The Lucketts Spring Market 2025 is in the books!  Oh man, what a special group of people who work so hard to put on an amazing event for their customers.  I’m constantly impressed with their attention to detail and desire to make every event with the Lucketts name memorable.  The Lucketts team doesn’t have to create a new theme for each market.  All of the signage and displays they’ve used are spectacular and could certainly be used again.  However, each market comes up with new themes, displays, signs, tote bags, and little details that make the market an experience in and of itself.  Speaking as someone who has been a part of these markets in the past, they really don’t have to do that.  It is above and beyond, and you can tell it’s done out of a love for the customers and the event.

The vendors also put on an amazing show!  My goodness, did they work so hard.  Not only is set-up (in days of rain) a lot of physical work, but so much effort goes into curating beautiful things for the shoppers.  They did a top-notch job, and it might have been one of my favorite Lucketts Markets to date.

The night before, vendors shared pictures of their spaces set up on Instagram, and there were a few things that caught my eye immediately.  I knew where a couple of vendors were located, but I was uncertain about one that housed the pieces I was most interested in – a pair of antique portraits.  So, the morning of the fair, my mom and I arrived shortly before the gates opened, and I told her there were things I wanted to look for straight away.  We were meeting up with a couple of cousins, so as the gates opened, my mom said she would wait to meet up with them, and I could run ahead.

I dropped off a few ironstone pitchers to Caroline of Ekster first and then headed to all of the barns with concrete floors.  I knew there were only four, so I could run through them pretty quickly.  Anytime I saw someone I knew, I would wave, say a quick hello, and let them know I was on a mission.  I’ll be back around soon!

Finally, in the barn furthest from the entrance, the Poultry Barn, there were the portraits.  No one else was rabid over them, briskly dragging their cart through three other barns to find them, showing up pink-faced and sweaty already.  The price was good for a pair of antique portraits, and I looked them over carefully.  It’s always important to make sure with art, portraits especially, that they speak to you.  These spoke to me.  I loved them.  Unfortunately, the original backs of the frames were covered by a modern cover to protect them and to highlight the restoration work that was done in the 1970s.  Some day, I’ll probably snoop behind the covers to see if I can discover more details.  Based on the clothing and hair, the paintings likely date from 1840-1860.  Of course, there is always the possibility that someone painted these later, capturing people in another era.  Since they had to be restored in the 1970s, though, that date range makes sense.

I thought through my Lucketts wish list and realised these purchases wouldn’t leave much budget left for a dining table and chairs or other furniture pieces, but I loved them so much that I went for it.  I knew I would regret not purchasing them.

So, when I met up with my mom and cousins, I had already made my big splurge purchase of the day!

As a side note, how about those incredible twin pine beds?!  They were spendy, but so gorgeous.  I need my boys to grow up and move out so I can decorate their bedrooms with pine twin beds like that!  (I’m just joking, but it will be fun to have rooms that aren’t decorated in Ikea furniture, black walls, and LED lights.  They do not share my love of antiques.)

Hey, hey!  I haven’t done a mirror shopping shot for years, so there you go.  I wore my hair curly so I wasn’t fighting the heat and humidity, and, as always, I’m wearing one of my favorite linen dresses.  They are the best for travel and events.

It was helpful having a good purge in the weeks leading up to the Lucketts Market, so I wasn’t as tempted to bring home decorative pieces I knew I didn’t have room for.

I was able to visit some of my ironstone for sale at the Barn Fresh Designs booth.

There were a lot more antique European pieces, which I loved looking at!  I wish I had a big space for one, but all of my big spaces are filled with other wonderful pieces already.  If I were designing a kitchen again, though, I would’ve had a field day with big tables that would make perfect islands and large hutches.

I found so many pieces I loved, but I decided instead of buying something, I would admire it and take a picture of it.  In most cases, that was enough.  Here are things I loved but didn’t buy.  A great gathering basket…

…some chunky frames and a couple of very nice ironstone compotes…

…a round English pine table…

…and ironstone watercolor palette…

…a two-tiered pine table.  I almost got this for the guest room, but I was concerned about lamp placement.

….I loved this little antique dog painting…

…the quirky hooked wool George Washington pillow…

…this enormous market cart…

…a set of four unique chairs…

…and a few random ironstone pieces that would’ve been fun for holding paint…

But I didn’t buy any of those things.  I just practiced admiring them.  I did buy a few things in addition to the portraits, though, and I’ll share those tomorrow…

While we were there for the stuff and for a fun Spring outing, the thing that was so touching to me was seeing how much the vendors supported one another.  I was following the market on Instagram and saw vendors not only promoting their own stuff, but also stuff from other vendors.  While they were tired from loading, staging, and checking customers, they spent downtime highlighting each other.  It was a beautiful thing to watch and one of the good things about social media.

I also loved meeting people in person, people who came to the Lucketts Spring Market because they read about it on my blog or people who used to shop my booth when I was a vendor.  It was good for the soul, all of it.