Tori Mellott
If you could have a second home anywhere, where would you live? Turks & Caicos but I’d settle for Amagansett.
Tell us about your childhood bedroom? My childhood bedroom is perfectly intact – it’s like a 1980’s Period Room complete with A CONAIR clock radio phone. It’s teeming with the some of the greats who shrewdly licensed their names in the 80’s to wallpaper, bedding, and fabric companies – think Laura Ashley and Ralph Lauren. My room is swathed in a thin pink and white striped wallpaper with 4” floral border, wall-to-wall carpeting, a four-poster bed and lots of brown furniture. I love it and I’m never changing it.
What’s the first investment piece you ever bought for your house? I don’t remember which one was first, but I bought Christopher Spitzmiller lamps and a Niermann Weeks coffee table – I still have and cherish both. My children have destroyed the black laquer finish and gilded accents on the coffee table, but I am planning on having it restored once the girls turn 30 and they can no longer wreak havoc.
In the history of design, if you could hire any designer, who would it be? Frederic Mechiche or Billy Baldwin – depends on whose number is lower.
No room is complete without Art.
People think of me as liking lots of tchotchkes and accessories, but I am really, a minimalist with too small of a living space.
Things you omit from:
A flower arrangement: Split leaf philodendron
An hors d’oeuvre platte: Seafood
A bar cabinet: A lock
A song for:
Dinner at home: Anything by Astrud Gilberto
Working at your desk: None – I need total silence in order to concentrate!
Going for a run : Rasputin by Majestic and Boney M.
Biggest Vice? Instagram and Red Hot potato chips.
If you were on an Ambien high and internet shopping, what would you buy? Every piece of china available on Live Auctioneers, which would make me flush in dessert plates. Dinner plates are harder to find.
Do your clothes reflect your design sensibility, if so, how? I am a walking billboard for how I decorate – bows, small floral prints, color, ruffles, covered buttons, stripes…this list is never ending!
Who is your star crush? Are we talking “have the hots for” crush or are we talking “I admire them crush”??? Celebrity men sort of gross me out. They’re almost always miniature in real life. I prefer athletes - Danny Amendola, CJ Wilson, James Blake, and Felciano Lopez, just to name a few.
What is the one thing you would never decorate your home with, but don’t detest when you see others do it? Quilts.
If there were a fire, and you could only keep one design book, what would it be? Probably my Horst. P. Horst book.
For posterity, what would you like your work to be known for? Producing beautiful stories and beautiful videos for a host of revered and respected media outlets.
A Few Favorites:
Movie: Stepbrothers
Book: Devil in the White City
Scent: Byredo Gypsy Water
The fabric you always come back to: Bunny by Schumacher
Dream project: My very own real house, in the suburbs, on a cul-de-sac, with multiple levels, many, many rooms, a pool, and maybe even an obnoxious three car garage filled with obnoxious cars!
Meal: Chick-Fil-A Spicy chicken sandwich, Bananas Foster, a side of Pastis French fries, a diet coke, and a very, very dirty gin martini up with extra olives.
Drink: Very, very dirty gin martini up with extra olives. And no Henricks, please – it’s swill!
Hotel: Samode Haveli, Jaipur
Travel Destination: Amalfi Coast
Artist: Alive: Will Cotton, Dead: Salvador Dali
A cause near and dear to me: It’s not a cause but a school – Perkins Institute for the Blind and generally any cause that champions seeing people with disabilities differently; we have such outdated ideas and attitudes regarding how we see and treat disabled people. If you want to know more, there’s a great IG account I follow called @disabilityreframed.
Thing to collect obsessively: China, glasses, linens, silverware, stationery, and books.
Era in the history of design: Art Deco
Museum: Musee d’Orsay
Paint Color that always looks great: Farrow & Ball Pink Ground
Favorite person to follow on Instagram: I don’t have just one - I love following @Leahoconnelldesign and @janefrenchhome for inspirational content – I feel like I share a brain with them. And @Elizabethdemontfortwalker for original content, @maxsinsteden for entertaining goals.
Dogs, Cats, or No Pets? No pets currently but I’d love a Golden Doodle or a Shiba Inu or an Australian Shepherd!
