A Designer’s 10 Design Essentials: Megan Morton

Interior stylist and author Megan Morton shares her top 10 design essentials, which range from flea market finds to designer pieces.

Originally trained as a marketing director, Morton fell in love with interiors and styling, driven by a desire to help people navigate decision fatigue. “I work today with the manifesto that clutter is unresolved decisions,” she explains. Morton’s love of flea markets and auctions has influenced her collection, with many of her favourite pieces coming from these sources.

The first of Morton’s design essentials is stovetop coffee pots. “It’s an obsession for me, but a worthy one,” she says. “While these are placeholders, they are very gracious and very well loved. I can thoroughly recommend everyone go back to this simple purity.” Another of the designer’s essentials is the Harvest five-piece set, created by Megan Morton for Artedomus’ New Volumes. “They are independent pieces, but each has a double use.” For example, the cake stand becomes an antipasto grazing station and a vase becomes a coffee cup. “They are a suite of terracotta items that take up no space when concealed, but when revealed, get better with age.”

Next in Morton’s repertoire is A Dictionary of Color Combinations from Seigensha. “You will never need to watch Netflix with this book in your life,” she says. “A lot of people think colour and styling is a very loose form, but it actually works on really strict maths.” More books also feature, like Color and From Life by American photographer Sheila Metzner. “I feel so connected to these books because they taught me everything I know. These are the best books this side of the 20th century.”

Other essential items include the Ikebana Kenzan, otherwise known as a flower frog from Simply Native. “This tiny little spike formation comes in many different shapes and sizes and really lets you play DIY florists,” says Morton. The Selene limestone tile from Eco Outdoor also makes the cut. “This tile is so divine for hard surfaces, and the chequerboard possibilities are endless. Even though it’s a classic look, it’s a way to give a softness to hard-surface rooms.”

Something unexpected from Morton is a brass mouse that she found at a flea market and a kangaroo postcard her dad gave her when she was living overseas. She suggests that while people may feel embarrassed about owning inexpensive items, she emphasises that price and origin shouldn’t affect how we style or appreciate them. Only a few of Morton’s choices are designer or expensive. The most highbrow items she loves are the CornuFé 110cm dual fuel range cooker from La Cornue and the Illumination Study II table lamp by Bijoy Jain for Studio Mumbai. “The incredible wooden box, the little felt components and then this gorgeous, delicate parchment shade that sits atop this noble soapstone – that to me is just pure joy.” The 10 things Morton brought in; she didn’t even have to think about. To her, these items are life sources.