Law & Order SVU’s Chris Meloni and Wife in Architectural Digest

In March, Architectural Digest did a nice article on Chris and Sherman Meloni’s place in New York City. A video of Chris and Sherman discussing their place is available on the AD web site, and it can be accessed at this link.

You can also view the article and pictures directly at the Architectural Digest website HERE, but you have to register (it’s free) for access.


Dramatic Gesture Above the City
Actor Christopher Meloni’s Apartment Takes on the Scenery

I’ve always been an exposed-brick, wood-beams—downtown—kind of guy,” says Christopher Meloni, star of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, explaining how he ended up happily ensconced in a multiwindowed sky palace high above Hell’s Kitchen in New York. “It wasn’t a snob factor; being a history buff, I just liked living among old, prewar buildings. What makes me happy about this apartment, however, is that, while the views keep you very much in touch with New York, you’re also above it all. When I’m done working and come home, I can really get away, be in a cocoon. I never imagined living 60 stories above the city could be so soothing.”

It’s not easy to make a glass- and-steel high-rise apartment cozy, but Sherman Meloni—wife, mother, set designer, painter and decorator—definitely pulled it off, turning “3,000 well-laid-out square feet,” she says, into the “modern but comfortable haven” her family craved. And when it came to inspiration, she had only to look out her own floor-to-ceiling windows. “Since our apartment has terrific Central Park views, I took my cue from nature—the brilliant greens, the stunning sky blues—blue being the string through which I pulled other accents.”

“When I’m done working and come home, I can be in a cocoon,” says Christopher Meloni. “I never imagined living 60 stories above the city could be so soothing.”A case in point is the colorful juxtaposition of family room and dining room, the former’s iridescent sapphire-blue silk walls, cheek by jowl with the latter’s vibrant chartreuse—highlighted by four green Mies van der Rohe chairs. “I stumbled upon them years ago on Canal Street,” recalls Sherman Meloni. “They didn’t know what they had. This time around I simply reupholstered them in green leather. Since I’m not a pack rat, the chairs and the Buddha were the only things we kept. We wanted to start from scratch.” The living area—“not a huge space”—is equally chair-friendly. “Rather than stuff a couple sofas in, I used four chairs—big club chairs on a swivel base—so you can put your feet up on the window seat and look out the window or swivel around to face the dining table.”

The dining table itself is custom-made from a giant hunk of kumbuk. “I found a company that brings in huge, solid slabs of wood from Africa that are then cut into lengths. You just flip through and pick whatever organic shape you want.” “At first I wasn’t sure about the table,” adds her husband, “but she turned out to be right. Actually, as I’m more rustic and natural, it was a tip of the hat to me.”

When it came to keeping the apartment’s extant Brazilian hardwood floors, however, the couple—both fans of wood and handcrafted tribal rugs—were in complete agreement.

“Sherman ran everything by me, but to toot my own horn,” continues the actor, tongue firmly in cheek, “I enlarged the baseboards. I don’t know what came over me, but when I saw the originals, I said, ‘Those are just too wimpy.’ ” He laughs. “That was my sole contribution, along with, that is, knocking a hole in the kitchen wall so you could see the park view. I don’t like being enclosed.”

Neither does his wife. “It’s hard finding a beautiful kitchen where you just want to spend time,” she says. “I don’t cook a lot, so I wanted ours to be not just a kitchen but another nice, inviting, warm room, which is why I continued using the wood—there are cherrywood backsplashes—and color,” namely, in the exotic blue walls. “First I mirrored the walls, then put blue glass on top so when the light hits it, it reflects through the glass, causing the wall to glow, like it’s lit.”

As for the library and master bedroom—done in dark caramels and browns—Sherman Meloni combined the two into one large space, separated only by the bed’s headboard. “It’s like two unenclosed rooms, very open to each other,” she explains. “I did it for the view. Because there’s a giant open archway, you can see out our bedroom window from the front of the library. The bed frame, veneered in the same ebony as the bookcases, provides a visual partition as well as privacy if you’re actually in bed.”

When it comes to art, though the couple have begun collecting, Christopher Meloni has yet to hang a large work from his favorite artist—his wife. “I’m her biggest fan,” the actor says of Sherman, whose oils “are mostly realistic, figurative pieces.” “My husband keeps waiting for me to paint something that I’ll agree to hang up,” she explains. “And being a painter, it’s hard to find another artist’s work I want to live with.”

Their two children, meanwhile, the couple’s reason for vacating downtown—“There’s no grass in SoHo,” chuckles Sherman Meloni, “and we wanted them to grow up by the park”—are thrilled with their new digs. “They love it,” reports their mother, praising the virtue of an apartment boasting “two different living areas off the main one—so the kids have their space, we ours.” She pauses. “In New York you’re always looking at real estate, looking for your next place. ‘Wouldn’t it be great to move there, get something bigger, better?’ Right now we feel we can just stay put—and it’s a good feeling. Finally, we’ve found a place where we’re in no hurry to move.”



Check out my blog home page for the latest information,here.

Also, see my companion Law & Order site, All Things Law & Order.