The Best Rom-Com Heroine Apartments, Ranked

updated May 3, 2019
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(Image credit: ©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)

It’s one thing to go down the line of your classic romantic comedies and pick your favorite couples, but what about the great debate over who had the best digs? Here to settle the score is the definitive ranking of romantic comedy heroine’s apartments. From Bridget Jones to Vivian Ward, here’s who decorated it best.

10. “Bridget Jones’s Diary” (2001)

Location: London
Features: Bridget makes this place her own with a full bookcase and cozy furniture, and it’s the ideal place to throw yourself a (slightly ill-fated) birthday dinner party. But there’s so much lace and patterned wallpaper! The whole place looks so old-fashioned for someone Bridget’s age.
Streaming: Rent on Amazon

(Image credit: Mary Evans/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection)

9. “Pretty Woman” (1990)

Location: Los Angeles
Features: Julia Roberts plays Vivian, a sex worker who lives with her roommate, Kit, in apartment 302 of what was really the Las Palmas Hotel in Hollywood. It’s pretty messy and nondescript, but it does conveniently have that cool fire escape that made the movie’s final scene so memorable.
Streaming: Rent on Amazon

8. “Amelie” (2001)

Location: Paris
Features: This Paris apartment in the 2001 indie dream is gorgeous. Coated in jewel tones with red and gold wallpaper, her accessories tend toward emerald and sapphire. Even her bathroom, with its yellow and gray checkered tile, is somehow cute. My only consolation is that because it’s in Europe, it has to be super tiny.
Streaming: Rent on iTunes

7. “When Harry Met Sally” (1989)

Location: New York
Features: Sally’s New York apartment in this late-’80s classic is pretty big, but we also need to remember that she was well into her career at that point. Plus, it’s decorated to look as if a grandmother lives there, with quilted bedspreads, flower curtains, wicker baskets, and stark, vertically-lined wallpaper.
Streaming: Buy on Amazon

(Image credit: ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection)

6. “27 Dresses” (2008)

Location: New York
Features: This clip of that scene where Katherine Heigl shows off all 27 dresses also does a decent job of displaying Jane’s excellent apartment. It’s modernly painted and decorated and, obviously, very spacious—she’s the one with a closet dedicated only to bridesmaid dresses, after all. It could use some more personal touches, though.
Streaming: Rent on Amazon

(Image credit: ©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)

5. “13 Going on 30” (2004)

Location: New York
Features: The 30-year-old version of Jenna Rink has that early 2000s print media money, so her apartment is baller. That giant blue couch alone earns this movie its ranking, but I’m also a big fan of her large, circular mirrors and very cute, striped chaise lounge. Who wouldn’t want to throw an ’80s-themed slumber party there?
Streaming: Rent on Amazon

(Image credit: ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection)

4. “You’ve Got Mail” (1998)

Location: New York
Features: Meg Ryan plays Kathleen Kelly, a woman who lives in a brownstone on West 89th Street. Even though she’s an independent bookstore owner, her place is incredible, but then again, so is her taste. Naturally, she has a ton of floor-to-ceiling shelves full of books, and tons of reading lamps sprinkled throughout.
Streaming: Rent on iTunes

3. “500 Days of Summer” (2009)

Location: Los Angeles
Features: This is the only character in Hollywood history I can believe would find an apartment to match her wardrobe. Zooey Deschanel’s Summer is decked in blue throughout the movie, and of course, so is where she lives in LA. Everything in it is vintage and quirky, like the dresses Summer wears, with twinkly lights and jewelry trees from which to hang small knick knacks. It must be a lot to dust, but it says a lot about the character.
Streaming: Rent on Amazon

2. “While You Were Sleeping” (1995)

Location: Chicago
Features: Lucy’s apartment looks like it’s in a real north side Chicago building because it actually is! She lives in a building located on Logan Square Boulevard. I also appreciated the realness of the portrayal of a Chicagoan living in a third-floor walkup in winter and how quaint a radiator-heated place can look when decorated for the holidays.
Streaming: Hulu

(Image credit: Nicole Rivelli/ © Lionsgate /Courtesy Everett Collection)

1. The Big Sick (2017)

Location: Chicago
Features: I watched this last month and fell in love with Emily’s Chicago-set apartment, which very much looks like it was decorated by a millennial woman. It has the same gray IKEA couch I own and lots of sunny, yellow accents. It’s set up basically like the place I am writing this from, so it ranks pretty highly with me. It’s especially great compared to Emily’s counterpart’s place—Kumail’s apartment, which he shares with a roommate, is super dark and his bed is just an air mattress. (Good thing we know the real-life Kumail and Emily are living much better these days.)
Streaming: Amazon Prime

So there you have it: The best romantic comedy apartments are clearly meant to be in Chicago. What did we miss?