Amber Lewis: The Art Of The Find

Amber Lewis on what catches her eye across a Round Top field, the pieces she buys without a plan, what she’s hunting now, why the best rooms are rarely built in one trip, and tips to design a room that feels truly collected and layered ahead of her new book release.

The designer, author, and founder of Amber Interior Design and Shoppe Amber Interiors has built a devoted audience of over 2 million on Instagram alone around an approach to interiors that prizes character over perfection and rooms that feel as though they came together over time. A philosophy that so perfectly fits in Round Top, Texas.

Lewis shares exclusively with Round Top Finds™ the way she shops Round Top, where she stops, and the philosophy behind how she designs.

Lewis isn’t coming to Round Top to finish a room. She’s looking for the thing that makes her stop.

Over the years, that instinct has led to a massive French hutch bought with no client attached, a collection of vintage mushroom paintings that eventually found their way into a kitchen, antique pottery, plenty of vintage lighting and, apparently Lewis can never have enough side tables when visiting this tiny Texas town with a population of less than 90.

Right now, bird cages have her attention.

After talking with Lewis about how she shops, it becomes clear that the object itself is only half the story. What’s more interesting is how she recognizes something worth bringing home.

Lewis doesn’t need to know exactly where something will live before buying it. She’ll let one exceptional piece become the beginning of a room rather than the finishing touch.

She isn’t particularly interested in making a home look as though it has been collected over time without actually giving it the time to become one.

We asked for a design so many crave, what's her advice to achieve a "collected," feel in your home. Her definition of a collected home is refreshingly simple and quite honestly, needed in an Amazon Prime world:

That idea runs through nearly everything Lewis tells us, from shopping the venues and fields to designing a room to the decidedly less glamorous middle of a project documented in her new book, Interiors.

So consider this less a shopping list and more a lesson in looking: what catches Amber Lewis’s eye, what she buys even when she doesn’t need it yet, where she shops at Round Top, what she thinks is worth hunting for now and why sometimes the best design decision is leaving enough room for the plan to change.

ROUND TOP FINDS: What makes a home feel truly collected over time rather than simply decorated to look collected and how do you source for that feeling at Round Top?

AMBER LEWIS: "Time, honestly. A collected home is the result of a hundred small decisions made over years, not one big shopping trip. It’s the piece you found because you loved it, not because a room needed it.

That’s exactly what Round Top is for me. I’m not walking the fields with a shopping list. I’m picking up a ceramic bowl because it stopped me, not because a room is waiting for it.

You’re not curating a museum collection; you’re layering in a little history alongside the new, one honest find at a time, and that only works if the pieces actually have a story instead of just the right patina."

There may be no better argument for loosening the Round Top shopping list.

Lewis isn’t suggesting going in completely blind. But there’s a difference between knowing what you need and being so committed to finding it that you miss the ceramic bowl that made you stop in the first place.

ROUND TOP FINDS: What’s your best advice to someone who loves the collected look but feels overwhelmed by where to begin?

AMBER LEWIS: "Start with one piece you genuinely love, not a whole room. Design doesn’t always work from the outside in, sometimes it starts with a single standout piece and everything else responds to it.

Beyond that: go in with a general idea but stay open to being surprised, make sure anything vintage is actually sound before you commit to it, and be patient—good pieces take time to find, and that’s part of the fun, not a problem to solve."

Worth remembering before show: You don’t have to find everything for your space in one trip or even one show. A Round Top win is simply finding something that makes you stop. 

We couldn’t resist asking for specifics.

If Lewis had an empty home today and had to choose the five things worth investing in first, we wanted to know what elements she would source first?

AMBER LEWIS: "If I had to start from zero: a high-quality rug, because it establishes a strong foundation for the space; unique lighting, which can completely change the mood of a room; custom built-ins or millwork, which make the space feel personal, functional, and unique to you; vintage and antique pieces, because they bring history, one-of-a-kind character, and that collected-over-time feeling; and quality upholstery, because well-made pieces make a room feel comfortable, layered, and lived-in."

The interesting part of this list may be what isn’t on it.

There isn’t a prescribed accessory or must-have decorative object. Lewis starts with foundation, atmosphere, architecture, age and comfort.

The smaller layers get to arrive later.

Of course, “collected” has become an aesthetic all its own. What once described rooms assembled slowly over time can now start to feel almost algorithmic: the vintage rug, the rattan chair, and the unique lamp. So we asked Lewis what happens when the shortcuts to a layered room start becoming a little too recognizable, since her philosophy oozes true layer and collection, how do you avoid a room that feels like a trend, and is this idea of "collected," feeling a little repetitive?

Her answer was specific.

AMBER LEWIS: "Honestly, yes. What’s everywhere now is the flattened, spec-flip version of collected, the same vintage rug on the floor, the same rattan chair, the same “one weird lamp,” assembled like a formula instead of actually collected over time.

What feels fresh to me is breaking the obvious moves on purpose, instead of the expected vintage rug on the floor, I recently upholstered a custom oversized ottoman in one instead, so the vintage soul is still there but it shows up somewhere you don’t expect it.

That kind of reinterpretation, taking a move everyone recognizes and putting it in the wrong place on purpose, is what feels alive to me right now."

There’s a useful distinction in there.

The answer isn’t less vintage. It’s less predictability.

Keep the old textile. Maybe just don’t put it where everyone expects the old textile to go.

Lewis has talked before about buying pieces simply because she loves them and trusting that she’ll eventually find the right place for them.

We wondered if bigger projects had made her any more disciplined about that.

AMBER LEWIS: "That part hasn’t changed. I’ve bought plenty of pieces with zero plan for them—a massive French hutch is a good example, found at Round Top, with no client attached, and it ended up anchoring an entire dining room.

I still believe that if you buy what you love, it finds its way to where it needs to be."

That’s a fairly compelling defense for the piece you’re currently trying to talk yourself out of because you don't know where it would go or maybe one day I'll get a piece like that type of internal dialogue occuring.

More importantly, it illustrates something Lewis comes back to repeatedly: sometimes the object comes before the room.

There are, however, a few categories that seem to find their way home more often than others.

AMBER LEWIS: "I can never pass up a good piece of antique pottery, unique vintage lighting, or a super rustic side table or two. I’m a sucker for the fall show, but any chance I get to squeeze in a Round Top trip, I’m there!"

When Round Top Finds asked her favorite vendors to visit Lewis told us, "there are too many favorite vendors to name, but a few that are always on my list are Good Livin’ Co., Holler & Squall, Urban Habitat Vintage, and The Modern Exchange."

Then we asked the question we really wanted answered:

What Are You Buying Right Now?

ROUND TOP FINDS: What are three things you’re buying or would tell us to start buying at Round Top right now before everyone else catches on?

AMBER LEWIS: "I’d say anything unique that you’ve never seen before. I have some antique horse bits on my coffee table, for example, and I love the unexpected touch they add.

We’re always looking for quirky vintage pieces, currently big on bird cages, to bring a little creativity and character to a space.

Second would be unique lighting. We’re always on the lookout for amazing vintage lanterns, cool flush mounts, sconces, and anything else with a little something different.

And lastly, side tables. We never have enough cool side tables. Like, EVER."

There it is.

Something strange. Really good lighting. Never enough side tables.

We're especially interested in the horse bits. Not because we’re predicting antique horse bits will suddenly appear on every coffee table next season. Quite the opposite.

They’re a good example of what Lewis seems to mean by character: an object doesn’t necessarily need to belong to a decorating category to belong in a room.

We'll be keeping an eye out for the bird cages this Fall.

What Makes Her Cross The Field

This may be the answer worth remembering most when the tents open.

ROUND TOP FINDS: When you’re walking Round Top, what can you spot from across a field that immediately makes you change direction and go look?

AMBER LEWIS: "Real patina, first. A sculptural shape or a scale you don’t see anymore. Or honestly, just something a little weird, something that has soul, even if I can’t explain why yet.

I’ve trained my eye over the years to clock that from a distance, and it’s rarely the thing I went looking for.

It’s never about finding the exact thing on a list; it’s about something stopping you in your tracks before you even know what it is."

“It’s about something stopping you in your tracks before you even know what it is.”

Maybe that’s the better Round Top list:

Patina. Shape. Scale. A little weirdness.

with enough flexibility in your day to turn around.

The Mushroom Paintings

Of all the things Lewis has sourced at Round Top, one of the finds that has stayed with her isn’t an insane piece of furniture.

It’s mushrooms.

AMBER LEWIS: "One that’s really stuck with me: a collection of vintage mushroom paintings I found while sourcing in Round Top.

They ended up hanging in a kitchen seating area and gave the whole room a little extra quirk and warmth. I get asked about these all the time, they feel unique but are still so widely loved, which is usually a good sign you’ve found something special."

The Other 95 Percent

Lewis’s new book, Interiors, shifts the conversation from sourcing the pieces to what happens while putting the whole thing together.

And notably, it doesn’t skip straight to the pretty part.

One stage of Lewis’s six-part design process is called Patience + Panic, which may be the most accurate description of a renovation and design we’ve heard in a while.

ROUND TOP FINDS: Why was it important to show that messy middle, and what do you hope readers understand about creating a home that feels effortless when the process itself rarely is?

AMBER LEWIS: "Because that’s the real story, and nobody shows it.

The finished photo makes it look effortless, but effortless is the last five percent of a process that’s mostly waiting, second-guessing, and things going wrong at the worst possible moment.

I wanted readers to see the invisible phase, the hours of mental work before the first swatch even gets pulled and the Patience + Panic stage, which is equal parts waiting out lead times and internally screaming when the thing that finally arrives is wrong.

The best homes aren’t rushed. They take time, and a whole lot of those six P’s."

A quote that will be etched in our memory when we come home with a trunk full of Round Top Finds, a vision, and a little frustration when we realize it doesn't just come together.

“The finished photo makes it look effortless, but effortless is the last five percent.”

Which also makes her earlier advice about shopping Round Top feel a little different.

The waiting isn’t what happens while you’re trying to get to the finished room.

The waiting is part of making it.

WHEN IS A PIECE WORTH CHANGING THE PLAN?

“Procure” is one of the defining parts of Interiors, so we asked Lewis where the line is between liking something and knowing it’s worth waiting for, hunting down, or rearranging the plan around?

Her threshold is surprisingly emotional.

AMBER LEWIS: "If it makes my heart skip a beat, I get it, even if I have no idea where it’s going.

I’ll buy something huge and expensive with zero client attached because I know it’s special, and more often than not it ends up being the anchor of a room built entirely around it.

What makes something worth the wait is usually the thing itself: real patina, a shape or scale you don’t see anymore, something a little weird that brings soul into a space."

And there it is again.

Patina. Shape. Scale. Weirdness.

The things she notices across the field are the same things she’s willing to change a room for.

Leave Room For A Plan To Change

We ended with a question about what Lewis hopes readers take from Interiors.

AMBER LEWIS: "That good design isn’t a straight line, and it isn’t supposed to be.

I want readers to walk away knowing the messy middle is the process, not a sign something’s gone wrong, and that patience and a willingness to let a plan shift are just as much a design skill as having a good eye.

If this book changes one thing, I hope it’s that people stop rushing their own homes and start trusting the timeline."

Maybe that’s the real art of the find.

Know enough to recognize the good thing. Stay open enough to be surprised by it. And don’t be in such a hurry to finish the room that you miss the piece that could change it.

Lewis's new book, Interiors book arrives just before the Fall Show. Consider it the perfect pre show prep, dialing in on the philosophy behind the rooms Lewis creates, and the perfect companion before your own day of sourcing Round Top Finds. You can order it here,

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Order Interiors Here, releasing 9/29