Clinton Kelly Gives Tour of His Connecticut Home + Explains Why He Has “No Refrigerator”

Clinton Kelly takes us on a tour of his Connecticut home—and it's the ultimate dream house design inspiration.   

Calling it his "first big boy purchase," the TV personality and style expert says he has lived in the "cozy" space for about 15 years and feels it’s a true reflection of his personality. "It's really my home. I love it so much. It’s where my heart is." 

However, Clinton tells unexpected guests, "Don't stop by without calling."  

Starting off in the main room... 

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"This is my kitchen slash dining room slash living room. It's just one gigantic room, which is what I wanted,” he says. 

Clinton adds that it’s important to have little areas for gathering so you can interact with your loved ones: “A little conversation pit here, a little nook for reading there. So you break up a big space into small spaces.”  

As for design, Clinton explains he is “a big believer that you can make furniture from different decades and different eras all work together.” 

“For example, my couch is from the 1960s and the dining room chairs are actually from the 1980s," he says. 

"I have to be honest with you, I design for myself. I don't care what anybody thinks about anything that I put in my house. If it makes me happy, it goes in my house. If you don't like it, you're not invited," Clinton adds. 

To ground the gorgeous room and to help with its proportions, Clinton has a beautiful six-foot tall, six-foot wide chandelier hanging over. 

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 "As the years go by, I keep adding more skylights. I keep making windows bigger and bigger and bigger. I love the fact that everywhere you look, there's a different window to look out of and each one looks onto a different little scene. Mother nature becomes a design element in the room," he adds.   

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After living in New York City for 15 years in an apartment with no counter space, Clinton says he wanted his house to have a large area for food prep. However, he says he needed to find the right material. 

"I've had every natural surface that there is in a kitchen and a lot of them have significant downfalls— whether they pit or they stain or they're not heat resistant or they chip, so I decided to go with an engineered surface. Nothing stains it, nothing scratches it, and I can put a warm pot down on it and not worry about ruining it, so this was a very thought out decision that I'm very happy I made," Clinton explains. 

Clinton also shows off his sink where he can wash dishes while enjoying a gorgeous view of nature. 

"You might not know this about me, but I love to wash dishes. That's why I oriented the sink to face out the window. And, the sink has a drain board, so you wash a dish, you put it [on the board] and you just let it dry." 

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 "You might notice that there is no refrigerator. I didn't want a gigantic refrigerator taking up a big chunk of real estate in the kitchen, so we got drawer refrigerators, which are super fun." 

Clinton also has a drawer freezer and demonstrates a trick he learned about disposing leftover cooking grease. 

“Pour grease into this tin can, put it in the freezer, it solidifies, and when it’s full, you throw the whole thing in the garbage,” he says. 

Additionally, Clinton freezes his homemade chicken stock so he can make his favorite Chicken & Parmesan Dumplings all year round.