Recently, a phone call to a friend who was in the middle watching It’s Complicated led to a long discussion about the gorgeous houses in Nancy Meyers' movies. Meyers, who also directed The Holiday and Something’s Gotta Give, is almost as renowned for the production design and set decoration on her movies as she is for the movies themselves. A self-described design addict, she's been interviewed about interior design everywhere from Traditional Home to Architectural Digest. As color month comes to a close, who better to turn to for classic color schemes that will stay in style for years?
Meyers and production designer John Hutman favor traditional, comfortable interiors that feature serene yellows, grays, and blues. While the colors are often muted, they're always used cleverly — for example, one color might be used on the ceiling, bookshelves, and doors to unify a space. In Meyers' films, houses are relaxing, stylish retreats — and luckily for the rest of us, full of easy-to-emulate color inspiration.
1. A chic gray bathtub against pale yellow tiles in It's Complicated.
2. In The Holiday, Amanda's LA kitchen features midnight blue cabinetry accented by a modern yellow planter and lemon-colored baskets and candles.
3. The butter yellow ceiling, door, and bookshelves in Iris’s comfy English library in The Holiday make the space seem calm and uncluttered.
4. A modern pop of dove gray on the stairs and banisters in Amanda's home in The Holiday.
5. The light blue cabinets, red table and chairs, and cream fireplace in Iris's kitchen capture a favorite Apartment Therapy color scheme done perfectly.
6. In It's Complicated, a variety of blues — in the rug, the duvet cover, the chair, and the side table — look cheerfully eclectic.
7. Architectural elements — such as the arches and tiles — shine in a light-filled, golden hallway in It's Complicated.
8. Monotone blue walls, curtains, and chairs in Erica's bedroom from Something’s Gotta Give look fresh and pretty.
Images: 1. FilmoFilia 2. Outnow-CH 3. Outnow-CH 4. Outnow-CH 5. Outnow-CH
6. Traditional Home, photos courtesy of Universal Pictures. 7. Traditional Home, photos courtesy of Universal Pictures. 8. Hooked on Houses









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The kitchen in It's Complicated is MY DREAM kitchen. I can imagine the smells of a lemon and herb roasted chicken and the way all those cookbooks and all the little trinkets that a family cook understands and loves so well.
The entire Hampton's HOUSE in Something's Gotta Give is so drop-dead perfect it makes me want to cry with happiness every time I see it. Each of the settings are wonderful in that they invoke so much personality and add insight into the characters who live in them -- love that Meyers puts so much care into setting the stage for them. As another design addict, I fully appreciate that about her movies -- I guess that's why I enjoy watching them more than once just to appreciate those details!
any chance you could come up with some commercial colors that would approximate these -- especially that blue and yellow kitchen? No offense to the SGGive kitchen.
I too love the kitchen in this movie :)
i loved/LUSTED FOR the kitchen in that movie!
all of these rooms are gorgeous and clearly well-planned to suit their characters. good movies too!
I agree with Citipearl - I especially love the kitchen in Something's Gotta Give. Perfection.
When I saw "Something's Gotta Give", I remember thinking it looked like a Pottery Barn catalog come to life. Not a bad thing just not my thing.
Would love to know what the cabinet color is in the Iris kitchen (No. 5).
the interiors are more memorable than the movies
^TOTALLY Ina!
It's Complicated was a horrible movie, but the decor made it tolerable to sit through.
Oh come one, You didn't think Steve Martin getting toasted was funny? :)
Oops, come on. Humm, maybe I'm right there with him...
Design porn in the way that Playboy (or Playgirl) reminds us that our partners may not be the "ideal", but are loved and wanted. I like to look, but I can also skip it, if need be.
Uhhhh k2hye, to me a Playboy/girl model is trashy, overdone and totally undesirable. I not only have no desire to be partnered to one (nor do I compare my Husband with them), but also do not consider them the ideal!?
I think these interiors are hardly fake, trashy, overdone or undesirable. They're also not some sort of far-fetched "ideal". They're all attainable, and quite elegant.
Oddest analogy I have possibly ever heard.
How can there even be a post on Nancy Meyers without mentioning the Father of the Bride II baby's room? Or the whole house for that matter?
http://hookedonhouses.net/2009/06/21/movie-monday-the-house-in-father-of-the-bride-part-ii/
Meh.
Iris' English cottage in The Holiday is my dream home. I could just move right in.