We just made our bi-annual trip to the Round Top market and one of my favorite venues, Marburger Farms.  

If you haven’t been before it is an experience.  Here is a photo of the ‘farm’ before it opens (hence the caution tape).  It is hard to keep out all those folks ready to spend some money!

It is a great place to people watch, and you usually see a lot of well known individuals from the home design world.  We happened upon the HGTV crew filming the “Fixer Upper” family searching out treasures in the fields.

I usually do a blog post on the “Top 3 trends” I see at Round Top.  This is the first time I have to say I don’t plan on incorporating these ‘take-aways’ into my design plans anytime soon.  You’ll see why as you read along!

Trend #1: Animal Print

There was a definite ‘animal’ theme to the upholstery shown this year.  In the past few years it was beige linen, white linen and gray linen and grey velvet.  This year a lot of upholstery was done in various animal prints. 

Just a few examples….

Trend #2

“Fragment” lamps have been popular over the last several years, but this year they were all over the place, and a bit more rustic.  In the past, the lamps have seemed, to me, more like works of art.  With acrylic bases they take on more of a ‘piece of art’ appearance.  This year, the lamps seemed to be more in the ‘found object’ range with really rough paint and solid metal bases

Trend #3

You can laugh with me, but I could not believe how much taxidermy was on display this year!  Scott pointed it out early on in the day.  I said ‘No, that is not a trend.’ But darn if it wasn’t every where we went!

And, it wasn’t just like the mounted antlers (those are everywhere, especially the small ones on the shields).  I think I have 8 pictures for you and no animals are the same.  To top it off, I completely ignored this for the first half of the day until I just couldn’t over look it anymore.

I hope I don’t offend any animal lovers!  As I said, I’m not planning on incorporating any taxidermy in my projects, but this is a post about trends, so here is a look at the variety of options out there!

This little guy had a ‘sold’ tag on him, so he was going to someone’s home.  His colors are pretty.

I’ve seen a lot of high end designers use Peacocks on pedestals, so that is a design option out there.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, maybe your house needs some stuffed pheasants?

Zebras are beautiful animals.  I like the cowhides made to look like zebras, and those look great on chairs and stools.

Some wooly texture for your walls?

Well, by this time, things were starting to get a bit silly.  Maybe if I were a man I would better understand the use of this little one.

There were a lot of animals I was not sure what they all were.

This vignette was just a bit over the top for me!  I don’t know about the cat with its kill in its mouth. 

Well, there is a reason wise ones tell you that you shouldn’t follow the trends, but stick with classic design! 

We had a wonderful time at Round Top as usual, but I’m glad to be back to focus on designing classic, chic and serene design schemes with nary a taxidermy animal in sight!  Hopefully at the April event I’ll be able to rave about all the classic and chic designs on point.  I’ll let you know.  Either way, High Point market is only 2 weeks away and we always have a lot of lovely ideas to share from there.  Can’t wait!