At Home With: Marc and Melissa Palazzo
Get to know the co-founders of the interior design firm Pal + Smith and find out what the toughest thing was about designing the interiors of their own Newport Beach home. And, check out Web-exclusive photos of furniture they've designed.
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It’s not every day that a couple can design a lot of the furniture for their own house. For Marc and Melissa Palazzo, co-founders of the interior design firm Pal + Smith, choosing the pieces they created for their Newport Beach home was an exercise in connecting creativity with the reality of family life.
The Palazzos recently launched a 16-piece furniture collection for Pal + Smith that blends Marie Antoinette with Blondie and Dolce & Gabbana. From this adult chic collection, the couple, who have three young children, chose what works for their kid-friendly home.
Here, the Palazzos talk about their house of style.
Aesthetic style of your home
Melissa Our style is definitely eclectic. I love mixing Art Deco and Asian styles and have even started introducing some great 17th-century lighting fixtures to mix it up. I cannot resist a great midcentury find as well. We are constantly combining different styles and periods. We love saturated colors like lemon, Kelly green and fuchsia mixed with more cool ocean blues and charcoals.
Favorite room of the house
Melissa That changes almost daily for me. Right now, I am loving the living/great room because I finally found the perfect vintage chandelier to bring the whole room together. It has a great cozy feel. Every person in the house uses the room in a different way. We do not have a TV in the space so it really lends itself to reading, listening to music and relaxing as a family.
Marc When I’m in the mood to hang out, I like the bonus room, where we have a bar, pool table and my guitars. When the kids are up and about I spend time in the living room and I gravitate to the Muse sofa.
The one thing you can’t live without in your house
Melissa I absolutely cannot live without the antique cabinet in my entry. It has become the inspiration for a new piece in our line called the Azore.
Marc The Hudson sofa in the bonus room is great for watching sports or a favorite movie.
Favorite chair
Melissa My favorite chair is Pal + Smith’s London wing chair. I love that it is classic but has this great unexpected color pop of lemon leather.
Marc I love the Muse sofa. Melissa designed it, and it is the most comfortable sofa to recline on and read.
The toughest thing about designing the interiors of your own home
Melissa When it comes to the interiors of our house I have the toughest time committing. Our house is constantly evolving. Every piece of furniture and art has been carefully selected over time. I will pull pieces out only to bring them back a year later in a different context. I am always moving single pieces of furniture around. A chair might find itself in every room of the house before the year is out. There are pieces of furniture in the house that belonged to my grandmother, and other pieces that I bought during our travels to New York and Europe. It is the layering of the things that we love that makes it feel like home, not just a professionally designed space.
If your house had a signature soundtrack, you would play...
Marc and Melissa Gov’t Mule’s album Mighty High
