The spaces in which mother and daughter duo Lorelai and Rory Gilmore live their lives may not be cutting edge interiors, but who can resist the cosy fantasy of small-town American life they radiate? From Lorelai’s cluttered, mildly shabby but very comfortable Stars Hollow house to her parents’ grand, damask-bedecked Hartford mansion, these are houses we’d want to spend a bit of time in. A special mention to the Dragonfly Inn, the perfect New England boutique hotel where Lorelai and Sookie work, and Mrs Kim’s antiques shop, which is really rather good now we look back at it.
Mad Men
One of the original prestige TV series of the 2000s, Mad Men is still a brilliant drama, and staggeringly good when it comes to recreating the costumes and interiors of the 1960s. Don and Megan’s New York apartment in the later seasons is perhaps the high point, with its sunken seating area (it’s surely time for these to come back), breakfast bar, and still-covetable mid-century modern furniture.
Timeless movies
Call Me By Your Name (plus anything else by Luca Guadagnino)
Rex Features
I Am Love and Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino are two of the most beautiful films we’ve ever seen – sort of unsurprising as Guadagnino has his own interior design studio. Both films showcase an envy-inducing way of life in Italian houses – in the former everything is completely, impeccably glamorous in Milan, while in the latter you get more of a romantically dilapidated country house vibe. A special mention must also go to A Bigger Splash, in which Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes wind each other up (with disastrous results) in a very chic Italian holiday rental.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (plus anything else by Wes Anderson)
With his extraordinary eye for detail and immediately recognisable aesthetic, Wes Anderson is an undeniable master of interiors. Every film he creates is singularly beautiful and transportive, but The Grand Budapest Hotel with its sugar-coated vision of a grand mountain hotel in 1930s central Europe is one of the best. You might not want to take actual inspiration from the interiors (the crimson, pink and purple colour scheme is a tiny bit eye-watering) but they’re a wonder to behold.
It’s Complicated (plus anything else by Nancy Meyers)
Legendary writer and director Nancy Meyers has created some of most beautiful interiors that we’d genuinely want to move into, from the glorious Hamptons beach house of Something’s Gotta Give to the now-iconic sets of The Holiday, which have something to offer both to Americans dreaming of the English countryside and English viewers longing for some LA sunshine. And let’s not forget the perfect London townhouse and equally perfect Napa wine estate in The Parent Trap. If we could choose just one of her sets though, it would be Meryl Streep’s Spanish-style house in Santa Barbara in It’s Complicated. The plot has her renovating it to make it bigger and better, but in our eyes it cannot be improved. We’d quite happily take all of it, from the well-appointed kitchen to the thriving vegetable garden.
Gosford Park
Gosford Park. Photograph: Capitol Films/Allstar
