March Madness is back! Not just for the throngs of college basketball fans across the country, but also for antiques and collectible fans around the world. The two-week antique craze known as Round Top Antiques Week, like the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, is now in full swing. Upwards of 100,000 designers and decorators, pickers and junkers, and collectors and hoarders are descending on the tiny Texas towns of Burton, Carmine, Round Top, Warrenton, La Grange, and Fayetteville through April 3rd to experience the spectacle that’s Antiques Week. 

Round Top Antiques Week Map ©Lolo French Antiques

Over 4,000 dealers of treasures, trash, and everything in between set up shop along a 25-mile stretch of Highway 237 with Round Top, the state’s smallest incorporated town, as ground zero. And not until you pass by that famous green sign that reads “Round Top CITY LIMIT POP. 90,”  do you realize you've officially  entered the madness! 

Hailed as the largest antiques fair in the United States, this shopper's paradise (which has been around since the 1960s) is held every spring and fall in the idyllic Texas Hill Country. Round Top Antiques Week now lasts more than two weeks with about 80 separate shows or venues set up in everything from dance halls and barns to warehouses and sheds. Fields full of bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and Texas longhorns have been transformed into fields full of  white tents with crystal chandeliers swinging from the rafters and margaritas flowing. The merchandise in each is as varied as the venues and dealers themselves. 

Pretty much anything under the hot Texas sun can be had. Fine French antiques, vintage jewelry, Industrial salvage, European linens, fine art, furniture from every era, cowboy boots galore, and plain ole' junk for as far as the eyes can see are there for the taking. And as you wander through those fields you'll see A-list designers standing shoulder to shoulder with weekend thrifters, experienced collectors, and casual browsers — all with varying lists and budgets, but all hunting for one-of-a-kind treasures.

Lolo began setting up our space in the Blue Barn at Blue Hills a week ahead of opening day… assembling tables and armoires, shining copper and silver, hanging mirrors and paintings, and dusting and waxing furniture into the wee hours of the night. And when 9 o’clock came around last Saturday morning, our March Madness began!

We hope you'll stop by and take part in the madness — and experience the most amazing shopping adventure ever! But come prepared. Don’t leave home without your boots, hat, sunscreen, umbrella (it can rain at anytime), camera, and a tape measure. And definitely be ready to shop 'til you drop! After all, it's a mad, mad world...

À Bientôt!