Margaret's Moving Back to The City

Back Home Again. For A While.

By now you probably know that I am moving back to The City. Yes, THE CITY. There can be only one and I will be taking no comments on that at this time, thank you. I was born in Manhattan. It’s in my blood and you cannot change my mind that there is a more entertaining, endearing, wild, glamorous, and yet somehow dirty place in the world. I love that town.

 

Looking Back

Before I had The Summer House, I lived in the city for five really fun post-grad years. I was in my early and mid twenties and worked my buns off climbing the corporate ladder at Martha Stewart. I met some of my best friends at that company and we lovingly joke about it being our true Alma Mater. When I realized I wanted to strike out on my own, I decided the best place to do this was in the suburbs, and thus, I moved out to Connecticut.

Discovering antiques in Connecticut

I’ve spent eight years out in Connecticut. Most of those years were dedicated to the shop. Working six and seven days a week, I loved the store and all it taught me. Now mostly I love it for leading me to antiques. Antiques are my passion. My obsession. I want to talk about them, learn about them, look at them, buy them, sell them, and make the world see them the way I do.

My love of decorative antiques

Antiques are treasures, but probably not in the way you think. Modern Antiquarian works with decorative antiques, and those are the kind of antiques that are meant to be lived with. Meant to be used and repurposed. Getting nicked and scuffed and banged up is exactly what they are made for. They were made to last and built to hold up to being repaired. They tie us to the past, but in a way they liberate us from this constant pursuit of perfection that is so pervasive. It’s ok not to be perfect. It’s ok to live in an imperfect and honestly loved home. The battle wounds antiques might have are part of their story, just like my battle wounds are part of my story. Maybe like yours, too.

 

Opening doors with Modern Antiquarian

I decided to close The Summer House and pursue selling antiques full time and launch Modern Antiquarian. A lot of doors opened and allowed us to move beyond the restraints of brick and mortar and start really traveling again. I was able to leave for a few weeks at a time to buy across Europe or to drive down to Texas. What I didn’t expect out of this new found freedom was that it forced me to think about what I really wanted. Suddenly, I had an opportunity to shape my life the exact way I envisioned. But what was my vision for my personal life?

Back to my roots

There is a lot more to this story about health, love, and family that I’ll share another time, but for now I’ll say during this time of reflection one of the things I realized was that this new business model allowed me to live wherever I want. An opportunity to go back home and enjoy The City, my city, in a whole new way and from a new perspective.

So back I go. Back to Manhattan. The town I was born in. The town I got my real education in. Back to my first love, The City. It’ll be nice to be home again. At least for a while.