The Interior Life Of: Melissa Morris
For someone who designs luxury leather bags for women on the go, it’s surprising to learn that Métier founder Melissa Morris is a self-described ‘homebody’. ‘I’m someone who needs to be at home,’ she admits, noting that her favourite pastimes include cooking, and meeting friends at the pub. ‘My flat is very minimal but warm, with lots of soft textures, candles and incense – a place you want to curl up inside.’
Finding comfort in small spaces is an art Morris learnt from her childhood growing up on the outskirts of Philadelphia. ‘I’m the youngest of two so I got the smallest room, which I loved. It was my own little nook, and I developed a love of cosy corners,’ she says, recalling covering her walls in milk adverts, as well as Nirvana and Pearl Jam posters. Her ceiling, meanwhile, was decorated with glow-in-the-dark stars. ‘I used to jump on my bed and stick them on. My mum was terrified I’d hurt myself.’
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Today, home is a ground-floor apartment in a three-storey building on a ‘really beautiful and leafy’ street in Notting Hill, which Morris moved into in August 2023. ‘It has big windows and high ceilings,’ she says, highlighting the flat’s unusual U-shaped floorplan. Its location is within walking distance of her ‘sanctuaries’ – yoga studios Love Supreme Projects and Heartcore – as well as eateries such as Klear Labs and Straker’s. ‘When you become an entrepreneur, you either go off the rails or just get really into health,’ she jokes of her devotion to wellness.
A lover of neutrals (she’s wearing vintage Levi’s jeans and an oversized grey cashmere jumper), Morris kept most of her home white – except for one wall in the conservatory, which is painted a muted sky blue. Morris found the colour, which she likens to the Gotland Suede hue Métier launched last summer, in Paris’ Le Marais neighbourhood, before locating its stockist in Marylebone’s interiors haven Caravane. ‘Even in the winter, when it’s dark and grey, it feels a bit magical,’ she says of the brightly lit, glass-roofed space.
Morris launched Métier in 2017 with the goal of making handcrafted, functional-yet-luxurious travel accessories, which are now carried by celebrities such as Katie Holmes, Nicole Kidman and Kate Middleton. Travel forms a fundamental part of the designer’s interiors aesthetic, which is an amalgamation of vintage finds and holiday souvenirs. Her most treasured trinkets include a fish plate, bought in the south of France after a friend’s wedding and hung up in an alcove, mismatched kitchen bowls from Oaxaca and Japan and a tapestry purchased in Puglia last year that hangs in her bedroom. ‘That’s what makes a house a home – when it doesn’t look like it was created by an interior designer; rather, it’s yours and individual.’
Committed to the idea that ‘decorating should be a lifelong pursuit’, she credits her astute eye for interiors to her love affair with sculpture and an appreciation for the icons of the design world, including the French architect Charlotte Perriand. A sculpture and business graduate of Atlanta’s Emory University, Morris has amassed an inspiring collection of chairs over the years. Pierre Paulin’s squiggle-shaped Tongue design, a Flag Halyard chair by Hans Wegner and baby-blue satellite seats sourced from Chelsea’s Portuondo Gallery that ‘look like they’re from 2001: A Space Odyssey’ all sit proudly in her living room. ‘Chairs are sculptural and make me think about how art can be useful,’ Morris explains.
Morris’s appreciation of design also makes for an impressive assortment of vintage furniture, whether it’s the heavy, asymmetric dark-brown wood bookshelf in her lounge or the thick black wooden slab kitchen table, purchased at the Marché aux Puces de Saint- Ouen in Paris. ‘I love mixing brown and black,’ she says of the colour contrast, noting that the chairs surrounding the piece are slim in width but still, above all, comfortable for guests. ‘There’s nothing worse than going to someone’s house for dinner and sitting in an awkward chair.’
In addition to investing in art, whether it’s pieces from the likes of Wolfgang Tillmans and Al Taylor or prints by Vivian Suter and Ruth Asawa, Morris believes a bed is one of the best purchases to splurge on. ‘Sleep is so important,’ she says, adding that her Savoir bed is topped with a headboard she created, which was inspired by a photo of Jane Birkin sitting in an old chair. ‘My friend, the British interior designer Sophie Ashby, put me in touch with a contractor who made the headboard out of bouclé fabric after I sent him my sketches,’ she says.
The pièce de résistance of Morris’s home is, undoubtedly, her walk-in wardrobe, which houses cherished items such as her Michel Vivien Emerance boots, double-faced Céline cashmere cocoon coats and vintage finds from Rellik. Making up the room’s eclectic mix of furniture is a dresser, also from the Marché aux Puces, a ‘bizarre’ tapestry chair and an antique mirror: ‘I picked it up in 2006 when I lived in San Francisco. It has travelled the world with me.’ We can only imagine the interiors treasures Morris will acquire after a trip to Egypt with friends for her birthday, planned for later this year. ‘I travel a lot but rarely for myself, so this will be fun.’
This article appears in the June issue of ELLE UK, out now.
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