'Palm Royale' Is a Masterclass in Rich, Layered Interiors
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Nothing about Palm Royale is subtle. The extravagant sets, bold costumes, and ambitious women all beg to be seen. But there’s no denying the dramedy’s backdrops are especially remarkable. From an Italian-style villa to a refined country club, the sets fuel the show’s throughline that not every picture-perfect display is all it seems.
“For years, I wanted to set a show in the world of Slim Aarons photography,” Abe Sylvia, one of the show’s executive producers, says in an exclusive video. “There’s no sense of the outside world in them.”
The Apple TV+ series centers on high society in Palm Beach, Florida, during the 1960s. A gossip-driven, scandal-filled tale adds an enthralling layer to the dreamlike vision. “There’s a little bit of danger behind this beautiful facade,” Sylvia adds.
Bringing a 1969 version of Palm Beach to the small screen required extensive research. The production team visited the destination’s iconic places and not-so-well-known spots to inform the show's built sets and filming locations, many of which were actually in Los Angeles. They also met with the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach to understand the period's architecture and culture. “A lot of gossip lore from the ‘60s and fun tidbits of information [were used] to decorate or stimulate certain design decisions within the series,” production designer Jon Carlos tells House Beautiful.
From there, each character was assigned a specific color palette and architectural style. The ladies of Palm Beach are surrounded by rich color palettes that are “somewhat restricted in terms of their loudness” and a “softer version of their personalities,” Carlos says. “We let the women in the costumes be the loud things that entered into the spaces.”
Dark, luxurious greens surround Norma Dellacorte (Carol Burnett), the most established matriarch, at her Italian-style villa. Jewel tones envelop Evelyn Rollins (Allison Janney) in an estate with some Spanish influence. Dinah Donahue (Leslie Bibb) lives in a neoclassical, almost colonial-style world of baby blues and whites.
The opposite is true in West Palm Beach, where there's more midcentury architecture. “The reality of the lifestyle there was more attainable, more realistic, more visceral,” Carlos says. “So those environments were neon cyan, pinks, and oranges. When the women from Palm Beach and their colorful outfits enter into those spaces, they don't hold the same dominance that they do in Palm Beach.”
For the homes of the elite, it was crucial to bring in furnishings and decor that matched their status. “These are women of considerable wealth,” set decorator Ellen Reede says. “And to achieve that look, we had to be authentic to it. There really wasn't cheating that we could do.”
To capture the Palm Beach aesthetic, the design team invested in pricy pieces and got thrifty. They shopped estate sales, prop houses, local antique stores, and online sites, like Chairish. Many treasures came from a sale at the Bel-Air compound of the late actress Yvette Mimieux and housing magnate Howard Ruby. The home’s interiors were influenced by designer extraordinaire Tony Duquette, who was a friend of Mimieux’s and specialized in rich, layered interiors with international flair. That style inspired Norma’s residence.
The most expensive items in the series are the chandeliers, especially the glitzy Russian one in Norma’s parlor. “There are some things you can't really fake,” Reede says. “A good chandelier is a good chandelier. When they're not good, you cannot fake that.”
To afford those high-ticket items, the team “shopped things inexpensively in other places,” Reede says. “And that is something that people can do in their homes. It's something I do in my own home.”
Some items were DIY-ed. The drapery in Norma’s bedroom is a clever customization designed to match a York Wallcovering that envelopes the interior. Instead of spending $8,000 to $9,000 on a swan chaise, “a carcass of one,” as Reede puts it, that had needed upholstery and a paint job, was purchased for a reasonable price and revived.
“Pretty much every piece of furniture that went onto the sets that Ellen brought was reupholstered,” Carlos says. “And it was partially for restoration, partly for pattern or color control as well.”
Other can’t-miss set details with deeper meaning include a tableau of puppetry in Norma’s bar/smoking room that alludes to her role in Palm Bech society; a uterus on the wall and carpet of the bookstore, which is a safe space for the underrepresented; and hints of danger throughout the Dellacorte mansion, including a gun wall display, broken glass (on Moroccan mirrors and in the pool), and long obelisk spires.
The resulting grand and vibrant environments even impressed the star-studded cast. Actress Carol Burnett, who plays Norma Dellacorte, reveals, “I have never been in a show that had this kind of detail and scenery.”
You love set design. So do we. Let’s obsess over it together.
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