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Honored Contributor
Posts: 20,538
Registered: ‎11-08-2014

DECORATING CONCEPTS STRAIGHT FROM THE MOVIES

Marina Coates, the designer who gives us the "Bewitched" house tour, also has a whole series of videos on using ideas from films in our own homes, at her site, "Mockingbird Lane".

 

She repeatedly pulls from actual, beloved movie sets as examples, like the "Parent Trap" house:

 

 Or the fabulous country inn interior from "White Christmas":

 

 

 

Oh, my goodness, it is fun.  But so instructive too.  She has a degree in architecture, and is able to translate for us the best work in brilliantly visual films, and how it can work in real-life houses. 

 

I couldn't choose just one of these videos to link!  So here's one on the use of color.  She even shows how a scene she loves from "To Catch a Thief", the one where Cary Grant is walking into a French restaurant, is translated by her into design inspiration for a kitchen!  It's magic.:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n34UmZTn3cA

 

And this one below reveals one of the movies' biggest secrets to designing interior sets that audiences love-- the bold use of 'scale'.  It's a total eye opener.  I love the detailed analysis she does of the living room in "Magnificent Obsession" :

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1LGqsEvX_o

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valued Contributor
Posts: 923
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

Re: DECORATING CONCEPTS STRAIGHT FROM THE MOVIES

I am going to have to watch this. One of my favorite home scenes and home I would love to have is Christmas in Connecticut with Barbara Stanwick..

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,162
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: DECORATING CONCEPTS STRAIGHT FROM THE MOVIES

Thank you - that was fun. 

"I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees." Henry David Thoreau
Valued Contributor
Posts: 923
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

Re: DECORATING CONCEPTS STRAIGHT FROM THE MOVIES

Now I know why I liked the home in Christmas in Connecticut. The large windows and scale of everything. Thanks for turning me on to this decorating diva.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,602
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: DECORATING CONCEPTS STRAIGHT FROM THE MOVIES

Will watch later. Thanks sounds so interesting. Your the best @Oznell 

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,341
Registered: ‎04-19-2010

Re: DECORATING CONCEPTS STRAIGHT FROM THE MOVIES

I love her channel on YouTube, have always been fascinated with TV architecture.  I've spent time trying to figure out how one room flows into another and how it sometimes makes no sense logically.  


-- pro-aging --


Rochester, New York
Honored Contributor
Posts: 20,538
Registered: ‎11-08-2014

Re: DECORATING CONCEPTS STRAIGHT FROM THE MOVIES

Exactly, @nomar .   She repeatedly analyzes that fabulous "Christmas in Connecticut" house (one of my all-time favorites too) in several videos.  She even shows the design plans for a guy's master bedroom suite in Pennsylvania, based on all the architectural elements and beautiful touches she picked up from the "Christmas in Connecticut" house!   Her videos are a real treasure trove.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 20,538
Registered: ‎11-08-2014

Re: DECORATING CONCEPTS STRAIGHT FROM THE MOVIES

That's really interesting, @Peaches McPhee -- can you give an example of maybe a TV interior that does that?  I'm trying to think of some now, but am drawing a blank, but I know there are plenty that don't seem to make sense...

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,341
Registered: ‎04-19-2010

Re: DECORATING CONCEPTS STRAIGHT FROM THE MOVIES

@Oznell what I meant was that I try to draw it on a sheet of paper. 

 

For example on i love lucy, have you noticed the angle of the hallway outside their front door? It makes no sense. The front door is in the corner of a really skinny hallway.   

 

Also in the living room of bewitched - have you noticed the wide open space as you would turn right as you enter the front door?  The living room is enormous, and they don't have any furniture there.  

 

When I was little I would design floor plans on graft paper.


-- pro-aging --


Rochester, New York
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Honored Contributor
Posts: 20,538
Registered: ‎11-08-2014

Re: DECORATING CONCEPTS STRAIGHT FROM THE MOVIES

That's nifty,  @Peaches McPhee ,  that you have the sort of mind that pictures these things so graphically and tries to work them out on paper!  Marina Coates does show an aerial floor plan of the "Bewitched" house first floor in her "Bewitched house" video--  I wonder if you'll get any good info from that?

 

Interestingly, she also gives a tour of the "I Love Lucy" apartment on her channel, through another computer re-creation.  For some reason, it seemed to differ a bit from my recollection of the apt. floor plan...