Southern Flare for California Fare

Author:Lindsey Shook

Alison Palevsky delivers a Southern-inspired design for a popular food podcaster living in the Palisades

“Prioritizing both color and comfortability, my client expressed a great desire to blend her Texas roots with her more modern Southern California lifestyle,” says Alison Palevsky, founder and principal of her L.A.-based firm Palevsky Co about how she approached the design of a new build home in the Pacific Palisades. “Keeping this in mind, I set out to create a warm, inviting environment where she could raise her family but also do what she loves; cook, craft, podcast and entertain—all with a bit of Southern flare.”

Stepping outside of her more modern approach to design, Palevsky and her team reveled in the opportunity to take a traditional direction. Her friend and client, Courtney Harrow, co-hosts a notable food and family focused podcast with her sister called Hey Sis, Eat This, so the kitchen and main spaces had to be suitable for recording and filming. Born and bred in Dallas, Harrow wanted the interior to reflect her a sense of the South through the use of color, pattern and vintage details. “Architect, Mike Holz, had already carved out the plans so it was my job to help define each space,” Palevsky recalls. “I did this by concentrating on layering colors, textures, wallcoverings, decorative fixtures and of course, some eclectic family heirlooms. I had to carefully balance the overall aesthetic to be sophisticated enough for a festive dinner party but livable enough for a young family desiring time together.”

The 4,800-square-foot home needed to accommodate the family’s individual goals for functionality throughout. The husband required an office away from the excitement and the kids wanted a a space where they could hang outside of their bedrooms. Harrow dreamt of a spa-like bedroom suite equipped with an office area, walk-in closet and private terrace where she could escape after a long day. “The goals were endless and the space wasn’t so we had to prioritize and make use of smaller spaces with creative ideas like the small desk Holz added to the foyer of the primary bedroom,” she says.

While the kitchen was the main character, the music and dining rooms play leading roles in this story, as they serve as pass-throughs from front entrance. So the design selections had to dazzle. “You can’t walk through this home without admiring the soft, blush wallpaper and vintage Murano chandeliers in the dining room,” she notes. “The wallcovering, which started as a painting, was a custom collaboration with George Venson of Voutsa who illustrated the Guinevere Chinoiserie pattern using our fabric swatches and inspiration images. The music room is very much an homage to the wife’s love for mustards, blues and embroidered fabrics.”

Being the family entertains often and Harrow and her sister record episodes with notable guests in the kitchen, there needed to a level of sophistication and coziness that matched the message of the podcast. “The state of the art kitchen allows the wife to cook while the rest of the family stays nearby in the family room, which fully opens onto the outdoor terrace thus, creating the ultimate southern Californian living aesthetic they were yearning for,” says Palevsky. While she loves her new kitchen, when asked which moment in the home is her favorite, Harrow remarks, “There was a lot of texture and color in our childhood home including floral wallpaper on most walls and almost every room contained a beautiful antique piece from my great grandmother’s home, so the dining room is my absolute favorite in the house as the pink wallpaper takes me back to my childhood home every time I’m in there.”