melissa's adventures
How Did I Get Here?
Do you ever take a look at your life and wonder, how did I get here I show individuals and companies how they can realize success by their own design. I know inside and out how to achieve this because I have led a life of continual reinvention and adventure. With a progression of careers, I learned early on what it takes to architect your dreams, design your desired experiences, build your strategies and support systems for success, so that your life is decorated with limitless rewards and extraordinary results. The bits here are just highlights from my unique and ongoing journey. . . join me on the path of a life of passion and purpose.
Drifted South
I have made the South my home for the last 15 years, but was born and raised on the West Coast and have fond memories of being a sun worshipper and occasional surfer. I still smile at memories of the lime green room with sky blue ceiling and white shag from my junior high school years. It was very cool for the day! We moved often growing up, giving me a ready sense of adaptability and a head start on my philosophy of moveable furnishings.
A Nomadic Childhood and the Legacy
My mother was Academy Award winning actress Anne Baxter, but to me she was simply "Mom." By sixth grade I had moved within Los Angeles four times – Belair, Barrington, Westwood, and Brentwood - and spent fifth grade in a Manhattan brownstone while Mom graced the stage in “Applause, Applause.” Summers and holidays were divided between trips to visit Dad and his extended family in Hawaii, and Mother's folks in Arizona.
Thanksgivings were typically spent at Taliesin, the Western Home base that great-grandfather, Frank Lloyd Wright, had designed.
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Sailing with Friends in the Virgin Islands |
A Cadillac Named Babar
Mom was working a lot, often on the set or location by 5am and home after 10pm. We didn’t see her a lot except for a month in the summer when Mom took off and we all piled into our car, a deep blue giant Cadillac called Babar, and headed out to national parks and monuments. Adventures like the white water rafting trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River for a week, or sailing for two weeks in the Caribbean with a handful of friends, were squeezed between the requisite month at summer sleep away camp and a couple of weeks visiting Dad in Hawaii.
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The European Adventure |
Dodging Sabotage
The big European adventure was between fifth grade and sixth, the three of us kids with Mom, and a dear family friend headed off the France, Italy and Denmark aboard the SS France. Beyond breathtaking chateaus, driving through Tuscany, and all manner of new taste sensations, the trip will likely be remembered most for the Venice fiasco. Landing in the airport, we were immediately taken to a water shuttle, necessary transport to our hotel. Halfway there, motoring at a good clip we hit something in the water. Suddenly water started pouring into the bottom of the boat, Mother yelled "aqua" in Spanish with an Italian pronunciation, and the driver took one look back, turned ash white and gunned the boat to the nearest ramp. Waist deep in water he got us all out and tossed all our soggy belongings with us. It turned out later that we had encountered sabotage meant for the President who had arrived a day early. Never a dull moment with Mom!
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My Mother, Actress Anne Baxter, in "The Ten Commandments" |
On the Road Again
In eighth grade my sister and I went on tour with Mom through Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit, Toronto, and Ft. Lauderdale. She was on stage with Hume Cronyn and Jessie Tandy with shows nightly and twice on Sunday. We saw her an hour a day and the rest of the time was spent with a tutor on our school work and exploring local cultural spots. Longwood Gardens and Dupont's Winterthur were lasting highlights, as was the private tour of General Motors in Detroit, Michigan.
Culture Shock!
I relocated to the East Coast for boarding school at The Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts. The culture shock and even language differences, East to West, were startling, but I survived the three years and graduated with honors. In the meantime, Mom had remarried and moved East to Connecticut.
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"Aunt Edie" - My Godmother, Edith Head |
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Dressing Up With the Legacy
I initially considered pursuing a degree in costume design, following in the illustrious footsteps of my godmother Edith Head. She reveled in outrageous success as the costume designer in Hollywood, garnering 35 Oscar nominations for her work and winning 8 of those same awards. She dressed stars like Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelley, James Stewart, Jerry Lewis, in films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, The Sting, The Nutty Professor, Deadmen Don’t Wear Plaid and hundreds more. She started out as a French teacher at an exclusive all girl’s school… the rest well that’s her story, not mine. |
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With Susan Claassen, Star of "A Conversation with Edith Head" |
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Following My Mom’s Dream
I had the itch early on, born of playing dress up and, of course, school drama productions, but not the confidence to follow that dream. Realizing I wanted a broader education, my mom suggested focusing on a business path. She had never gone to college and had big dreams for me. So I pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in hotel administration from Cornell University and enjoyed the camaraderie as a sorority sister of Pi Beta Phi.
On the Move
After earning my degree in Hotel Management from Cornell, I started out in hospitality purchasing. That means if you ate it, drank it, wrote with it, or slept on it, I bought it! For five years, I switched companies, cities, and states every eight months. From Ryetown to Philadelphia, to Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island for a summer, to the Radisson in Charlotte, NC to Birmingham, Alabama, back up to Nashville and Opryland Hotel and finally to Callaway Gardens in Columbus, Georgia.
What Price Success?
I was earning great money and one of the few top women in my field, yet each day, I dreaded going into the office, and couldn't wait to get home in the evenings. I was bored, uninspired and frustrated by the daily routine, and sought a creative solution. Design was it!
Reinvention
I headed to Birmingham for a degree in Interior Design. I had saved enough to attend school full time for six months. After that, I knew I needed to pick up a full-time job while still keeping a full class schedule. It didn't matter! I was on fire and on purpose, passionate about my new career and reinvention. I completed the three-year program in two years, and worked for 18 months at a commercial design and furniture dealership before shifting gears to manage a retail fabric company (much like a Calico Corners outlet). Still, I was looking for my dream job. In the meantime, I found a design position with Ethan Allan in Atlanta. I needed a bigger venue for my newly realized talents! For 18 months, I enjoyed my work immensely, until I went head to head with my manager over vacation pay and I walked. I had been planning my own start up, but not quite so soon.
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Measure Your Progress |
Passion, Purpose and Bills to Pay
I had no clients, bills to pay, and was $70k in credit card debt. Having taught briefly at UAB (an evening class called Gallery Hopping), I contacted Evening at Emory and Oglethorpe's adult evening education programs. Both agreed to accept me as an instructor and I began teaching 3-4 nights a week - Decorating on a Shoestring, Gallery Hopping, Change Your Interiors, Change Your Life, Great Design Sources for Decorating and more. At the same time, I got creative and found a job working nights and weekends managing a kitchen for a catering company, this lasted 18 months until design referrals kicked in and I could afford to quit.
Adventures Down Under
During the first five years of business my sales doubled every year. I added personnel and delighted in transforming clients’ interiors and their lives all by design. With a really strong second in command on board I took the adventure of a lifetime, heading to Australia and New Zealand for 5 weeks.
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Overlooking Sydney Harbor |
Australia was fantastic! It is as you might imagine the States to be before we became over-governmentalized. They don't believe in pennies (that heavy stuff at the bottom of your purse!) And they give change on buses, what a concept. (You can try to ride a bus in NYC with a $100 in your pocket, but without exact change they won't let you on!) Everyone was enormously friendly and helpful. I climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, toured the Rocks of Sydney Harbour, explored the botanical garden, and wandered downtown. I safaried to the Blue Mountains (the mist from the eucalyptus trees turns the air blue), and enjoyed a day trip to the wine country, where all tasting is free as this is how the Aussies buy their wine. I have wanted to return ever since. . .
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Adrenalin Rush |
Breaking Through Barriers
New Zealand was also spectacular but in a very different way. It is known as the land of natural wonders and adventure sports. Not one to miss out on the country's callings, I managed a hot air balloon ride over Christchurch and bungee jumping in Queenstown. I toured the hot springs at Rotorura, and tandem hang glided. It is a breathtaking country, but I missed the city of Sydney.
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World Goods |
Retail Missteps
Travel must have set off the wild hair I had to open a retail shop. I was forever bringing clients unique and different pieces that they couldn't find anywhere else and decided there would be a demand. So, winging it once again, and conveniently, though lethally, forgetting that I had hated retail and the staying in one place all day requirement . . . I launched Interior Destinations. Our opening ironically and sadly coordinated with September 11. I hung in there for two years before I truly realized that I missed just the design and made the decision to warehouse remaining inventory and scale down to a home office once again. I moved to Brookhaven and love Atlanta In-Town living.
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Home for the Holidays |
Holidays With Heart
I have the good fortune of wonderful clients both new and existing. Clients that often become friends and we share time at parties and events. I always have a place to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. And having completed a client's mountain getaway in Highlands, NC, she has been gracious and generous in extending me an invitation anytime. It is very rewarding to be able to make such a positive difference in other people's lives, making them not only more beautiful, but more comfortable, and functional, and then be invited to share in that experience.
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Inspiring |
Leading The Way
My next step is to show you how to discover what you really want, and how to have it all!!! Yes, you can. I have learned how to design my life and those of clients far beyond just their interiors. You see it isn’t just about your interior environment but about your interior self and in changing your environment you will change your interior self, your career choices are influenced, your health and well being is improved, your personal image and style is refreshed, your travel and adventure is celebrated, your relationships are prioritized, your financial picture blooms, and your decorate your life with limitless rewards and extraordinary results.
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There are 12 things Melissa Galt can't live without, 
Melissa Galt is also a noted interior designer with over two decades of industry experience.
