My Happy Home: Tom tells House Beautiful UK about his maximalist decorating style, the mock English pub he keeps in his home and the 50 – yes 50 – Christmas trees he once hung from the ceiling.
When it comes to decorating, most people probably put up one, maybe two, Christmas trees in their house. Tom Daley, Olympic legend and crafting extraordinaire, is known to put up as many as 50.
‘Five-zero?’ I say on our zoom call. I'm speaking to Tom from his home in LA.
‘We had two real ones and then – you know when you get mini ones like this?’ he says, describing his decorating arrangements one year. ‘We did this thing where we hung them all upside down from the ceiling, and we just had Christmas trees everywhere.'
‘Oh my God, Tom, it must look like a forest,’ I say. ‘It does. It does,’ Tom responds.
It will come as no surprise then that Tom is something of a maximalist decorator, and Christmas is his bread and butter. ‘As soon as Mariah Carey says it's time, it's time,’ he quips.
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During the rest of the year, Tom likes to go all out too. He has wallpapered ceilings, an Olympic green kitchen (yes, that's actually the name of the colour) and a mini mock English pub in his home.
Tom’s desire to bring a bit of Britain with him is understandable. Though he lives in LA, the diver previously represented Great Britain at five Olympics Games. He won Britain's first individual diving world champion and has five Olympic medals to his name.
More recently though, people might have seen him on last year’s Celebrity Traitors. He’s been slowly catching up with the new series, but what does he think of how the contestants are faring?
‘It's been a really interesting series so far. Although I feel like the traitors are being banished left, right and centre compared to our series,’ he says. Tom tells me that, having been one himself, he’s rooting for the faithfuls this year.
In our conversation, we cover everything from Tom’s maximalist home and his cosy new Air Wick collaboration to why his house might need a declutter — and what makes him happiest at home.
How would you describe your home?
We live in an English Tudor home in Los Angeles, and our decorating style is quite maximalist. Our kitchen's green. We have a red kind of music room. We have quite bold print curtains. We have floral wallpaper ceilings.
Where do you like to buy furniture? Do you have any bargain buys?
I am a big believer in buying secondhand furniture. One of my favourite things to do is to go and look at estate sales when people are getting rid of stuff that their family doesn't want anymore. I'm not into lots of modern stuff.
But you can get some really good deals with secondhand furniture. Like one of the chandeliers that we have. It's really old, but it was something like $200 for this like crazy chandelier – I mean, it was falling apart and we had to restore it quite a lot, but still.
Are you good at DIY?
Lance, my husband, is extremely good at DIY and fixing things. If things are falling apart, he's ready to kind of give it his everything and restore it.
Even when it comes to gardening, he installs all the drip irrigation and is able to put lots of things up on the walls and do all of that stuff.
I mean, I hand him the tools. I don't have any clue what I'm doing, but it works.
You seem to be quite crafty though. Did you say you made some of your ceiling lights?
Yes, our chandeliers. Obviously, I didn't do any of the wiring. It started as a ring light, and I just basically tied all these knots onto it all the way around it so that the light was shaded. I knit like the casing around the top and then hung a second ring in the middle. Then I did the same thing in the middle so that it almost looks like a daffodil.
How much did that cost you to make?
The ring was a floral ring, which was $3. And then the rope – I think each one was two or three balls of macrame yarn, which was maybe $6 each. The light is the most expensive thing that was around $100.
Tell me about your new home fragrance collaboration with Air Wick. What's your idea of a perfect home scent?
I mean, for me, I think that's the first thing that anybody notices when you walk into a home, right?
The Air Wick collection is just all about being cosy. The new winter fragrances remind me of that – and they remind me of home as well. My two favourites are the mulled wine and the pumpkin ginger chai. I'm a big Christmas fan, so the mulled wine always wins me over.
What makes you happiest at home?
Being around family and friends. I love being able to host. I love being able to cook food for people and have them around and just have a good time. That's always what makes me happiest at home.
If your home could speak, what do you think it would say about you?
Oh, gosh. It'll probably say you don't need any more things. Sometimes, I have to remember to declutter occasionally.
You know what? I think it's saying you don't need 50 Christmas trees.
Yeah, it is. I just can't help it sometimes.
