When Allison Pearson’s novel I Don’t Know How She Does It came out in 2002, I thought the story about frazzled working mom Kate Reddy was pretty funny, so I was looking forward to the movie version. I don’t think it was quite as awful as the reviews led me to expect, but the book was better.

What didn’t disappoint: the fabulous Boston townhouse that Sarah Jessica Parker’s Kate lives in with her handsome hubby (Greg Kinnear) and their two kids. Let’s take a closer look!

Although Kate lives in Boston, most of the filming actually took place in New York City. According to Covering Media, Production Designer Santo Loquasto was given the task of finding New York locations that could pass for Boston:

“The leafy, townhouse-lined streets of Brooklyn Heights stood in for the Reddy family’s Back Bay neighborhood in Boston, while a stately early-twentieth-century office suite overlooking Madison Square became Kate’s Boston workplace.”

The book written by Allison Pearson was based on a newspaper column she wrote about the challenges of being a working mother. In the novel, Kate was a Brit living in London and traveling to New York for her job. Anyone else read it?

The townhouse interiors were built at Cine Magic Riverfront Studios in Brooklyn. The set decorators were sure to include plenty of “family clutter” in every room. The house may be beautiful, but it’s far from pristine or perfect. It looks lived in!

Looking into the dining room from the kitchen:

The kitchen was the real show-stopper for me. Love it.

In her review of the movie on The Flick Cast, Grace Suh wrote:

“Kate and her (underemployed or unemployed) architect husband Richard…live in a huge, gorgeous townhouse  in the most picturesque and expensive corner of Brooklyn Heights, with high ceilings and beautifully eclectic furnishings and an amazingly huge and gorgeously appointed kitchen that’s flooded with sun and would put the Williams-Sonoma catalog to shame.

“I know the story’s supposed to be set in Boston, and many of the street scenes were obviously shot in Boston, but I assure you, that townhouse they live in is in Brooklyn Heights, and it costs $4 million, at a minimum.”

She went on to say, “In actuality, even at the top investment banks, someone in a mid-level position such as Kate’s would more probably be living in a relatively modest 3-bedroom New York City apartment (still $2 million) or a house in Teaneck, but somehow she’s able to swing that $20,000 monthly mortgage payment, plus private school for her kids (set at Plymouth Church School on Orange).”

Hollywood has never let reality get in their way when filming a chick flick like this, though. We’ve come to expect our heroines to live in a fabulous house and be courted by men like Pierce Brosnan, even she meets him with lice in her hair (makes my head itch just thinking about that scene!).

What did you think of the movie? Did you find yourself looking at the sets behind the actors?

P.S. To see the entire list of movie houses I’ve featured or to request one of your favorites for a future Movie Monday post, click here.

More Sarah Jessica Parker Houses:

• Sex and the City (Movie)
• Sex and the City (TV Show)
• The Family Stone
• SJP’s House in the Hamptons

Several years ago I asked for the movie Just Like Heaven on DVD for Christmas because I loved the fabulous wood-paneled San Francisco apartment in it! Based on the number of requests I’ve gotten from readers to see it, I wasn’t alone, so I thought we’d take a closer look at it.

Reese Witherspoon played Elizabeth, a hard-working doctor who doesn’t have much of a personal life. She does, however, own an apartment in this Victorian Russian Hill building with killer views of the city from every room…

After she’s in a terrible car crash, a landscape architect named David (Mark Ruffalo) rents her place. There’s a catch, though: her spirit is still living there, and she wants him out.

Leslie Dixon, a San Francisco native who co-wrote the film, used to live in this apartment building. They actually only shot 10 days in San Francisco The interiors of the dream apartment were built entirely on a soundstage.

As Mark Ruffalo talks about filming the movie for the DVD’s special features, you can see the outside of one of the windows on set:

Here’s how it looked when they filmed Reese’s character through that window:

The hallway is beautiful but looks a little spooky in this shot…almost like it belongs to the house in “American Horror Story.”

The movie is based on a novel called If Only It Were True by the French author Marc Levy.

This round windowseat with the fabulous view is one of the best features of the apartment–love it:

As Elizabeth is arguing that she’s not a ghost, she looks down and realizes she has wandered into the center of the dining room table…

The bedroom has more great woodwork and another round window big enough to fit the bed in:

David starts wearing boxer shorts to shower in, since he never knows when Elizabeth might make a surprise appearance…

The Kitchen:

Jon Heder plays Darryl, the psychic who is confounded by how “alive” the spirit seems to be.

Production Design was done by Cary White, and Set Decoration by Barbara Haberecht.

Up on the Roof:

According to the DVD commentary, the apartment’s rooftop was built on a soundstage. They used CGI for the San Francisco skyline. Here’s a behind-the scenes photo taken of the set:

SFGate reports, “The sweeping vista was filmed from the deck of a slightly more elevated apartment one block away on Russian Hill at Taylor and Green, according to location manager Rory Enke.”

“From this place, you could see the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, Transamerica — you kind of get your highlight reel of San Francisco from that rooftop,” director Mark Waters says.

David, who is a landscape architect, created a heavenly rooftop garden for Elizabeth before leaving.

I won’t spoil the ending for those of you who haven’t seen it, but it was kind of a surprise. Did you see it coming?

Click Here to See More TV & Movie Houses, Including:

• The Victorian in Mrs. Doubtfire
• Paul & Jamie’s Apartment in Mad About You
• Andie MacDowell’s Apartment in Green Card

Several of you wrote to tell me I should check out the sets on the ABC Family show Pretty Little Liars. When I heard that some of it is filmed on the same backlot used for Stars Hollow on Gilmore Girls (one of my favorite shows ever), I immediately got the first season on DVD and started watching.

The show is about four high school girls–Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily–who are dealing with the mysterious disappearance of their friend Alison. They live in the posh town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania, in four beautiful houses–let’s take a look!

Aria’s House:

Aria’s family lives in a beautiful old Craftsman-style home in Rosewood.

Holly Marie Combs plays Aria’s mother Ella. The photo above and below were taken from the pilot when the Montgomery family was moving into the house. Check out that old stove behind her:

The police show up at the girls’ houses a lot on this show–the minute they get out of one scrape, they get into another!

Chad Lowe plays Aria’s dad Byron, whose affair with a fellow teacher has put his marriage in jeopardy.

Aria’s brother Mike’s bedroom:

Aria’s bedroom:

Aria is played by Lucy Hale. How I Met Your Mother fans (love that show!) may recognize her as Robin’s little sister.

Spencer, Hanna, and Emily gather in Aria’s bedroom to discuss the latest mystery in their search for Alison’s killer:

The show is based on a popular book series by Sara Shepard.

A close-up of Aria’s desk:

Hanna’s House:

Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson) lives in a traditional two-story with a white-picket fence. Since her dad left them, she and her mom Ashley (played by Laura Leighton) are having to work hard to keep up appearances.

Most of the scenes in Hanna’s house play out in her white kitchen:

Hanna was supposedly “the fat one” who went to great lengths to lose the weight and reinvent herself after Alison disappeared. In flashbacks they make her wear baggy sweats to try to convince us she was chubby.

We finally got a look at Hanna’s bedroom recently, in Season 2.

Her yellow lamp looks like the ones Rachel Zoe has in her dining room, doesn’t it?

Emily’s House:

Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) and her mother Pam (Nia Peeples) in the kitchen:

Living Room:

The house is painted in shades of soft green and tan.

It almost feels like pages out of a furniture catalog to me.

Dining Room:

Emily’s Bedroom:

Norman Buckley, who has directed episodes of the show, wrote about creating the look for it:

The town of Rosewood doesn’t feel so much like a real town as a state of mind.  Since PRETTY LITTLE LIARS is shot almost completely on the Warner Brothers lot, there is a dream-like quality to some of the compositions that feels melancholy and mysterious, very Hopper-esque.

It’s a really interesting discussion about how Edward Hopper’s paintings have influenced the show. You can read the rest on Buckley’s blog.

I would’ve killed for a big windowseat like this in my bedroom growing up!

Spencer’s House:

Spencer’s family is the wealthiest of them all. They always seem to come and go through this back door to the kitchen, so I haven’t been able to snap a pic of the front of the house yet.

At the beginning of the series, the kitchen looked like this:

Then at some point during Season 1 it got a makeover.

Rich-girl Spencer Hastings is played by Troian Bellisario.

Spencer’s bedroom:

You can see what an overachiever Spencer is just by looking at all the ribbons on her wall above her desk:

Alison’s House:

In the pilot, we see new owners moving Alison’s former home, and there are boxes of her things left out on the sidewalk to be thrown away.

I had a hard time believing her family wouldn’t taken their daughter’s belongings with them when they moved–or that her friends wouldn’t go through them to see what should be saved.

Is anyone else watching Pretty Little Liars? Ever recognize anything from Stars Hollow? Interestingly, the production designer is Rachel Kamerman, who also worked on Gilmore Girls. A lot of the town scenes look familiar, when they’re walking past the shops or they pan past this white church:

Gotta admit I initially tuned in to the show to see the sets, but the mystery sucked me in! You can read more about it and catch up on episodes you missed on the official ABC Family website. Which house is your favorite?

More TV Houses to Gawk at:

• Gossip Girl
• Brothers & Sisters
• Gilmore Girls
• See ‘em all!

Have you seen the Jason Bateman-Ryan Reynolds comedy about a couple of friends who switch bodies (and lives) after making a drunken wish in a fountain? Well, I have to say the best thing about it are the sets, which are pretty fun to look at. The rest…well, it was a little over-the-top rude and crude for me. Hope that doesn’t make me sound like an old fuddy duddy, but gross-out humor just doesn’t do it for me.

This traditional white house in Atlanta that Bateman’s character Dave lives in with his wife Jamie and three cutie-pie kids, however, does, so let’s take a closer look at it, shall we?

According to an article in the L.A. Times by David A. Keeps, the movie was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia, where production designer Barry Robison and director David Dobkin found this house and decided it would be perfect as Dave’s “beginner McMansion.” (The exterior, anyway–the interiors were sets they built on a soundstage.)

Robison explained: “It’s not quite Colonial or Arts and Crafts but a pastiche of traditional elements. We noticed that a lot of houses in Atlanta had a similar style: dark floors, white cabinetry, iron railings, creamy walls, which we replicated with Benjamin Moore Linen White, and beautiful fabrics on windows and furniture.”

When Mitch (in Dave’s body–it gets kind of confusing) carries the twins around the corner into the kitchen, we can see a little more of the hallway behind him and the built-in china cabinet in the family room:

I recognized a few Dash & Albert rugs in the house, like this one. Love ‘em. That’s where I bought the striped one for my sunroom.

Looking into the Living Room…

They purchased custom furniture for the living room from Bungalow Classic in Atlanta.

I like the scene where Dave (as Mitch) tells his wife to ask him anything that only he would know. She asks, “What’s my favorite color?” And he draws a blank. Mitch (as Dave) says, “It’s celadon! Look around. There are accents of celadon everywhere in this house!”

I wonder if the set designers took their cue from that line when they set out to decorate the house, or if the actors took their cue from the sets!

The Kitchen:

I didn’t notice that little child’s desk and chair at the end of the island until I snapped this photo of the kitchen.

The floral curtains in the kitchen are an unusual choice. We’ve come to expect either simple valances or just bamboo blinds over kitchen windows, haven’t we? (It reminds me of Dorie’s charming bungalow kitchen, which is green and has curtains that come to the tops of the counters like this, too.)

Colefax & Fowler and Osborne & Little fabrics were used for the window treatments here and throughout the house.

The countertops are polished Vermont granite. Can’t say I’m crazy about them, myself. Do love the green tile backsplash, though. It’s refreshing to see something with some color and pattern instead of the standard all-white kitchen we’ve all come to expect in a house like this. (The tile is from Waterworks.)

The Dining Room:

Seemed a little odd to me that a young family like this would have its regular weeknight meals in the more formal dining room, instead of the kitchen. If I had twin babies, I wouldn’t be feeding them next to that linen fabric!

Leslie Mann, who plays Dave’s wife, is married in real life to producer-director Judd Apatow. They worked together on other comedies like Knocked Up and Funny People.

Love the striped runner on the stairway. Took several photos of it for my inspiration file.

There’s a windowseat at the end of the hall, outside the twins’ bedroom:

The twins’ nursery is pretty darn adorable, just like they are (they’re real-life brother and sister):

Dave and Jamie’s bedroom:

Robison told the L.A. Times that Dave leaves all of the decorating decisions up to his wife, so they created the couple’s bedroom as a “pattern-filled feminine space.”

You can see a little more of the fabulous windowseat behind Jason Bateman in this shot:

I couldn’t stop staring at the blue and white bedding. Love it.

The quilt and shams are from John Robshaw Textiles:

And you can buy the trellis duvet here:

So pretty!

The master bath ain’t too shabby, either:

Marble subway tiles, lighting, mirrors and plumbing fixtures were chosen from Waterworks and Restoration Hardware for an in-home spa vibe.

Mitch’s bachelor pad couldn’t be more different from Dave’s place with its vibrant and saturated colors–I loved the red Smeg fridge in his kitchen:

Production Designer Barry Robison describes it as, “a place he found in college and he’s never moved.” It’s the perfect apartment for a guy who hasn’t grown up and has no intention to.

You can find more photos and source information about the Change-Up sets at Cote de Texas and the L.A. Times. If you’re looking for something I didn’t mention, check there!

Did you see the movie? What did you think? Despite the rated-R language and yucky sight-gags, it kind of had a sweet message in the end about appreciating the life you have and making the most of it. I’m not sure I would have made it to the end, though, if it hadn’t been for the sets!

Hooked on Movie Houses? Click here to see more, including The Blind Side, which was also shot in Atlanta!

When I asked you which Christmas-movie houses you’d like to see that I hadn’t featured yet, I got a lot of requests for Orchard House from the 1994 version of Little Women.  I thought that was a great suggestion, so I watched it again over the weekend and revisited the warm and welcoming home of the March family. The sets in this one really are gorgeously done.

The exterior was built to look like the real Orchard House that was the longtime home of Amos Bronson Alcott and his family, including Louisa May Alcott who set her novel there. Here’s the real thing in Concord, Massachusetts, which looks almost identical to the movie version:

The exterior for the movie was built on Vancouver Island in a forest where there were two houses already built next to each other. They constructed new facades for each of them.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes shot of them filming outside the Orchard House facade:

The location was chosen because there was a second house already next door, which was necessary for the story (Laurie, played by a young Christian Bale, lived there), and the driveways connected.

The movie was filmed at the beginning of summer in Vancouver, so they had to add the snow to make it look like winter.

Laurie’s house is a complete facade in front of a real house that the owners continued living in during filming. The director, Gillian Armstrong, points out that it must have been dark in there!

Here’s a sample of one of the sketches done of how they wanted Orchard House to look–in this case the back of it:

And here’s how it looked in the movie:

The opening scenes of the town were shot in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in the winter (real snow). This was the first film that had ever been allowed to shoot there. They made an exception for Little Women because Louisa May Alcott was from the area.

The interiors of Orchard House were all built on a soundstage, and that’s where the majority of filming was done.

The Production Designer was Jan Roelfs and the Set Decorator was Jim Erickson. They really did an amazing job bringing these houses to life and making them feel like they were real, and had real history in them.

Gillian Armstrong, the director, explained in the DVD commentary that although the sets were built to resemble the real Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, where Louisa May Alcott lived, the rooms had to be built bigger to accommodate the filming equipment.

The colors are much starker and the look is more formal inside the real Orchard House, as you can see on the museum’s website. Lots of white walls.

Most of the furnishings in the Orchard House Museum belonged to the Alcott family, and the rooms are kept the way they did when they lived there. I’d love to see it in person someday.

The filmmakers wanted their version to look warmer than the real thing. They chose “restful, earthy colors in the greens and grays so everything blends together and feels as one in the home,” according to Armstrong.

The Alcott family bought a 12-acre apple orchard in 1858 that came with two early-18th century houses. They moved the smaller of the two houses onto the back of the larger one and named it Orchard House.

Alcott based the Little Women on her real sisters and gave them all different names except for Beth, who had died. She said she couldn’t bear to change her name–she wanted the character to be as exactly as she remembered her sister.

The house in the movie looks as sad as its inhabitants do after Beth’s death:

The fabulous Mary Wickes played Aunt March. (Loved her in White Christmas.) She died a year after the movie came out, in 1995.

The Dining Room:

Claire Danes was Beth:

The movie wasn’t greenlit until Winona Ryder, who was a rising star in the early ’90s, was cast as Jo. (I featured her house here if you missed it!)

The Kitchen:

The Bedrooms:

The cast had to take knitting and etiquette classes before filming so they would know how to behave like young ladies of the 1860s.

I thought Susan Sarandon was wonderful as their “Marmee.”

Look at the woodwork in this bedroom. Love it:

The shot of Beth’s empty bedroom after she dies chokes me up every time:

Meg gives birth at home–to twins:

The screenplay had the movie opening with the girls acting out one of Jo’s stories in the attic.

They later decided it made it too hard to get to know the characters, and the new beginning was shot of them wishing each other a Merry Christmas.

Here grown-up Amy (who was played by Kirsten Dunst in earlier scene) visits her sisters Beth and Jo in the attic. Amy, who was a budding artist in the novel, was based on Alcott’s sister May. She never became a successful artist as she hoped. She illustrated the first edition of Little Women, but her artwork got negative reviews.

May/Amy did, however, teach Daniel Chester French, who became an artist and sculptor. She gave him the tools that he eventually used to sculpt the statue of Lincoln that sits in the Lincoln Memorial. Pretty cool, right?

When May died, she left behind a 2-year old girl called Lulu. Alcott took the toddler in and raised her.

Meg kissing her future husband John (Eric Stoltz) at the front door:

One major change Alcott made in the story is the ending. Jo falls in love with a German professor and marries him. But in real life, the author had no real interest in men and never married.

In one interview she gave, she explained that she had decided to be a lifelong spinster “because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man.”

She did, however, have a romance during her time in Europe with Ladislas Wisniewski. She later said that “Laddie” was the model for the character of Laurie in the book.

Little Women was one of my favorite books as a girl. This is the copy I had on my shelves, and I must have read it a hundred times. Anyone else have this illustrated Junior edition?

I told my husband that I wished I still had my old copy, and he found one on eBay for me for Christmas. How sweet is that? It was one of my favorite gifts this year. Looking at the illustrations in the book really brings back memories of poring over the book when I was little and wishing I had a house full of sisters like theirs!

P.S. Visit my Movie Houses page to see if your favorite onscreen houses have been featured!

The holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life wasn’t a big hit when it hit theaters in 1946. It was nominated for several Oscars but didn’t win any. Then it was kind of forgotten, until it was rediscovered by a new generation who grew up watching it every December on TV.

Today it’s hard to imagine Christmas without revisiting George and Mary Bailey and their “drafty old house,” as he calls it, in Bedford Falls.

George and Mary walk past their future house, when it’s still empty and in disrepair:

Bedford Falls was a huge set built on the RKO Ranch in Encino, California. It took two months of construction and was one of the longest sets ever created for a movie. It ran 3 city blocks with 75 stores and buildings and covered 4 acres.

They transplanted 20 full-grown oak trees into the town to make it look like it had been there much longer than it had.

The remains of Bedford Falls on the RKO ranch were razed in the mid-1950s. There are only two surviving locations–the swimming pool in Beverly Hills High School and the Martini house in La Cañada Flintridge, California.

Capra’s inspiration for Bedford Falls was reportedly Seneca Falls, a small town in New York (you can read about it in this interesting article: The Real Bedford Falls). They have an annual “It’s a Wonderful Life” festival there every December.

For the winter scenes, the special effects crew used 3,000 tons of shaved ice and created “chemical snow.” Until then, movies used cornflakes painted white, but they made so much noise when actors walked on them that the dialogue would have to be dubbed.

The movie won an Academy Award for its snow. They really were special effects, too. It was filmed during a heat wave in California.

Mary Hatch’s house, where George visits and angrily insists that he never wants to get married:

Capra always had only one George Bailey in mind: Jimmy Stewart. But W.C. Fields was considered for the role of Uncle Billy (who was ultimately played by Thomas Mitchell). Jean Arthur passed on the role of Mary before Donna Reed was offered the part. And Henry Travers was considered for several roles in the movie before he became Clarence.

After their honeymoon gets abruptly canceled, Mary sets up an impromptu “bridal suite” in the abandoned house they once threw rocks at:

We see Mary fixing the place up and hanging a pretty toile wallpaper…

…but then we never see that paper again, do we?

Zuzu loves flowers, and her bedroom shows it! Her headboard, nightstand, dresser, and the crib next to her all have flowers on them.

I love this scene, when she refuses to take a nap because she wants to look at the flower she brought home from school. When a few petals falls off, she tells her dad to “paste them back on.”

We only get a glimpse of the kitchen–I always want to see more:

It’s a Wonderful Life began as a short story called “The Greatest Gift,” written by Philip Van Doren Stern. Unable to find a publisher for his story, he made 200 copies and sent them out to family and friends in his Christmas cards in 1943.

Word of the short story spread and RKO Studios bought it for $10,000, intending to turn it into a movie with Cary Grant as the suicidal man who learns how precious his life really is.

Several unsuccessful scripts later, Grant moved on and filmed another holiday favorite, The Bishop’s Wife, instead.

But then Frank Capra read the story and felt it had the potential to “encapsulate everything I was trying to say in all of my films,” as he said in an interview. “That every man is born to do something.”

He bought the script from RKO for the same $10,000 they had paid and changed the title to It’s a Wonderful Life. He later called it his favorite of all his movies.

I must have seen this movie a million times over the years, but I still get teary at the happy ending. Did you know the script originally called for it to end with him on his knees, saying the Lord’s Prayer? They decided to bring the entire town into the final scene instead. Hard to imagine it any other way!

Looking down at the Bailey house from heaven, when the angel Clarence is told that George needs help:

This movie always makes me happy, even after all these years. And it really does make you think about what your life is about and what you can do to make the world around you a better place, doesn’t it?

More Houses from Classic Christmas Movies I’ve Featured:

• Home Alone
• National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
• Christmas in Connecticut
• A Christmas Story
• List of All Movie Houses

In 1994, John Hughes produced and wrote the screenplay for an updated version of the holiday classic Miracle on 34th Street. Elizabeth Perkins was cast as the tough and practical single-mom Dorey Walker, and Mara Wilson played her daughter Susan, who’s been taught not to believe in fairytales–and that includes Santa Claus.

Watching the movie again, I was struck by how they tried to give the sets a timeless look. First, let’s take a look at Dorey’s New York City apartment, and you’ll see what I mean.

Although there are some signs of the ’90s if you’re looking for them, the apartment isn’t as dated as you’d expect it to be after nearly 20 years. The white kitchen with stainless-steel appliances, for example, still looks great:

Susan leaves a video message for her mother on the TV, letting her know she’s watching the parade over at their neighbor Bryan’s apartment:

The windowseat in Bryan’s apartment next door has a perfect view of the parade that Dorey orchestrated:

Dorey’s place always looks dimly lit, serious and serene.

Kris Kringle–played by Richard Attenborough–comes to visit and makes shadow puppets of his reindeer on the wall for Susan:

Dylan McDermott played the neighbor, Bryan Bedford (his name was Fred Gailey in the original). Here he shares Thanksgiving dinner with them and insists on saying grace first:

Remember the early-90s “power suits” that paired long blazers over short skirts? I think we have “Melrose Place” to thank for that one!

I read that they planned to have a little boy in the movie instead of a girl, but Elizabeth Perkins refused to join the project if the story was changed that much from the original.

Unlike the original, which was filmed in New York City, this version was shot in Chicago. Macy’s refused to give producers permission to use their name for this one, so they substituted the made-up Cole’s Department Store for it. (When we were watching it over the weekend, my daughter Lily asked, “Kohl’s? It doesn’t look like a Kohl’s!”)

Kris Kringle babysits Susan and she tells him what she wants for Christmas…

This yellow house. Oh, and a dad and baby brother to go with it, please!

Sure enough, Kris comes through for her. Bryan and Dorey get married (in one of the oddest wedding ceremonies ever, while Susan is apparently back at the apartment by herself), and the next day they’re handed the keys to Susan’s dream house:

Just a little bigger and fancier than the one in the original! Our vision of what a “dream house” is seems to have grown a lot since the ’40s. (You can see Natalie Wood’s Cape Cod from the first movie here.)

The filming location for this yellow house is listed as Lake Forest, Illinois. I wasn’t able to track down the exact location in Lake Forest, so if you know where it’s at, fill us in!

The rooms in Susan’s new house in the 1940s were were all empty. But here they’re all lavishly decorated for Christmas:

They’re told that it comes furnished, courtesy Kris Kringle.

There’s even a fire blazing in the fireplace, and three stockings hanging on the mantel:

So Susan got exactly what she wished for–a yellow house in the suburbs, a dad, and–well, she says, she can wait a little longer for that baby brother…

Last week I showed you the sets from the original Miracle on 34th Street. Do you have a favorite version?

All three actors have been in other projects with great houses I’ve featured:

• Dylan McDermott is an unlucky homeowner on “American Horror Story”
• Elizabeth Perkins was Diane Lane’s sister in Must Love Dogs
• Mara Wilson was Robin Williams’ daughter in Mrs. Doubtfire

Last week I asked you what your favorite holiday-movie houses were and was amazed by the number of tweets, Facebook comments, and emails that came pouring in. One of the most mentioned was the classic Miracle on 34th Street, starring a precocious 8-year old Natalie Wood as the little girl who doesn’t believe in Santa Claus.

My favorite part of the movie has always been when Susan sees her dream house and realizes that Kris Kringle has gotten it for her. That made a big impression on me as a kid. “You mean I can ask Santa for a HOUSE?”

Maureen O’Hara starred as Doris Walker, a single mom who works for Macy’s, organizing the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Let’s take a look at her New York City apartment. There are curtains on either side of the entry:

The movie was deemed “morally objectionable” by the Legion of Decency at the time because it featured a divorced woman. We see her neighbor Fred Gailey does a double-take when Susan tells him that her parents divorced when she was a baby.

It was also less common to see a successful professional woman onscreen in 1947, when the movie came out.

Edmund Gwenn played the kind-hearted old man who insists he’s Kris Kringle. He’s still one of my favorite onscreen Santas.

Maureen O’Hara always seemed so, well, grown up in this movie that I was surprised to learn she was only 27 when she filmed it.

One of my favorite things to see in old movies are the kitchens because those are the rooms that have probably changed more than any other over the years. Considering how roomy the rest of the apartment is, this one is pretty cozy!

Susan’s bedroom:

When Kris asks her what she wants for Christmas, Susan shows him this picture of a Cape Cod on Long Island:

Doris could look through her window into her neighbor Fred’s apartment and see her daughter watching the parade with him:

Fred (played by John Payne) had the perfect view of the parade from this windowseat:

The impressive scenes of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade were footage of the actual parade held in 1946. Edmund Gwenn was really Santa that year, too. They had to get all the shots they needed that day because retakes were impossible to get later.

We get a glimpse of Fred’s kitchen:

In the end, Susan thinks Kris Kringle hasn’t come through for her, but she keeps telling herself, “I believe. I believe,” as she’s riding in a car with Fred and her mother. Then she sees the simple Cape Cod she had wished for with a “For Sale” sign in the yard.

I still get chills every time she cries, “Stop, Uncle Fred, stop!” and then runs up to the front door.

Here’s how the house looks today. It’s located in Port Washington, New York, and someone added a dormer window to it along the way. (Photo via CNBC.)

Love the scene where little Susie runs around the empty house, squealing with delight. That’s exactly what I would do!

Every time I see the movie I’m disappointed that we don’t get the full tour of the house. Or get to see it after they move in with all their furniture in it! Is that too much to ask?

Kris Kringle’s cane is in the corner by the fireplace, which convinces them that maybe there is a little Christmas magic involved in all this, after all…

A few of you mentioned that you love the remake of this movie that John Hughes cowrote and produced in 1994, so I watched it again last night, too. Susan’s dream house in that version is a big, beautiful yellow house that is fully furnished and decorated for Christmas. We’ll take a look at that one next Monday! (Did you see which Christmas-movie house got the most votes in last week’s poll?)

P.S. Maureen O’Hara was in another classic that features great sets: The Parent Trap.

 Looking for photos from your favorite movie? Check the list!

Hey, Guys! I could use your help. I’ve been asked to write a post for Zillow about the best Christmas-movie houses, and I’d love to hear your faves. I’m also trying to decide which ones to feature on Movie Mondays in December and am taking suggestions.

Here are 5 of my favorites I’ve already featured that I think should make the list. Vote to let me know which one should take the top spot (click the links to see interior photos).

White Christmas:

Home Alone:

A Christmas Story:

Christmas in Connecticut:

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation:

A couple more Christmas-movie houses I haven’t featured yet but have always liked are Holiday Inn and It’s a Wonderful Life, so I’m adding those to the poll. Vote below!
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I’ve also featured some that were memorable for having great houses dolled up for the season, but probably aren’t thought of as strictly “Christmas movies” (although a few might be up for debate!):

The Holiday

Meet Me in St. Louis

While You Were Sleeping

Alvin & the Chipmunks

The Family Stone

Funny Farm

Stepmom

Every December I watch Funny Farm again. “Cue the deer!”

Any other classic Christmas-movie houses I’m forgetting about? Maybe Little Women? Let me know if you have any requests!

Are you one of the many Twihards who stood in line to catch the latest installment of the Twilight Saga over the weekend? Breaking Dawn Part 1 pulled in a staggering $30.25 million on Friday alone. Wow.

I read all of Stephenie Meyers’ books in the series when they first came out and was frankly not crazy about this one (couldn’t get past the “baby” storyline). I was eager to get a look at Bella and Edward’s honeymoon hideaway on “Isle Esme,” though, so I tracked it down. It’s a pretty fabulous beach house. Wanna see?

They filmed the honeymoon scenes at Casa em Paraty, a luxury vacation home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The setting is gorgeous.

The house was designed by Thiago Bernardes of the architecture firm Bernardes + Jacobsen. It was featured in the January 2011 issue of Architectural Digest. Here’s a shot of the front of the house that appeared in the magazine:

AD describes it as “a rustic beach house built for the Fernandes family on the Brazilian fjord of Saco do Mamanguá. The area is so remote that the family can only reach its house by boat or helicopter.”

These pivoting glass doors are so cool. They were designed to let the sea breezes blow through the house. Ahhh…

In this screenshot from the trailer, Edward carries Bella over the threshold by pushing the glass door open:

Architectural Digest recently wrote about this Brazilian beach house again, featuring an interesting interview with the film’s production designer, Richard Sherman. He tells AD:

“A number of the scenes that take place inside the Brazil beach house were actually shot on sets—a bedroom, bathroom, and courtyard—built on a Louisiana soundstage. The production team’s challenge was to create a seamless transition between the house and the sets.

“We see Edward and Bella arrive at the house at night. Then she walks through the living room, and the scene cuts to our set. You can’t tell the difference. It looks like a part of that house.”

Sherman says they even recreated their own version of the exterior of the house with visual effects when they arrive on the boat. “What you see of the real house is the front door, the steps leading up to it, the veranda, and all those glass doors.”

Rates range from $7,000 a night to $15,000, depending on the time of year. So, you know, not for the budget traveler.

I played chess on my honeymoon, too…didn’t you?

This walkway spans from the master bedroom on one side of the living room to more bedrooms on the other:

Bella walks into the honeymoon suite with the white canopy bed, which is actually a set built back in Louisiana (another crappy screenshot from the trailer–will have to wait until the DVD comes out to get better ones):

In the book, the house is on an island owned by Edward’s “mother,” dubbed Isle Esme. It was a gift from her husband Carlisle. It has “the pale-on-pale color scheme preferred by the Cullens.” In the bedroom is an “absolutely huge white bed in the center of the room, hung with billowy clouds of mosquito netting.”

There are 6 bedrooms in the house. This is the master:

I featured Bella’s house and both of the houses used for the Cullens in the past (different houses were used in different movies), so I was trying to figure out if they were the same sets in this one. Turns out Bella’s is the same, but they rebuilt the entire 3-story Cullen house on a soundstage in Louisiana, with exteriors shot in Vancouver.

You can moor your boat right off the beach when you visit. Something to keep in mind when planning your trip!

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson play lovebirds Bella and Edward. My husband was dragged went to the last installment in the Twilight series with me and complained that there’s at least a 5 second delay between each line of dialogue. He swears the movie would have been half as long if they didn’t spend so much time staring mutely into each other’s eyes. Ha. He has a point.

They created a big, open kitchen on a soundstage, but I couldn’t find any photos of it. Or the master bath, for that matter. Bummer.

In the novel, Stephenie Meyer set the honeymoon on an island in the middle of nowhere. That presented a challenge for location scouts. Hard to find something that remote. After four weeks of searching, they settled on this house, even though there are views of other tropical islands from here.

The aerial view of the property:

Have you seen Breaking Dawn yet? What did you think? Did Edward and Bella’s honeymoon house look the way you imagined it would? More photos and information at the Casa em Paraty website, Architectural Digest, and Casa Sugar. AD photos taken by Iain Kemp.

More Twilight Goodness:

• Bella’s House in Twilight
• The Real Cullen House from the First Twilight Movie
• Edward’s House from New Moon For Sale