This week’s The Skirted Roundtable discusses the demise of Metropolitan Home and design magazines in general. We also talk about their last cover picture with very differing opinions. Metropolitan Home had a long, successful run, first starting out as Apartment Life in the early 70’s – a magazine I read religiously as I was an apartment dweller myself. Aw, what great memories of my first apartment after college where I lived alone. I stayed there for about 7 or 8 years – until I moved uptown into a condo with gorgeous slate floors. I loved that condo – too bad I can’t say the same about my first apartment:
Stop laughing! OK – pick yourself up off the floor now. Here’s my first apartment as a young, single, working woman in Houston during the late 70s – over 30 years ago. Isn’t it just so pretty? In the living room, I floated two white love seats – upholstered in some type of textured acrylic fabric – no slipcovers back then. What gorgeous pink and green pillows those are! Oy. The coffee table is actually nice and was a hand me down from my parents. On the left is an antique French buffet that was bought for my older sister’s first married apartment and was another hand me down. I’m not sure whatever happened to that piece, it was most likely sold somewhere along the way, I suppose. The carpet is rather beautiful, no? Typical apartment beige variety - certainly not wall to wall seagrass. Please be sure to notice the wonderful window treatments – Aunt Poly and Aunt Esther creamy lace, I’m sure! I’m especially loving the lone cactus. In the corner hiding behind a fugly wicker screen was a white metal shelf unit that held my record albums – all neatly stored inside individual plastic wrappers that I would buy by the dozens. Those albums were my prized possessions at the time. At some point, the shelf unit moved across the room – to a better spot, much less conspicuous – as if it mattered. Back then, storing bulky albums was really a decorating dilemma somewhat like hiding huge televisions used to be before the flat screen came out.
Phew! What a stinker! And to think that I actually thought this apartment was cute!!!! I still have a few accessories from this picture – the Baccarat cigarette holder (the ashtray was lost somewhere) and the antique pink candy jar sitting on top of the buffet are both in my house today. The pink jar is from England and came from my mother’s antique shop, “The Attic.” In the dining room, I had a skirted table, yes – my love of skirted tables go way back. My bedroom was painted blue and was a vision in more white lace with a faux canopy. There was yet another skirted table in my bedroom between two chairs that sat in front of the “bay” window. Hard to believe I was a budding interior designer – maybe that’s why I took a detour and worked as a secretary until I finally found someone to marry me at the tender age of 33! No wonder why I read Apartment Life religiously – I certainly needed some tips.
This week’s Skirted Roundtable is ready for listening HERE. Our next program will be the last of just Megan, Linda, and me for a while – we have some fabulous guests scheduled in the upcoming weeks and you will love them, I guarantee! But – if you prefer hearing the three of us alone – now’s your chance.
And, please – don’t show this picture of my first apartment to anyone! It’s quite embarrassing. Just keep it between us, ok?
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