Fictional homes I’m obsessed with

In another life, I would be a set decorator. Whenever I watch anything — TV, movies, youtube videos, Tiktok edits, etc. — I find myself yearning for deeper glances at the backgrounds. And when a set is done to perfection, it gives me a soul deep sense of satisfaction. These are some of my favorite set dressings that feel so vividly alive to their respective characters — plus the ones I would live in in a heartbeat.

The Bishop House
A Discovery of Witches

Watch on: Amazon, Sundance Now

I find this show so deeply comforting (albeit a touchhh cheesy) — it has the most charming autumnal vibes, like settling down for a little snug with a big ol’ quilt over your shoulders and a hot mug of tea. But the real star of the show is this house — that green color on the walls?! Salivating.

There is nothing I love more in a TV house (or a real house) than piles of organized clutter. It feels so deliciously rustic and appropriately witchy. I want to make potions and spells and a big roast country chicken in that kitchen.

photos via Dan Martin

---

Jane’s Apartment
Austenland

Watch on: Not streaming anywhere, which is a crime! Just buy it.

This is one of my favorite movies of all time, I could watch it endlessly on a loop of pure bliss. I’m so in love with the tiny glimpses we get of Jane’s apartment (it’s in the movie for maybe 2.5 seconds, but still) — I mean, the Smeg fridge?! The teacups?! It’s all so delightfully twee. No notes.

I also deeply appreciate that this feels like a realistic apartment someone I know would rent. Like the kitchen is tiny. Points for elevated realism.

---

Kathleen Kelly’s apartment
You’ve Got Mail

Watch on: Max

THE blueprint. The definitive apartment on which I measure all other fictional apartments. So perfectly 90s in a way that speaks to the very core of my soul. Looking at this apartment gives me the same nostalgic feeling of reading old Jayne Ann Krentz novels, a kind of deep-seated comfort and ease.

If you’re looking for a coffee table book that gives these vibes, I really recommend Interior Portraits — it has that same 90s cottage core type of design style, mixing wood finishes, clean lines, and chintzy florals.

---

Lara Jean’s Bedroom
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

Watch on: Netflix

God, this bedroom. This bedroom!! I’ve never seen the likes of a teenage bedroom like this. My fifteen year old self would have been absolutely feral for that wallpaper.

I often wish I could go back and give my teen self a gentle shove — I was always desperate to be older, to wear pencil skirts and have a grown up apartment, with fresh white walls and contemporary art. Looking back, I would tell myself to lean into the mess of teenagerdom, to not paint over my purple walls with boring off-white (which I did, sadly, end up doing). Lara Jean’s bedroom feels like the exact amalgamation of that feeling — fairy lights and creamy blue walls and a hot pink quilt and crooked lampshades and messy clothes puddles and polaroids everywhere. Perfectly imperfect. Nostalgic for not a time but an age; a wonder.

---

The Larrabee Estate & The Lakehouse
Sabrina (1995)

Watch on: Max

This movie has the most perfect “finding herself” montage (it goes down with the greats — Legally Blonde and My Big Fat Greek Wedding) that makes me want to dorkily dance in a night club with a curly-haired Frenchman so bad I can taste it. Is this movie good? Hmmmm. Is this movie an adequate remake of the original 1954 version with Audrey Hepburn? Welp. BUT this movie just has something. Perhaps it’s my love affair with the ‘90s aesthetic. Perhaps it’s Harrison Ford’s ridiculous hat and completely hot tiny wire rim glasses. Perhaps it’s nobody recognizing this woman when all she did was cut her hair. Whatever it is, I’m eating it right up with a spoon.

But on to the main event here: the interiors. These houses!!! Good lord. There’s so much salivating to be done here. First you have the Larrabee Estate, which is ludicrously humongous and has the most perfect grounds of any TV house I have ever seen. And then you’ve got The Lakehouse, which is exactly how a Lakehouse should be decorated, with lots of mixed wood grains and slouchy white furniture. It’s a visual feast.

---

Holly and Val’s apartment
What I Like About You

Watch on: Max

*Specifically, the apartment from the latter half of the series

Holy 2000s and damn do I love it. When this show was airing (and upon subsequent rewatches midafternoon after school got out, on ABC Family), I remember not loving the decor — too sleek and colorful for my sensibilities at the time, which ran much more chateau-in-the-countryside. But looking back through the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, I’m obsessed with this entire loft (plus that balcony, I mean seriously). It’s exactly the apartment I’d imagine two sisters would decorate together — that curvy couch?!

It feels very 2010s by way of the 2020s (i.e., everything old is new again). It’s like the apartment equivalent of the old color macbooks. Aggressively geometric — lots of shapes and pops of color everywhere — and I find myself wanting to inject little bits and bobs of the style into my own apartment, to somehow mesh with all the other styles I’ve got marinating in here.

---

Felix’s Loft
Orphan Black

Watch on: Amazon Prime

Another loft! We all have themes. Watching Orphan Black was like a fever dream (quite literally as I binged the first four seasons while I had a massive head cold in college — studiously avoiding any actual studies for like two weeks). Felix’s loft is the site of many an important plot point and damn if it isn’t just fun to look at. Deeply industrial and very spray-paint-core, it’s the perfect backdrop for that very unique “starving artist” TV trope where they somehow also have a multi-million dollar apartment on their hands. Style points for the screwdriver he locks his door with.

The Files
Budgeting? Okay, fine
Hyperfixations
Interior Envy
She’s a REader
Top Drawer
Watch Party
What to wear

More Fun Stuff

What fictional homes would you plotz to live in?