Kitchen Writing Desk

When a friend took me to see on the big screen, I knew it was a Diane Keaton-Jack Nicholson romantic comedy. What I didn’t expect was to fall in love with the Hamptons beach house Keaton’s character lives in. I went back to see it again a week later, just to get a better look at that house.

The exterior is a real house somewhere in the Hamptons, but the interiors were all created on a soundstage.

The house was featured in Architectural Digest, which provided us with some great photos of the what the sets looked like when they weren’t filming on them (photography by Bob Marshak):

The movie was written by Nancy Meyers, who has had her hand in other great “house movies” I’ve featured, including and Father of the Bride.

The Production Design was done by Jon Hutman (who also worked on The Holiday), and the Set Decoration was by Beth Rubino (It’s Complicated).

Erica and Harry (Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson) in the living room at night–meeting up for a “pajama party:”

Don’t even ask what paint colors were used (I have already been flooded with e-mails on the topic). Set Decorator Beth Rubino says they were custom-mixed colors that were designed to look good on screen. The lighting is different on a set than it is in a house, so even we used the same paint, she says, it wouldn’t look the same.

We were building our house when this movie came out. Thanks to Something’s Gotta Give, I’ve got a kitchen with white cabinets, black countertops, and dark floors.

The counters were just MDF painted to look like soapstone for the movie, but it started a huge trend. Suddenly everyone wanted soapstone!

As a writer who works from home myself, I swooned over Erica Barry’s writing nook at the end of her bedroom:

Diane Keaton was nominated for Best Actress for this role at the 2004 Oscars and won a Golden Globe.

The pool as photographed for (above), and a production shot that shows how the pool and fake exterior really looks on set (below):

Jon Hutman received an Oscar nomination for Production Design because of this now-iconic movie house.

Is this one of your favorite movie houses, too?

Are you hooked on houses? More to tour: