Antiquing in Iowa

A few weekends ago, we took a Saturday day trip to Walnut, Iowa, about 2 hours away. It's a tiny little town just off of I-80, with a population of only 900 people or so, but it is LOADED with antique shops. Seriously, loaded. There are no less than 15 antique shops, and once a year they put on a huge antique festival on Father's Day weekend. It is known as Iowa's Antique City. It's sure not much of a city - just a row of shops along both sides of the brick main street - but it's definitely a great stop for anyone who likes antiquing. My husband and I ate lunch in a little family-owned bakery (which had it's own selection of antiques in the back room, as advertised on the front window!), and spent the rest of the day wandering in and out of all of the shops.

My favorite by far was The Granary Mall. It was a higher end antique mall, with lots of dealers that specialized in some of my favorite collectibles.

Their ironstone collection was insane! Rows and rows of those big, beautiful, white ironstone pitchers. Just gorgeous. Pitchers this size were priced between $100 and $150, which isn't out of the ordinary, but certainly not a bargain, so I settled for taking some pictures.

There was a small selection of antique pewter which, of course, caught my eye. And then there was the yellowware...

Antique yellow ware was obviously another one of their specialties. Just look at this display case, filled to the brim with beautiful old pieces... And this was just one case of many. Amazing! The Granary Mall has a wonderful selection of all kinds of primitive anitques - great old painted cupboards, crocks, baskets, and wooden ware... way too much to take pictures of, and not enough good light to do it by! I was tempted by quite a few things, but ended up just buying an old wooden spoon. But it sure was fun to look! We'll be heading back in June for their big antique show.