Junk Gypsy and Round Top: The Store That Became a Legend

If there's one store that embodies the spirit of Round Top, it's Junk Gypsy. Founded by sisters Amie and Jolie Sikes, this iconic shop on Highway 237 has become a must-visit destination — even for people who aren't antique shopping.

The Story

The Sikes sisters grew up in the Round Top area and turned their love of vintage, junk, and western culture into a brand that now includes an HGTV show ("Junk Gypsies"), a book, a clothing line, and the most Instagram-famous store in Round Top.

Their shop is packed with cowboy hats, boots, lamps, vintage signs, taxidermy, and their signature blend of rebellious, romantic, western-meets-bohemian style. It's loud, crowded, colorful, and impossible not to smile in.

Why the Sisters Chose Round Top

In a conversation filmed for a popular travel show, Amie and Jolie explained what drew them here permanently. "We kept coming back for the Antique Show and so we just decided that Round Top was calling our names," they said. What started as regular visits for antique week turned into a full relocation of their business to the town they fell in love with.

Their passion for what they do is infectious. As Jolie described it: "We've always had a passion for junk. We love old stuff — we feel like it has a story to tell, and we love the hunt for junk. It really is an adrenaline rush. For all of us junkers, there's just this high you get when you drive by a junk store or a thrift store or a flea market. It's like you're a pirate and you found the treasure."

That philosophy — that junk has a story, that old things deserve new life — is the foundation of everything they've built. As Amie put it on that same porch interview: "For people who love junk, like, Round Top — this is Ground Zero. Twice a year this is the Mecca. The whole world comes here."

What to Expect

The store is always busy — especially during show weeks. It draws visitors of all ages.
It's a browsing experience as much as a shopping destination. Plan at least 30-45 minutes.
Cowboy hats are the signature item — if you want the Round Top look, this is where to get it.
The aesthetic is distinct — rebellious, western, bohemian, with a Texas swagger. Either it's your vibe or it isn't.
Open year-round — unlike most Round Top venues, you can visit Junk Gypsy anytime.

What They Sell

The Junk Gypsy store carries a mix of:

Vintage and antique items (furniture, signs, lighting)
Clothing and accessories (their trademark cowboy hats, boots, vintage-inspired pieces)
Home décor with a western/bohemian edge
Their own branded merchandise

During show weeks, they expand their presence with additional tents and often have special event installations that double as photo opportunities.

The Junk Gypsy Brand Universe

What started as two sisters loading up a beat-up old truck and chasing flea markets across the country has grown into something genuinely rare in the world of vintage and antiques — a full lifestyle brand with multiple revenue streams, a national TV following, and a permanent physical headquarters that doubles as a tourist destination.

The HGTV Show

"Junk Gypsies" ran on HGTV (originally GAC) starting in 2011 and ran for several seasons, introducing millions of viewers to the idea that "junk" wasn't a slur but a creative discipline. Each episode followed Amie and Jolie as they shopped flea markets, repurposed pieces, and installed full-room makeovers for clients — often celebrities or themed locations. The show's visual language — chippy paint, fringe, neon signs, taxidermy, Texas flags, twinkle lights — defined an aesthetic that's now reproduced everywhere from Pinterest boards to backyard weddings. Reruns and clips still circulate, and the show is part of why first-time visitors to Round Top arrive already knowing the Junk Gypsy name.

The Book

In 2015 the sisters published Junk Gypsy: Designing a Life at the Crossroads of Wonder & Wander — equal parts memoir, design manual, and love letter to the open road. It's a coffee-table-style book filled with photography of their projects, scrapbook-style storytelling, and practical tips on how to source, restore, and style vintage pieces. The book is still sold in the store and is a worthwhile pickup if you want to understand the brand's voice in their own words.

The Clothing Line

Junk Gypsy's apparel has steadily expanded over the years. T-shirts, sweatshirts, dresses, and accessories featuring their hand-lettered slogans and western imagery are a real chunk of the store's floor space — and a real chunk of what fans come specifically to buy. The brand also sells through QVC, which has dramatically expanded their reach beyond the in-person Round Top crowd. A guest on one Round Top tour video pointed out: "They used to be on the Garden Channel TV — now they sell on QVC."

Collaborations and Custom Work

Beyond the store and the show, Junk Gypsy does custom design work, branded collaborations, and large-scale event installations. They've designed wedding ceremonies, festival environments, and retail spaces. Their headquarters in Round Top doubles as a creative studio for these projects — when you visit, you're walking through both a store and a working design lab.

The Miranda Lambert Connection

You can't talk about Junk Gypsy without talking about Miranda Lambert. The country music superstar has been a friend, client, and unofficial ambassador for the brand for years. The Sikes sisters designed elements of Miranda's tour bus, and the two camps have collaborated on multiple projects, photo shoots, and merchandise drops over the years.

Miranda is also a Round Top regular — she shops the fields, she stays in the area, and her aesthetic (vintage western femininity with a rock-and-roll edge) is essentially a public-facing version of the Junk Gypsy brand. Where Miranda goes, other country music stars follow, and Junk Gypsy has hosted a steady stream of artists and music industry figures over the years. The country music scene's love of Round Top — which has grown noticeably over the last decade — flows in large part through this store.

If you visit during show week and someone whispers about a celebrity sighting, there's a decent chance the celebrity in question started their afternoon at Junk Gypsy.

Junk Gypsy During Show Week

Show week at Junk Gypsy is an event in itself:

Lines can form before the store opens
They often have live music, food trucks set up on the lawn, special installations, and exclusive show-week merchandise
Celebrity sightings are common — the Sikes sisters have a high-profile following
The energy is electric — even if antiques aren't your thing, the vibe is infectious

One visitor described it perfectly in a video walkthrough: "Junk Gypsy is open year round. They are located just on the outskirts of Round Top. During antiques week they have food trucks set up out on the lawn and they have live music." The lawn essentially becomes a small festival within the larger festival.

The store also hosts the famous "Junk-O-Rama Prom" during show week — a costumed, glittered, anything-goes evening event that's become one of the signature parties of the entire fair. The sisters often help shoppers pull together prom looks from their own vendor circuit. It is, by design, gloriously ridiculous.

Show Week vs. Off-Season Visits

Here's a tension worth understanding before you plan a trip: the Junk Gypsy experience during show week and the Junk Gypsy experience during the other 50 weeks of the year are genuinely different visits.

During show week, you get the full circus — food trucks, live music, special vendors, the prom, celebrity energy, and the broadest selection of inventory. You also get lines, crowds, parking headaches, and a store that can feel more like a concert than a shop. If you came to Round Top specifically for the show, this is the version you want.

Off-season visits — fall, winter, early spring outside show dates — are dramatically calmer. You can browse without being elbowed, talk to staff, take your time trying on hats, and actually see the merchandise. Inventory is more limited, the lawn is empty, and the energy is mellow rather than electric. For shoppers who actually want to buy something thoughtful (especially clothing and decor), many regulars prefer the off-season experience. As one Round Top travel host put it, "the rest of the time you can slow down in Round Top." That goes double for Junk Gypsy.

If you're a fan of the brand but not a fan of crowds, mark your calendar for late summer or January.

The Aesthetic Decoded

"Junk Gypsy style" gets thrown around so much it's worth defining. At its core, it's a mashup of four influences:

Western — cowboy hats, boots, fringe, Native-American-inspired patterns, ranch hardware, vintage rodeo imagery
Bohemian — layered textiles, global textiles, beads, mismatched florals, candles, mood lighting
Reclaimed/industrial — chippy paint, raw wood, found metal, vintage signage, weathered surfaces
Texas glam — rhinestones, pageant-level sparkle, sequins, neon, an embrace of the loud and theatrical

The trick to making this look work in a real home — rather than a costume — is restraint. Most successful Junk Gypsy-inspired interiors use the style as accents on a more neutral base. A chippy-paint cabinet in a clean white kitchen. A pair of vintage cowboy boots used as bookends on an otherwise minimal shelf. A single neon sign over a sofa. A taxidermy mount as the lone wall piece in a hallway.

The interiors that go wrong are usually the ones that try to do all four influences at once in every room. The Sikes sisters themselves are actually pretty disciplined editors — what looks chaotic on TV is usually a single layered vignette in an otherwise simpler space.

If you want to bring the look home, buy one or two statement pieces — a hat, a sign, a lamp, a side table — and let them anchor an otherwise restrained room. That's the path to "Junk Gypsy-inspired" instead of "Junk Gypsy theme park."

What to Actually Buy There

Not everything in the store is equally worth your money. A few honest tips from people who shop here regularly:

Worth buying:

Cowboy hats — The store's hat selection is genuinely excellent. Prices range from around $80 for simpler felt and straw styles up to $300+ for shaped, custom-banded pieces. Take your time on sizing — a hat that's too tight will give you a headache by lunchtime, and a hat that's too loose will blow off in any breeze on Highway 237. Staff can help you shape and band.
Vintage signage — The store sources real vintage signs that you genuinely cannot find easily anywhere else. Pricing is fair for what these are, and the selection rotates.
Lamps and lighting — Their lighting curation is one of the strongest categories in the store. Many pieces are one-of-a-kind reworks.
The book — Worth picking up if you're a fan of the brand or interested in the aesthetic.

Be more selective on:

Their branded clothing line — Quality varies. Some pieces are well-made, but you'll want to check stitching and fabric weight on anything you're spending real money on. Tees and sweatshirts are generally solid.
Mass-produced décor — Not everything in the store is one-of-a-kind. Some pieces are imported branded goods that you could find cheaper elsewhere. If something looks like it could be at HomeGoods, it might be.
Furniture during show week — Inventory churns fast, prices are at peak, and shipping is a hassle. Furniture is often better bought from other Round Top vendors with established freight relationships.

Tips for Navigating Show-Week Crowds

If you're visiting during show week and you want to actually enjoy your stop:

Arrive early. The store typically opens at 10 AM during show week — be in the parking lot by 9:45. The first hour is by far the most pleasant.
Park strategically. Lot space fills fast. There's overflow parking nearby, but it adds a hot walk in either direction. If you're combining a Junk Gypsy visit with other Highway 237 stops, park once and walk the strip.
Hit the photo spots first. Lines for the signature photo installations (the painted truck, the porch, the rotating show-week vignettes) get long by midday. Get your photos in the first hour while the light is good and the queue is short.
Eat from the food trucks. Show-week food truck rotation on the Junk Gypsy lawn is one of the better casual lunches in Round Top. Skip the inevitable indecision about where to eat and just plan to graze here.
Use the air conditioning strategically. As one regular noted: "If you are needing a reprieve, I recommend the Junk Gypsy building, if for anything the air conditioning." A solid stop on a 95-degree October day.

Junk Gypsy's Neighborhood

Junk Gypsy sits on Highway 237 between Round Top proper and Warrenton, which puts it in the heart of the most-trafficked stretch of the entire show. Within a short drive (or, in some cases, a short walk) you'll find:

The Wanderin' — Junk Gypsy's associated boutique hotel, located on the headquarters grounds. If you're a serious fan of the brand, this is the place to stay during show week.
The Compound — A major vendor venue just up the road featuring the White Barn and dozens of high-end dealers.
Warrenton fields — Bar W, Bull Market, and the dense cluster of tents along the highway are all within a few minutes. Many regulars combine a morning at Junk Gypsy with an afternoon working their way through Warrenton.
Hinkle Square in downtown Round Top — A short drive south for coffee at Two Sparrows, pie at Pie Haven (or Royers across the street), and the Dapper Deer.
Market Hill — The expanded European-leaning venue is further down 237 toward La Grange. A natural pairing if you want a dramatic stylistic contrast in a single afternoon.

The smart way to handle a Junk Gypsy day during show week: park here in the morning, knock out the store and the lawn, walk over to a Warrenton field, work your way back, grab lunch from a food truck, then drive into downtown Round Top for an afternoon coffee or pie break. You can easily fill a full day inside a one-mile radius.

Their Cultural Impact

Junk Gypsy has done more to popularize the Round Top aesthetic than almost any other single entity. Their HGTV show introduced millions of Americans to the idea of transforming "junk" into beautiful, livable interiors. Their presence in Round Top helped transform the show from a niche antique event into a cultural destination. As one travel host summarized after meeting the sisters on their front porch: "the new Bohemians have moved in, mixing modern style with their country roots."

Country music royalty — Miranda Lambert, among others — has shopped at Junk Gypsy. The store has been featured in major publications and has an outsized influence on how people think about Texas style and vintage living. A growing number of visitors to the show now tell vendors that their personal aesthetic is "junk gypsy" — a sign of how thoroughly the brand has shaped the language of an entire design movement. One repeat visitor we heard from put it simply: "75% of our house or more is decorated in Junk Gypsy. I'm wearing a Junk Gypsy t-shirt because most of my t-shirts come from Junk Gypsy."

Practical Information

Location: On Highway 237, just south of Round Top proper
Hours: Open year-round, with extended hours during show weeks
Website: junkgypsy.com
Instagram: @junkgypsyco — one of the most followed antique/vintage accounts in the country

Planning a Round Top trip with Junk Gypsy as one of your stops? Use Round Top Finder's interactive map to plot your route along Highway 237, check our venue guides for the surrounding fields, and browse the vendor directory to find more shops with a similar aesthetic. For the full week experience, our trip planner can help you stack Junk Gypsy with Warrenton, the Compound, and the downtown square into a single, smartly-routed day.