Melissa Penfold

The style maven and design influencer share the highlights and insights gained from her creative journey.

- Maven

My family played a big part in my interest in design. My mother had incredible taste. I grew up in a house decorated by influential Australian decorator Marion Hall Best, renowned for her bold color, lustrous surfaces, and va-voom rooms. My mother’s mother lived in an extraordinary harbourside residence with a ballroom and one of Australia’s first residential lifts. I also enjoyed incredible exposure to art, antiques, design, and travel from a young age. My paternal grandparents’ home was decorated by another famous Australian interior decorator, Merle du Boulay, who was renowned for building interiors using a sherry-colored backdrop, which she mixed with accents of pink and lime. This house really resonated with me and felt like a very calm place to be. I loved it. The design lesson I learned from my family was that you should always be proud of your home. You must keep your standards up. It’s such a great way to live.

The only thing that’s always the same in my workday is that it is never the same, apart from a morning meeting with my daughter, Isabella, who now works with me from North America.

My work brings together everything I love doing best: interior design, decorating, collecting, art, gardens, and entertaining. I didn’t really map it out. It just happened.