pure pizazz

Vince and MelissaCiolino’s love of sensational design and colour (think pink) has ensured this home designed by Greg Natale has a happy and totally unique spirit

- Fiona McCarthy

Pink has long been Melissa Ciolino’s favourite colour. ‘It can be soft and soothing, or it can really stand out, and best of all it makes everyone look good,’ she enthuses. So it’s no surprise to find it lathered in a powdery soft shade, acting almost like a neutral, across most of the walls inside the home she shares with her husband Vince and their three sons in inner-west Sydney. ‘It also really makes whatever other colours you put against it really pop,’ she says.

Melissa also loves the reaction the pink interior gets when people visit for the first time. ‘When they first enter, they expect something completely different – not just the colour palette but details like the staircase are a real “wow” feature point,’ she explains. ‘It takes people’s breath away.’

Melissa and Vince, owners of a boutique construction firm building luxury homes around the city, teamed up with Sydney-based architect and interior designer Greg Natale to overhaul the original one-level brick bungalow bought in 2012, adding a second storey, an extension at the back and a swimming pool. The art deco-inspired clean-lined, curved silhouette Greg created for the front of the house is subtly echoed inside with curved cornices and rounded oblong niches carved into the plastered ceilings on the ground floor to lend rooms added depth.