Name: Shelley Morris
Company Name: Shelley Morris Interiors
Position Within Company: Owner/CEO
Website: shelleymorrisinteriors.com
Tell us a little about your background in design:
I originally graduated FIT in Graphic Design in 1979, although at the time I was much more interested in fashion design. When I entered the workforce at a commercial design firm, it quickly confirmed my lack of enthusiasm for my chosen major. I left that job and went to night school to try my hand at professional photo styling, which led to a stint working for Macy’s NY photo studio and eventually the Bloomingdales design department. While at Bloomingdales, I was given an opportunity to join their executive placement program.
Fast forward to the mid 1980’s when my husband and I (along with my young daughter) found our first home in northern Westchester County, NY. At that time, I had left Bloomingdales and became very interested in taking on the challenge of decorating my first home. That led to a return to education, as I began taking classes in interior design at the local high school. As I began the course, a light bulb came on – this is what I was meant to do. Thus began my three-decade plus career in interior design. I went back to school for a formal education at Parsons in NYC while designing my own home and slowly picking up clients in the neighboring areas. I’ve never looked back or worked for another design firm, but I continued to educate myself. Along with taking seminars and additional classes locally, I began to travel and take immersion courses abroad and throughout Europe and parts of North Africa. I developed an unquenchable thirst for knowledge around all things design and architecture.
As I built my business, clients returned for requests to do second and third homes across the United States. In the 30 years of Shelley Morris Interiors, I’ve worked on hundreds of projects across states and styles. I’ve also used myself as my own guinea pig, purchasing and re-designing homes to test new aesthetics. Those projects involved not only my interior design skills but stretched me even further to learn more about architecture as well as garden design. Practicing these new skills allowed me to provide my clients with the “complete home” – bringing together the interior and exterior too create a truly integrated space. There is nothing more satisfying to me than developing a project to completion (both inside and outside) whether it is a client home or my own. My goal is always to create a place that is comfortable, functional and above all else expresses the needs and character of the people living there.