This home was the 2010 CH+D Design Award winner for Residential Interior Design (More than 3,000 sq. ft.). For Melissa Palazzo, who runs Pal + Smith, a Newport Beach-based design firm with her husband Marc, her Costa Mesa home often serves as an idea lab. The home is filled with surprising touches and unexpected elements. The home is tucked away on a quarter-acre lot and framed by a gargantuan and historically protected coral tree (it's one of the oldest in California).