Anywhere you look at Pottery Ranch in Marble Falls is going to have something that catches your eye. Staff photos by Dakota Morrissiey
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of an occasional series on unique shopping experiences in the Highland Lakes.
If you’re in the market for a 12-foot-tall metal sculpture of Don Quixote, a herd of artificial longhorns, enormous clay pots, fields of iron bluebonnets, or handcrafted furniture from far-flung corners of the world, there’s only one place to go in the Highland Lakes: Pottery Ranch.
The sprawling home-and-garden decor store at 6000 U.S. 281 North in Marble Falls has a wide array of wares worth browsing and buying.
Pottery Ranch is hard to miss, with enormous sculptures of cowboys, dinosaurs, armadillos, and more lining the highway just north of town. While these metal megaliths draw shoppers to the parking lot, they’re only a taste of the store’s offerings, outside and inside.
As the name suggests, there’s plenty of pottery of all shapes, sizes, and materials as well as downhome Texas furnishings. But you’ll also find exotic goods sourced from around the world, like teak furniture from Thailand, famous Vietnamese pottery, carved idols from Indonesia, and dinnerware from India.
The eclectic collection is carefully crafted by the man behind the curtain: Scott Kilpatrick.
“My house looks like Pottery Ranch,” he joked with 101HighlandLakes.com.
Kilpatrick opened the original Pottery Ranch in Fredericksburg in 1998, which is still there today, and the Marble Falls location shortly after in 2000. He has been steadily building his inventory for years, amassing a suite of interesting, hilarious, beautiful, and high-quality products that somehow all work together to create the “Pottery Ranch Experience.”
It isn’t all sculptures and furniture. Pottery Ranch has a deep selection of nearly every knick-knack and trinket you could think of, and probably plenty you’ve never imagined.
The store bills itself as “quite possibly the coolest store ever” and the “Texas World Headquarters.”
Kilpatrick’s inspiration came from a meshing of the traditional home decor store Pottery Barn and the massive King Ranch in South Texas, but not many people pick up on the idea behind the name. His hope was that visitors could find something to remind them of their trip to the state’s scenic, rustic Hill Country.
Whatever the initial vision, Pottery Ranch has taken on its own identity, offering off-the-wall products like a 10-foot-tall metal cutout of what can only be described as a “she-squatch” alongside elegant handmade pottery.
“Its the ultimate rustic furniture store with Texas flair, but inspiration from all over the world,” Kilpatrick said.
Whether you’re shopping for a gift, decking out your home or property, or just stopping by to see what that giant jackalope is all about, you’re going to have a good time.
Pottery Ranch is located at 6000 U.S. 281 North in Marble Falls. It is open daily from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Visit potteryranch.net or call 830-693-0100 for more information.
