrenton is one of the largest areas that spans over three miles and is true to our ‘picking’ hearts. It offers the best deals but you have to be patient and dig to find the treasures. Some of our favorite shows within Warrenton are Zapp Hall, Renck Hall and North Gate.
- EXCESS. Located right at the edge of Warrenton, this show has an eclectic mix of vendors that both are curated and good junking opportunities. One of our good friends, who also has a warehouse in Round Top, shows here. His architectural salvage business is called Recycling The Past.
Name three items, that you are shopping for this year.
1. Natural items to use as décor, like dried branches, hornet’s nests, gourds, etc.
2. Metal. The new cottage will be named “Boho” and will have a mix of metals throughout—brass, zinc, oxidized steel, bronze, etc. So, we’re looking for mirrors, pots, chairs, side tables—anything we can to bring true vintage into play.
3. Fabric. We’re always on the lookout for vintage fabric to use for our handmade items.
Three trends you’re seeing when it comes to the types of items people are shopping for right now.
1. Mid-century is probably the biggest ‘trend’ these days.
2. Industrial items are still hot, from lighting to furniture and everything in between.
3. Shabby/chippy painted pieces (like step stools, hutches, and picture frames) always sell well in Round Top.
You have a lot going on right now besides the antique fair. Tell us about the new cottage!
The largest project we’re currently working on is building the new cottage. This 800-square-foot space will also serve as an event space for intimate gatherings like workshops (including our own creative and branding workshops) and rehearsal dinners. We’re collaborating with local artisans to design and make bespoke pieces throughout the cottage.
“The RVT Home Goods line is all handcrafted in Texas, “says Paige. We currently sell artisan-made soap, candles, and a Swiss Army line of utility pouches and throw pillows. We’re also working on a new line using vintage French ticking fabric I brought back from one of my buying trips, and we’re designing new products for the line to sell and to use in the new cottage” (Photo credit: Sarah Best.)
The RVT Hotel Amenity line is offered at The Vintage Round Top Vacation Home Rental and Hotel Ella in Austin, and will expand to other Texas hotels soon. (Photo credit: Laura Morsman Photography.)
Paige and Smoot have produced a variety of events and workshops. This one, held at The Vintage Round Top, focused on calligraphy. (Photo credit: Laura Morsman Photography.)
The kitchen of The Vintage Round Top Vacation Home Rental features handmade items, re-purposed pieces, and pieces Paige has found on buying trips around the world.
Paige and her husband and business partner, Smoot, owned a construction company together before launching The Vintage Round Top. “The whole reason we ended up with this business in Round Top was due to Smoot and I wanting to get back to our creative roots and to hang on to a simpler time,” says Paige of their growing lifestyle brand. (Photo credit: Laura Morsman Photography.)
