Memphis and Miami design styles collide in this colourful Naples home
Giovanni Izzo and Anna Masello have lived in many places, from Milan to Miami, and currently call London home. But whenever possible, the young Italian couple escape to Naples – Giovanni’s hometown. In a 1300s building that overlooks the city’s Botanical Garden, their apartment is blessed with high ceilings, marble floors and French doors opening onto wrought-iron balconies.
Its typical Neapolitan layout has a long corridor leading to the salone d’onore (hall of honour) with a series of rooms leading off it, but within this classical framework the couple has managed to strike a brilliant balance between tradition and modernity.
The space now proudly displays a bold mix of influences: exotic wallpapers, pop colours, neoclassical inspirations and contemporary design, as well as work by Italian artists such as Iole Sarno, Riccardo Albanese, Salvatore Liberti and Luigi Tirino, without whom the house couldn’t truly be called Neapolitan.
‘The inspiration partly comes from our years in Milan and our house in Brera, then called Club dell’Architettura,’ explains Anna. ‘It was a meeting place for design companies and architect friends, which changed its face every year. Many of the furnishings in this home, such as the Stilwood ‘Lara’ sofa from 1968 and the custom table by Vincent Insinga, come from there.’
Giovanni, an expert in precious stones and marbles for architecture, chose to keep the beautiful pink Portuguese marble surfaces that run throughout the apartment. But it’s the humbug-striped walls that make the biggest statement in this unapologetically extrovert home.
‘The colour scheme of the living area inspired much of the kaleidoscopic spirit of the house,’ says Anna, adding ‘the greatest satisfaction in realising our project was creating a continuity of style between the environments; their rhythm is marked by bold colours that highlight the existing masonry. We love merging neoclassicism with pop art, 1970s design with tropical art deco.’
When they started work on this apartment, the couple still lived in Florida, hence the ‘Miami vibes’ of the wallpaper in the living room, with its foliage, optical stripes and parrots. ‘To our surprise, now we know: figurative and optical go well together,’ Giovanni smiles.
For him, creating this home changed his relationship with the city: ‘I started trusting Naples again, seeing it through Anna’s eyes of amazement. It was like rediscovering what I already knew but had forgotten. Now, returning from London, we take refuge here.’
