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The Ultimate Antiquing Experience // Warrenton, Texas

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”… that was the theme for the day. Twice a year (two weekends in the spring and two weekends in the fall), antique lovers from all over Texas (and even some from out-of-state) come to Warrenton, Texas for the ultimate antiquing experience. What started out as something small turned into this massive event with a cult-like following and after going for the first time on Saturday, I am now a believer.

I have friends and coworkers who go every year (twice a year) and it was hard to imagine what they were talking about. What I envisioned was nothing like what I saw over the weekend. First off, the sheer size of this event is very impressive. While one of the “shows” is called The Zapp Hall Antique Show, not everything is on the Zapp Hall property. There are fields and fields of dealers from all over the country and while driving down Highway 237, I said to myself “Wow”. Each field has its own official name (ie. Bar W Field, Tree Park Field, etc.) and you can easily walk from one field or “show” to the next.

You pretty much can find anything here. From true antiques worth hundreds to custom products that you find on Etsy, people were walking around with baskets and golf carts filled with stuff. I went with Aiden so we got to experience this together. I saw a few items that I was interested in but didn’t want to make a decision on my first outing. After knowing what I know now, I will go again in the fall. And don’t worry ladies, I think guys would have fun at the show too just because you can find some super cool Americana items there.

The best part about all of this? It’s FREE! No admission to shop your hearts out or just walk around like what Aiden and I did. The antique show in Round Top, a few miles north, does charge admission… keep that in mind if you’re planning/wanting to hit up both shows.    
    

So what made me finally want to head out to Warrenton this year? One of my (new) coworker’s family actually owns Zapp Hall! That’s right, according to our other coworker that goes every year, he’s like “Texas Royalty”. Zapp Hall is where it all began, and now it’s the center of all the action. If you go, you can find my coworker and his wife working at Royer’s Round Top Cafe at Zapp Hall… it’s totally a family affair.
For all you HGTV lovers out there (including myself), you can find the Junk Gypsies out by Zapp Hall. They currently live a few miles north in Round Top, Texas (which has an antique show of its own) but they set up a tent down in Warrenton. They also host a “prom” one night every show in the Beer Garden and it’s the party of the weekend. It’s open to the public and sure to be a great time!      

Don’t forget to follow along on social media!

Comments

  1. Y'all would have a great time at this show. My son saw a sign that said "Antique Toys" and he wanted to go there… I told him, I think these are toys you can't really play with lol. Sure enough, this guy was selling this really cool looking old antique truck for $700! And supposedly it was a steal cause another shopper said he saw one online for $1,200!

  2. Wow, this looks like so much fun! What a wonderful way to spend the day. I'm learning so much about Texas from your posts and loving all the sunshine you've got 🙂 I always have to do a double take when I see the Texas flag as it is crazily similar to the Chilean one! Once, I was walking down the road and I saw a lady with what I thought was a Chilean flag on her bag. I stopped and asked her if she's been to Chile, and she looked so confused. Then I pointed at her bag… and realised that actually it was a Texas flag. Oops! 😉

  3. That's some seriously good junk there! I love going to things like this, just to have a nosey at what people collect and sell. I don't think we have anything quite at this scale in Belgium, but there's an antique market every month in Brussels that I've yet to visit – I think it's this weekend…. maybe I will go! Thanks for the reminder 🙂

  4. Haha funny story! Yes it's SUPER similar! I remember watching the World Cup and thinking the same thing when I saw their flag! We got super lucky the last couple of weeks with gorgeous weather! It's raining right now but I'll take it if it means sunshine coming up!

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