Become an AJ Shades Dealer in Blanco County

Blanco County is the Hill Country at its most photographed: about 11,400 people living where the Blanco River runs clear, the lavender fields bloom purple every summer, and the 290 corridor pours winery visitors through the county every weekend. Blanco calls itself the Lavender Capital of Texas, home to the first commercial lavender farm in the state and the annual Blanco Lavender Festival each June, and that tourism engine turns a small county into an outsized dealer market.

Johnson City, the county seat on the Pedernales River, anchors the east side with the LBJ National Historical Park, the boyhood home and ranch country of Lyndon B. Johnson drawing visitors year-round. Blanco, the river town, anchors the west with Blanco State Park, the historic 1885 limestone courthouse on the square, and Real Ale Brewing. Round Mountain and Hye fill out the map with tiny-community character that Hill Country buyers love.

The winery corridor is the commercial lane hiding in plain sight. The 290 stretch through the county is lined with tasting rooms, wedding venues, bed-and-breakfasts, and restaurants, and every one of them sells outdoor seating as part of the experience. Covered patios are revenue devices here, and our commercial program is built for exactly these accounts: tasting-room shade, venue covers, restaurant patios.

The small places complete the picture: Round Mountain, a hamlet of about a hundred people north of Johnson City with its historic cemetery and church; Hye on the 290 corridor; the Buggy Barn Museum; and Real Ale Brewing, the Hill Country craft brewery that draws its own destination traffic. This is a county where the side attractions are destinations in themselves, which means more hospitality accounts per capita than almost any county its size in Texas.

The residential market is pure Hill Country premium. Austin is about 45 minutes east, North San Antonio about 30 minutes south, which means the county gets metro wages on ranch-country acreage: second homes, weekend places, retirees, and families who moved for the views. They furnish patios like they furnish tasting rooms, to be seen and photographed.

The buying psychology is hospitality-grade. A B&B owner, a winery manager, and a second-home buyer all ask the same question: will it look beautiful in every season and survive the Hill Country sun and storm season? Sealed cassettes, Somfy-powered motors, wind sensors, and a 15-year factory warranty on awnings and power screens answer it completely.

Our factory’s in-house installation covers Southern California only, San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. In Blanco County, you own the install relationship: your crew or your trusted local contractors, with our measuring guidance, training, and technical support behind every job, and the installation margin stays in your pocket.