Welcome to Movie Monday, when I feature the houses from our favorite films. In the 1998 movie Stepmom, Susan Sarandon and Ed Harris played Jackie and Luke, a divorced couple with two children, Anna and Ben. Luke is dating Isabel, a young and successful photographer (Julia Roberts), and the kids don’t like it. Isabel doesn’t much like playing the surrogate-mother role when the kids are staying with them in Luke’s loft, either. But they all have to learn to get along and become a family when Jackie is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Before we get to the house, let’s start where the movie does, in Luke’s apartment. It couldn’t be more different from Jackie’s place:
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- Luke’s loft windows at the top of his apartment building.
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- The kitchen in Luke’s loft is spare, modern, and open.
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- Luke’s downtown apartment is a loft. In this fleeting shot, you could see the upstairs railing, open to the kitchen and living room below.
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- Ben’s room in his dad’s apartment. For some reason, Isabel, Luke’s girlfriend, is left to take care of the kids an awful lot. And she’s not very good at it.
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- Isabel was trying to get Ben ready for school. Bad picture, but it shows the arched windows in the background.
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- Looking from the kitchen into the adjoining living room.
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- Luke and Isabel in his kitchen.
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- It’s dark, but this is the view of the loft’s living room from the upstairs hallway.
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- And now to Jackie’s house, which is what I know you really want to see!
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- The front door of Jackie’s house (from the inside).
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- Jackie’s front hall and staircase.
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- Jackie’s kitchen.
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- Another view of Jackie’s kitchen, which doesn’t seem outdated 10 years later.
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- Another view of Jackie’s kitchen, with the hutch.
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- Jackie’s kitchen.
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- Jackie’s kitchen has a back staircase coming down into it.
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- Jackie’s kitchen.
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- A view from the dining room into the next room.
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- Anna helps her mom set the table in the dining room. In this shot you can see they have a fireplace in the room.
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- The dining room.
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- An armchair in the corner of Jackie’s living room.
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- Jackie and Ben in her living room.
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- Isabel coming down Jackie’s staircase.
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- As Ben goes upstairs, we get a glimpse of the upstairs hallway.
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- Ben at the upstairs landing.
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- Ben’s room in his mom’s house.
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- Upstairs hallway of Jackie’s house (with Anna peeking around the corner).
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- Love this little nook under the arch on the upstairs landing.
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- As Ben and Anna lipsync to some Motown music with their mom, you get a glimpse of the mirrored closet doors in her bedroom.
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- Ben goes into his mom Jackie’s bedroom on Christmas morning.
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- Looking down the stairs in Jackie’s house.
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- When Jackie returns from the hospital, Isabel surprises her with a room filled with life-sized photographs of her children set. Did anyone else find this a little creepy? No? I guess it’s just me… (I did notice the photos were never seen again in the film. Where did Jackie put them all?)
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- Jackie’s porch at night.
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- Of course a house like this would have a tire swing!
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- Isabel and Jackie hashing things out in Jackie’s scenic yard.
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- Luke brings Jackie a Christmas tree.
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- Jackie’s living room and hearth.
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- You only get a quick glimpse of it, but this seems to be a gingerbread house made to look like Jackie’s!
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- A snowy night at the house.
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- The Christmas tree.
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- Jackie’s house.
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- Jackie, on her last Christmas, tells her daughter Anna, “You have made my life so wonderful.” Pass the tissues!
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- Close-up of the quilt Jackie made for Anna for Christmas, with photos and memorabilia stitched in.
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- The tree on Christmas morning in Jackie’s house.
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- Final shot in the film of the photo Isabel takes of the family on Christmas day.
According to the film’s production notes, the home’s exterior was filmed in Nyack, New York, but the all of the interiors were built on a soundstage.
Visit my TV/Movie Houses page to see all of the others I’ve featured, from The Family Stone to Home Alone.
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Wondering what type of house this is? Victorian is my guess?
Hi! Loved the movie, and I love that you took so much time and effort to make these pictures available! This really is a beautiful house! I was wondering if anyone knew where I could find floorplans or other indications of the real house? I really want my future home to be like this!
Great job!!
To Matthew (who asked about this home’s address at least a year ago), I don’t know the exact address, but the house is on the east side of North Broadway in NYack. It’s located not too far north of Pretty Penny, the old Helen Hayes (and later Rosie O’Donell) house. I think the diector Jonathan Demme still lives in that same neighborhood too.
Hello! I’m from menorca, Spain. I wanted to tell you so I LOVE this house since I was 16 years old, when I saw the film. I have seen “Stepmom” so many times just for see the house. I would like to know where is it. And I have to give congratulations for the decorator, I would like to know him or her. Good job!
Excuse me for my english and thanks for the images I have all in my mind.
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