The Found Cottage Mercantile Market: What to Expect and How to Shop It

There is something special about getting in the car with two of your friends and driving from Illinois to Holland, Michigan, over Labor Day weekend.

The Found Cottage Mercantile Market is held at the Ottawa County Fairgrounds in Holland every Labor Day weekend, and this was my third time going. Once with Handy. Once by myself. And this time with two of my blogging friends, Michele and Wendy, which was by far my favorite trip.

If you have been wondering whether this market is worth the drive. Whether the VIP tickets are worth the money. Or what on earth do you need to bring? Then this is the post for you and one I wish someone had written before my first visit. I’m going to walk you through what the market is actually like. How to shop it. Where we stayed and ate in Holland and every other thing we did on this trip.

Thank goodness my car has an option to see out the rearview mirror even when the car is packed to the ceiling. We definitely had to use that feature on our way home.

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What Is the Found Cottage Mercantile Market?

The Found Cottage Mercantile Market is a curated vintage and antique market held each Labor Day weekend at the Ottawa County Fairgrounds in Holland, Michigan. It is put on by the three women who own The Found Cottage, a vintage/antique shop in Hudsonville, MI. It is made up of more than 140 vendors and draws crowds of up to 10,000 shoppers.

Here is the thing that sets it apart from other markets I’ve been to; it’s very curated. They do not let just anyone have a booth. Most of the vendors come from around the Midwest, with a handful traveling in from farther out. The quality is consistent in a way that a flea market or general antique mall simply is not.

I will put it more bluntly than the official website ever would: you will not find knitted doll clothes at this event.

What you will find is well-priced authentic vintage and antiques. Furniture, ironstone, transferware, artwork, mirrors, frames, books, baskets, textiles, smalls of every description, antique garden finds, and architectural salvage, along with a bit of clothing, jewelry, cards, and plants around the edges.

One more thing worth noting, all three owners of The Found Cottage, Liz Marie, Abby, and Lisa, were on site both days, walking the aisles and talking to people. These remarkable ladies are so approachable and down-to-earth. That tells you something about how this market is run.

Hours: General admission runs Friday 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. and Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. VIP ticket holders have exclusive access to the market on Friday at 2:00 p.m., and Saturday at 8:00 a.m.

Are the VIP Tickets Worth It?

Yes, worth every penny, and I say that as someone who thinks hard before spending $85 + a $4 transaction fee on tickets getting me through a gate three hours early.

There are three different ticket levels, and the difference between them is a lot, so telling you they were worth every penny is my very honest appraisal and that of my friends.

These are the prices from the year we last went. Always check the market’s official site before you buy.

Here is what the VIP tickets actually bought us.

We pulled in around 2:30 on Friday, walked straight up to the gate, and got a front-row parking spot. No line to get in. They have limited the amount of VIP tickets that are available, so there was definitely room to move. We were able to stand in front of a booth and look at it. We could evaluate our finds before purchasing. Talking with the vendors was so much more relaxed, and they were available to chat. We could measure and evaluate for the most part. A few items we walked away from and thought about, and they were still available when we went back.

The biggest plus is that we had first dibs. This is what your money is buying—three hours with 140+ vendors’ curated booths before the masses have been through the market.

We had been through the whole market by 5:00 when the next wave of buyers were lined up to enter.

What to Expect at the Market

Parking and Getting In

Parking is easy, and they run a genuinely smooth operation, with people directing traffic and making sure cars move along and park in a way to make sure it’s just as easy to get out. I have parked farther out and also in a back entrance lot when I had general admission day, and it was still fine, just a longer walk back to the car with a loaded wagon.

How the Two Days Are Different

Friday is a late afternoon/evening event. With the VIP limited ticket allowing you to enter early on Friday afternoon. The next wave enters at 5:00. I’ve experienced both, and when I entered at 5:00 before, I thought it was a great option, but it can’t beat the VIP admission. Saturday, if you have the VIP tickets, you can get in from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. At 9:00 it is all holds barred as the general admission floods the event. It can get a bit nutty if you are only coming in on Saturday.

My suggestion is to let the crowds get in and come an hour later. Alternatively, get here really early, 8:00 a.m. or sooner, and be at the front of the general admission line. The good news is that all the vendors restock their booths for most of the market. I often wonder what I didn’t see by getting in early???

Food and Drinks

There are food trucks on site. We had eaten a late lunch on Friday, so we skipped them, but we did buy homemade lemonade, which was excellent. It was so refreshing at the end of the afternoon after walking most of the market in heat, humidity, and sun. We brought our water bottles with us, and we are so glad we did.

My Best Tips for Shopping the Found Cottage Mercantile Market

What to Bring

1. Cash: They suggest cash, as card service can be spotty, but we found that everyone was able to take our cards. We had cash with us, and some vendors didn’t charge us sales tax if we used cash.
2. A wagon: Not a suggestion, a wagon is a must. You are on fair grounds, and you’re walking a lot of ground. Ironstone can get heavy fast. With three of us buying, we were able to leave some of our heavy purchases at the booths. Be sure to take their card and write down on it where their booth is.
3. A tape measure: We weren’t looking for large items and knew we couldn’t get large items in our car. However, if you are looking for a larger piece of furniture, make sure you have a tape measure.
4. Your room dimensions: The wall, the shelf, and the space beside the sofa. Put your measurement in your notes app on your phone.
5. A list of what you are hunting for: The market can be overwhelming, so keeping a list of what you are hunting for keeps you on track.
6. Tote bags: A tote bag is essential for your smalls.
7. Sunscreen and a Water Bottle.
8. An umbrella and rain gear—We needed it!

Go Early or Go Late?

Go early. Even with the VIP ticket, we did not get there until 2:30, and I wish we had been standing at the gate at 2:00 on the dot. Thirty minutes does not sound like much until you are watching the general admission crowd stream in at 5:00 and realize there were two booths at the far end you never made it to. Or a booth you wanted to look at again is now jam-packed.

The tradeoff people talk about is selection versus price. Go early and you get first pick. Go late on Saturday, and vendors are more willing to deal rather than pack it back into the truck. I would rather have the first pick, personally. You cannot negotiate on a piece somebody else already bought.

How to Navigate the Fairgrounds

We started at the main entrance and went down the Row 1 on the right, then headed to the barn with indoor vendors. After we shopped the barn, we came back and walked up Row 2 on the right. Then back down Row 3 on the right and up Row 4 on the right. Finishing with Row 5 on the right and Row 6 on the right. This method kept us from missing any booths and blocking people.

Did we occasionally see something we just had to check out on the other row? Yes, and we crossed over, but we tried our best to stick to our planned route.

Everyone who was there early was patient and kind, and that set the whole tone.

How to Negotiate Without Being That Person

Ask politely if there is any flexibility on a piece. My personal line is “What is the best you can do?” Then accept the answer! If I know I’m getting a good deal, I never even ask. These are dealers who curated, cleaned, and hauled every single item in that booth. A fair offer is fine, but nickel and diming somebody over a nine dollar jar is not.

Getting Your Finds Home

Measure your car before you leave home and put those measurements into your notes app.

Here is a picture of the car before and after. We filled every square inch. If I had been hunting for furniture, we would have brought Handy’s truck.

They do have a delivery service on-site. However, you need to weigh the cost of shipping things home with the cost of the piece and decide if you love it enough that you just can’t leave it behind. Or you pass it up and know you will find something similar closer to home. That was the case with two chairs that Michele saw and knew they wouldn’t fit in the overhead compartment on the plane.

The Mistake I Will Avoid Next Time

We were not prepared for rain.

It poured all day on Friday right up until we got to the market. We ended up making an unexpected stop at Walmart for umbrellas and rain boots, which is not how we wanted to spend the morning.

We checked the forecast before we left, but weather can change on a dime near Lake Michigan. Throw boots and an umbrella in the car just in case. This is an outdoor market on fairgrounds. It is rain or shine, and tickets are non-refundable.

What We Brought Home From the Market

This is the fun part.

My Finds

• Red Transferware (Bowl and Pitcher): $30
• Six old Martha Stewart magazines: $28 for all
• Large ironstone tureen with matching platter: $85
• Large wicker gathering basket: $24
• Old Royal Doulton Peter Rabbit child’s bowl: $12.50
• Framed antique child’s nursery print: $12
• Two bundles of crab apple branches: $12 (I should have passed on this one—it did not travel well, and I could have gotten these at home for free)

Michele’s Finds

• Rare brown Alfred Meakin “Charlotte” transferware: 2 dinner plates and 3 cups with saucers: $39 for all
• Old landscape print in an outstanding frame with old wavy glass
• Two vintage toile floral pillows: $100
• Old floral drapery panel
• Old Longaberger key basket

Wendy’s Finds

• Old tin tray with a pastoral scene
• Small ironstone tureen with plate and lid
• Very old fishing basket with the bait tin attached
• A pile of small wicker baskets
• Old Longaberger key basket

Most of what I bought is already working its way into my house and you’ll see them on my upcoming Fall Home Tour.

And two of my favorite things from the whole trip are not on this list, because I didn’t find them at the market. More on that to come.

Make a Weekend of It: Holland, Michigan

Here is the thing about this market. It is worth the drive on its own, but Holland is worth the drive too. Add two besties into the mix, and you’ve got the making of a great weekend.

Getting There: A Vintage Detour Along the Lake Michigan Shore

We came up from Illinois around the bottom of the lake and then north along the shoreline. If you want to build in some treasure hunting on the way, get off I-94 East at Exit 4B toward New Buffalo and work your way up through Harbor Country.

Learn from our mistake here. We drove up on a Thursday, and a lot of the shops were closed, because most of them are open Friday through Sunday. If I did it again, I would drive straight up and hit these places on the way home instead. We followed along Red Arrow Highway for most of our trip to Holland. GPS is usually your friend for road trips, but it tries to take you back to the main highway. We depended on an old-fashioned map for this trip, and it was very useful. We talked about what a learning experience it would be for kids to learn how to use a paper map!

The Stray Dog Bar & Grill: New Buffalo, Michigan

Our first stop was to grab some lunch at the Stray Dog Bar & Grill. This was a great little spot on a marina. The food was good and just what we needed to get us started on our hunt!

The Blue Anchor

This shop had some cute things, and the prices were reasonable. This is where Wendy made the very first purchase on our trip, a plaid blanket she is going to use as a tablecloth. Not old, but exactly right.

Harbert Antique Mall

We thought most things in this shop were overpriced overall. I did find a vintage English china child’s ”Old MacDonald Had a Farm“ dish for $10, which was a win for this stop. It’s my grandson’s favorite song, and the bowl is now his most requested dish at home.

There was another store across from the Harbert Antique Mall. We don’t remember the name and we didn’t buy anything there.

Where We Stayed in Holland

We rented a cozy Airbnb right in town, and it was the right call. Three bedrooms, two baths, a well-appointed kitchen, and minutes from everything we wanted to do.

Honestly, we mostly used it to sleep, because we were out every day from morning until night. But on our last night we stayed in, made a charcuterie dinner out of everything we bought that morning, and sat out on the cute front porch with a swing and Adirondack chairs.

That was my favorite night of the trip. It was so relaxing. We washed our faces and put on our sweats and talked about all of our vintage finds over a glass or two of wine.

Downtown Holland and the Saturday Farmers Market

Saturday morning we hit the Holland Farmers Market at Eighth Street Marketplace, which is right downtown and runs close to a hundred vendors in season. We came away with several different cheeses, a pile of vegetables, and a loaf of rosemary sourdough, all of which would become our dinner later that evening.

Then we walked around downtown. The students of Hope College had just gone back to school, so the sidewalks were mostly filled with students and parents and that particular first-week-of-school energy, which honestly made the whole morning more fun.

We found cute cards and souvenirs at the Apothecary Gift Shop. More gourmet goodies for the charcuterie board came from Lulu Cadieux on West 8th, a French-inspired luxury boutique that is part shop, part design studio, and part gourmet market. This is the kind of place I could have spent an entire afternoon in. And at Downtown Antiques & Home Furnishings on River Avenue, Michele found a few more brown transferware plates to go with her market haul.

A Thrift Store, a Garage Sale, and Another Great Hour of Our Trip

We headed to The Biscuit for breakfast and were told it would be an hour wait. So we did what any reasonable group of women would do with an unexpected free hour in an unfamiliar town. We went thrifting.

The plan was a thrift store called Ditto Upscale Resale over on East 8th Street. But on the way there we spotted a garage sale. My car, knowing the mission, pulled over and stopped on its own.

We are glad we stopped. The woman hosting it had used antique quilts to embellish second-hand finds, which is such a great idea. She had clearly timed her sale to the mercantile market, as the first thing she asked us was, “Had we been to the show?“ Wendy found an antique folding drying rack, which she is going to use to dry flowers in her greenhouse. Michele scored two of the quilt-enhanced pieces: a jean jacket and a jean shirt.

Then we made it to Ditto, and I’m so glad we went to this little gem. Michele found a beautiful cornucopia basket that she absolutely loved but knew she could never get it home. So I became its owner. A $38 score, and it’s going to be so fun on a fall table filled with fall bounty.

I also found a small Flow Blue jar with the lid still on it for $9. This is my best yet flow blue score—price-wise. I’m pretty happy about that.

The Clock

And then there was the clock. A Mora-style grandfather clock that I fell in love with. As luck would have it, no matter how we measured the car, we couldn’t make it work short of leaving Michele and Wendy in Michigan. As luck would have it, I found one that I liked better here at home on Facebook Marketplace. This kind of thing only happens when you let something go that just wasn’t going to work.

We got back to The Biscuit right as they called our names.

The Found Cottage Store in Hudsonville

Once our tummies were full from one of the best breakfasts we had, we headed to The Found Cottage store. This is the shop that is owned by the three women who host The Found Cottage Mercantile Market. They are the remarkable creators who dreamed up the amazing market!

I would put this on your list even if you are not coming for market weekend. My first visit was after my first visit to the market, and the store at that time was so small. Maybe 1/4 of its current size.

It’s a lovely store to just wander. It’s comprised of vendor booths, but you wouldn’t really know that as the style and the curated blend are so seamless. There are numerous antiques and vintage items with a smattering of new vintage looks mixed in. There is also small shop clothing along with great gifts strategically placed around the store. If you’re a sucker for great home decorating books like me, you won’t be disappointed.

We all found things we loved at The Found Cottage store. I would say that my favorite purchase of the whole weekend was a vintage fruit-based lamp that I found. It looks almost exactly like the one Liz Marie has in her home.

Building a Farmers Market Charcuterie Board

This was my favorite meal of the trip, and we made it ourselves on the last night.

The base came straight from the Holland Farmers Market that morning, and we added salami, a jar of marinated artichoke hearts, and a jar of dried tomato jam that we got from the gourmet section at Lulu Cadieux. We filled in the gaps with crackers, olives, and a bottle of wine from D&W Fresh Market.

A board put together from a farmers market is a special kind of dinner. No one had to cook, and we were able to graze all evening.

Where to Eat in Holland, Michigan

Boatwerks

Boatwerks sits right on Lake Macatawa in Holland, and it was where we ate our first night’s dinner. They do not take reservations in the busy season, so we got there at 6:00, and waited, but it was worth the wait. We grabbed a glass of wine and headed out to the patio. We watched everything from yachts to Sea-Doos on the lake. When we were seated, we were lucky enough to have a west-facing window table and watched the sun go down over dinner. We all had seafood, and each dish was delicious.

Seventy Six

Seventy Six is on 8th Street in Downtown Holland. We had made reservations for this restaurant before we left Illinois. This one was worth a reservation. We visited on Friday night and were hungry after only having an early lunch before heading to the market. They seated us the minute we walked in.

We did what girlfriends do, which is order three different things and get plates to share our meals around the table. Once again we opted for seafood but added pasta and lemon chicken to the mix. It was so yummy.

Windmill Restaurant

The Windmill on 8th Street in downtown Holland is where the locals go for breakfast. It’s your quintessential diner. There was a line outside, but it wasn’t long, and as people came out saying, “It’s worth the wait”, they weren’t wrong. The portions were enormous, and they are known for their hash brown omelet for a reason. I, personally, chose to have lunch because we were there around noon. The tomato soup with an egg salad sandwich on homemade white bread brought me right back to my childhood!

The Biscuit

The Biscuit over on Washington Avenue was our other breakfast spot, and it is a completely different feel, location-wise, than the Windmill. It’s in a neighborhood and kind of off the beaten path. Parking was so easy compared to downtown.

Their biscuits are the whole point! OH MY GOODNESS! I am so glad that I got the biscuits and gravy. A breakfast favorite of mine, but this was the best that I’ve ever tasted. Michele ordered the French toast with a lemon cream topping, and we shared our meal. I’m not a sweet person, but this was so delicious. I was a member of the clean plate club that morning! Wendy, who was so good about her meals, had an egg white Spanish omelet, and she said it was delicious. Also served with their famous biscuits—we couldn’t stop talking about them.

Our Last Stop on the Way Out of Town on Sunday

On our way out we stopped at The Wooden Shoe Antique Mall, which has a restaurant of the same name attached to it. We put our name in for breakfast and then shopped for a solid hour before they called us. Such a smart concept because we weren’t mad one bit about being able to shop their vast antique market while waiting for a table.

Is the Found Cottage Mercantile Market Worth the Trip?

I have been there three times now, and there is a reason. I have been to many markets, including Round Top in Texas, and this is by far my favorite market for many reasons.

If you love antiques and vintage, this is the best vintage market, and I don’t say that lightly. The curation is what does it. Somebody made real decisions about who gets a booth, and you feel it on every aisle. They would rather have fewer vendors than fill the spaces just to fill them, and I appreciate that.

You will find mostly high-quality antique/vintage pieces mixed in with a bit of some plants, clothing, jewelry, and such.

If you aren’t a fan of antiques or vintage, then this isn’t the market for you. That’s a perfectly fine thing to know before you drive four hours to visit.

We paid for the VIP tickets, and if we said it once, we said it ten times! It was worth every penny!

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