Back from Round Top

The drive into Round Top is its own kind of ritual. Flat Texas highway for hours, then suddenly these little white tents start appearing on both sides of the road and you know you’re close. We left before dawn. Coffee from the gas station in La Grange, windows down because the AC couldn’t keep up.

I never go in with a list. Lists make you miss things. This trip, I was loosely thinking about seating. We’d sold two chairs and a settee in February and the shop felt a little empty in that corner by the window. But Round Top has a way of redirecting you.

The first morning I spent at Marburger Farm, which is where the serious dealers set up. Booth after booth, and most of it you walk past. Then you stop. There was a French oak dining table, 1930s, maybe 1940s, with this incredible grain pattern and legs that had been repaired at some point with a slightly different wood. That repair is what sold me. Someone loved this table enough to fix it rather than replace it. It’s heavy. Really heavy. The kind of table you build a room around.

I also found a pair of linen-upholstered club chairs at one of the fields off 237. Not French. Probably American, mid-century, but with these low, wide arms that make you want to sit sideways with your legs over the side. The fabric is worn in a way that works. Faded where the sun hit, slightly darker underneath. I sat in one for about ten minutes before I bought them both.

The smaller things add up too. A set of brass candlesticks with good weight to them. A hand-thrown pottery vase, sandy colored, no glaze. The kind of thing that looks right with one stem or nothing at all. An oil painting of a hillside that I keep changing my mind about whether to keep or sell. (This happens more than I’d like to admit.)

What didn’t make the cut: a gorgeous but impractical marble-topped console that would have cracked the first time someone set down a vase too hard. A mirror I loved but couldn’t justify the price on. Three or four things that were fine but not special. And fine isn’t worth the drive.

Everything from this trip is at The Guesthouse now. The table is front and center. The chairs are in that corner I mentioned. Come see them before they’re gone. That’s the thing about one-of-a-kind. It only happens once.