My sister-in-law Shelley was the first person who told me about The Help when Kathryn Stockett’s novel came out a few years ago. She gave me her copy and promised that I’d love it. She was right. Once I started, I couldn’t put it down. And when I heard they were making a movie out of it, I couldn’t wait to see it.

I thought they did a great job adapting it for the big screen. The ’60s-era sets were fun to look at, too. There were four main houses that “the help” worked at in the movie, so let’s take a look at them, starting with Skeeter’s classic antebellum mansion.

Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan’s Antebellum Mansion

The Help is the story of two women, Minny and Aibileen, who have spent their lives taking care of privileged white families in Jackson, Mississippi. “Skeeter” Phelan is an Ole Miss grad who’s expected to settle down and get married, but she’d rather be a writer. She decides to interview them and write a book about their experiences.

The novel by Kathryn Stockett came out in 2009 and stayed on the bestseller lists more than 100 weeks. Before she found a publisher, though, her manuscript was rejected by 60 literary agents who declined to represent her. Bet the ones who passed on it are kicking themselves now.

Although the book and movie have both gotten great reviews–and the movie garnered several Oscar noms, including Best Picture–they have also had their share of controversy. Not everyone loved it. For example, Ida E. Jones, the national director of the Association of Black Women Historians, wrote an open letter stating that “The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers.”

Stockett says it was based on her childhood experiences growing up in Jackson and her close relationship with her own nanny, Demetrie.

Production designer Mark Ricker and Set Decorator Rena DeAngelo had 47 sets to create for the film. They scoured flea markets, antique stores, and even some old attics to find enough period-appropriate objects to fill the scenes with. They did an amazing job pulling them all together.

The movie was filmed on location in Jackson, Clarksdale, and Greenwood, Mississippi. Ricker says the Phelan home was “lighter in tone and a bit newer in decoration choices as Charlotte (Skeeter’s mother) would have layered her own choices with the history of the house.”

Some of my favorite sets in the movie were the kitchens because you get a glimpse of their everyday lives in them.

Emma Stone plays Skeeter, whose crazy curly hair is the bane of her existence. Allison Janney plays her mother and makes her a bit more sympathetic than she was in the novel (at least for me).

One thing I didn’t like about the movie version was the change made to the story about Skeeter’s beloved maid Constantine, and why she left.

An aerial view of the property:

Elizabeth Leefolt’s Brick Ranch

Skeeter’s longtime friend Elizabeth lives in a more modern house in town.

Aibileen (Viola Davis) takes care of Elizabeth’s daughter Mae Mobly, who is pretty much ignored by her mother.

Ricker says that the rooms in Elizabeth’s middle-class ranch were designed to be “bland and uneventful.”

Elizabeth’s decor was inspired by Better Homes and Gardens decorating books from the era. I own one of them from 1956, and it does look like the photos from it, come to life!

Hilly Holbrook’s Traditional Colonial

Bryce Dallas Howard fearlessly played the horrible Hilly Holbrook. One of the funniest scenes is when Skeeter gets back at her by “misstyping” the newsletter to tell people to drop off their “old commodes” instead of their old coats at Hilly’s house.

Ricker says that Hilly’s house style was the “first phase of the new South,” and the interiors are “prim, perfect, pastel and icy”–like her.

My parents-in-law have these same chairs in their kitchen (below). Fun to see them pop up in Hilly’s breakfast room!

Bathrooms play a big role in this story. Hilly doesn’t want the help using hers and goes to extremes to make sure none of them do.

Celia Foote’s Plantation House

Celia lives on the outskirts of town with her new husband Johnny in the old plantation house that belonged to his family.

To say the house doesn’t suit her would be an understatement. She says she dreams of filling it with wall-to-wall white carpet and making everything more modern.

The stuffed bear in the story made me laugh–especially when Minny had to figure out how to clean it.

It came from a taxidermy shop in Wisconsin.

Mark Ricker says, “Celia’s house was a ton of work because we did everything in it. All wallpaper, complete reconstruction of the kitchen, building all the curtains, and the sheer amount of layering in the house. We wanted it to have the most ‘history,’ so we just kept buying and buying…”

The kitchen is really old-fashioned, and Celia doesn’t feel very at home in it (she doesn’t know how to make much more than corn pone), but I love it. So charming.

Octavia Spencer won an Oscar for her role as Minny Jackson.

Mark Ricker says he also looked to the classic Southern movie Gone with the Wind for inspiration when he took this project on.

Minny teaches Celia how to cook for her husband Johnny, who hasn’t been told that she hired help around the house:

The movie ends with Aibileen (Viola Davis) walking down the street, away from the Leefolt house, and saying she has raised her last baby. She’s going to be a writer now. It’s hard not to cheer for her.

If you loved the movie and the sets, you can read more about them at Atlanta Homes, Cinema Style, and Vignette Design. Photos via DreamWorks Pictures.

Hooked on Movie Houses?

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It’s not every day that you come across a listing that describes a property as “surreal, retro-industrial, and steampunk,” so I was eager to get a look at this New York City loft. I wouldn’t be surprised if an artist or set designer lives here because the rooms look like something out of a sci-fi fantasy flick.

There aren’t any photos of it, but the listing promises a “submarine-style front entry, complete with keypad locking system and working porthole.” Wow. You could call that a “unique selling feature.”

The 1,800 square-foot apartment is in Chelsea, and the asking price is $1.75 million. It has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.

Steampunk refers to the era when steam power was still widely used. It also includes elements of science fiction and fantasy. Think Jules Verne and how the Victorians in England envisioned the future would be.

The bathroom appears to be designed to look like something out of an old gas station. And I’m a little baffled by the toadstool in the shower…

Gotta admire the imagination that went into this place, even though I wouldn’t want to live in it. It’s too much like a movie set for me. Would be fun to look around, though, and meet the creative person who designed it.

Want it? For more photos and information, check the listing, offered by the Core Group’s Parul Brahmbhatt. Thanks to Lisa for finding this one!

P.S. Come back tomorrow to see the house from “Mrs. Doubtfire.“ Love that one!

Want to See More Interesting Properties I’ve Featured?

Maybe the real estate agent had been watching too many episodes of “Mad Men” when she listed this cool mid-century modern house in Georgia because the staging seems to have been inspired by Don and Betty Draper. Take a look and you’ll see what I mean!

Welcome to our mid-century home, built in 1960. It has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and a $300,000 listing price. One of our favorite things to do is to sit on the sofa and look out our big picture window in the living room.

All that’s missing from these photos is the cigarette smoke…

Is that Sterling Cooper calling? I hope pretend Don Draper doesn’t have to “work late” again (we all know what working late at that ad agency really entails!).

The pretend DD spends a lot of time on the phone…

And the pretend BD is getting a little fed up with it.

This house is really fabulous. I love the ceilings and those huge windows. Also love that she’s vacuuming that small skin rug in a dress, an apron, and heels. Ah, the good old days!

Thankfully, they chose not to stage the bathroom…

Agents have been getting pretty creative with their listings in order to grab our attention lately, and it’s working! We’ve also seen house tours given by a drunk doll, a couple of vases filled with flowers, and even a lime.

1/12 UPDATE: I just got an email from real estate agent Vanessa Reilly saying that she played Betty and that’s her boyfriend playing Don. She writes, “We actually renovate Mid-Century Modern homes here in a wonderful MCM neighborhood called Northcrest and this was one was one of our favorites.” Thanks, Vanessa–love this!

Check the listing for the rest of the photos and more information about the house. (Thanks to David for finding it!)

Two of the first houses I wrote about when I started this blog in January of 2008 were the Futuro, known as “The UFO House,” and the groovy Venturo Modular Home. They were part of architect Matti Suuronen’s creative vision in the ’60s and ’70s for housing that could work in locations where it might be difficult to build. He had some interesting ideas, so his houses are still fun to look at today.

I was surprised to see that these have been two of my most popular posts lately, considering I wrote them over 3 years ago and haven’t thought about them much since then. Turns out there was a mention on the MSN Real Estate blog that sent thousands of readers this way. So thanks to Teresa for the shout-out! I thought I’d mention them here in case you–like 99% of my readers–missed them the first time around. You can read all about them here:

• Futuro: The UFO House That’s Out of This World
• The Venturo Modular Home

Check out this ranch for sale, “minutes from the Las Vegas Strip.” It was built in 1974 and appears to have been decorated with every single style of wallpaper on the market at the time. Talk about a time capsule! And the entry hall is only the beginning.

We also have a dining room, in which the chairs were upholstered (camouflaged?) to match the walls:

In the kitchen, they weren’t content to leave the pattern on the vertical spaces. It also runs rampant across the soffit and ceiling–not to mention the floor:

This room has paint instead of paper (in Pantone’s Color of the Year!), but check out the wallpapered door that matches the rest of the hall. How groovy is that?

Some of the wallpaper actually looks a little more ’80s than ’70s to me, so maybe some rooms were updated along the way.

When I was growing up, my mom hired an interior designer who sold her on this exact same grassy-green colored carpet for our living room in 1984 (I’m having flashbacks):

The house has plenty of space–4 BR, 4BA, and 4,660 sq feet–and they’re asking $750,000. Could be a great deal for someone who either 1) loves wallpaper or 2) loves stripping it. It sits on over half an acre and has a beautiful in-ground pool, too. Lots of potential! Anyone up for the challenge?

You can see the rest of the photos in the listing. (Thanks to Cindy for the link–and the post title!)

Click Here to See More Unusual Things Found in the Real Estate Listings!

Dita Von Teese, known as “The Queen of Burlesque,” lives in glam retro style at home in L.A., and the February issue of InStyle magazine has some seriously gorgeous photos of it. The house was built in the 1940s, her favorite era, and was decorated by designer Stacia Dunnam.

The pose of Dita in front of her mirrored vanity looks like something out of an old black and white movie, and I imagine Betty Grable (who she says is her idol) would feel right at home here.

Her bedroom is “an homage to the Golden Age of Hollywood:”

Her library is decorated with Hollywood memorabilia and an art-deco inspired sofa:

But what I really flipped over was her pink kitchen with the checkerboard floor. So fun!

I couldn’t find the photos on InStyle.com for some reason, but Nita has the rest of them on her Mod Vintage Life blog if you want to see them!

Love Seeing How Celebrities Live? Click Here for More!

Check out this traditional one-story house for sale in Long Beach, California. The listing says it’s been “well maintained,” which seems to be code for “has remained in a time warp since 1950.” Not that that’s such a bad thing. But the new owner will probably want to update it.

Take a look and then tell us–if you bought it, what are the first 5 changes you’d make?

The house has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. It sits on a large corner lot and has an in-ground pool. Asking price is $660,000.

The listing specifies that there are hardwood floors beneath the wall-to-wall carpet, so I would love to see them exposed.

I love all the big windows.

The master bedroom looks a little sad right now. But it wouldn’t be too hard to cheer it up, would it?

One of the houses I lived in as a girl had the same wallpaper in the kitchen, so this really brings back nightmares memories. I’ll have to dig out an old photo of it to show you sometime. It was like that when we moved there, but it was a long time before we got around to changing it.

I would love to see this kitchen given a retro-cool vibe that fits the style of the house–no cherry cabinets or granite countertops, please. Oh, and I think that rounded peninsula with the shelves needs to stay, although I’m sure some of you will disagree.

If you could make 5 changes to the house, what would they be? How would you make this California ranch cool again? (Thanks to Cindy for sending me the listing!)

To See More Houses That Need Your Help: 5 Changes.

Vintage decorating books are one of my very favorite things. It’s so much fun to look back at styles that were once deemed chic and sensible. I have a Better Homes & Gardens Decorating Book from 1956 that has a “Redecorating” chapter I especially like. (That’s the cool chapter divider from the book above). Check out this dining room makeover it featured:

According to the copy, the dining room was “dark and dingy” before–downright gloomy with its hardwood floors, high ceilings, and “outmoded” chandelier.

But they fixed that! The so-called “high ceiling” was painted pink to “bring it down.” The depressing hardwood floors were covered with wall-to-wall carpeting. And the chandelier was replaced with “adjustable ceiling lights.” Wow.

I imagine that a makeover on this room today would include–at the very least–uncovering the hardwood floors again and bringing a real chandelier back in. It makes me wonder what we’re doing to our houses now that we’ll be undoing again in 50 years. Any guesses?

I posted this when I first started blogging. If you remember it, then you’ve stuck with me a long time! Go to Retro Rooms to see more.

Any Doris Day fans out there? I’ve always loved her movies, and one of my favorites is the 1960 family comedy Please Don’t Eat the Daisies. A big reason I enjoy it so much is the sets.

First they have a great apartment in New York City, but their family of six outgrows it and they buy an old, broken-down, haunted-looking house in the suburbs. I think it’s fun watching them fix it up. With a little Movie Magic, it only takes about 3 weeks!

Watching the kids running wild in the apartment made me think of 9 by Design, the addictive new reality show on Bravo. Have you seen it? For a few months, the family of 9 was staying in a 2-bedroom apartment in NYC and the noise was driving their neighbors nuts.

In the movie, the older boys put their baby brother Adam on the windowsill and give him bags filled with water to drop on peoples’ heads as they walk by.

Jack Weston plays Joe, a cabbie who wants to be a playwright. He comes to the door, hoping to give Larry his play to read. Kate is in the bedroom, frantically trying to get ready for the evening, but when her sons answer the door, they invite Joe in, saying, “Mom’s not busy. She’s just getting dressed.”

In this shot we can see the front door to the left and the one to the kitchen on the right:

David Niven plays Doris Day’s husband Larry, an up-and-coming drama critic whose rise to fame is going to his head. I like Niven, but there were a lot of times during this movie when I seriously wanted to smack him.

Poor Baby Adam spends most of his time in this cage. I think it was supposed to be funny, but I found it a little disturbing. No wonder the only words he could say were “Cokey-Cola.”

Kate and Larry’s Apartment Bedroom:

The Apartment Kitchen:

I like this kitchen with the hutches displaying Kate’s dishes and the cheery red and white skirt on the sink.

Deborah Vaughn’s Apartment:

Richard Haydn plays Larry’s friend Alfred. Here he’s visiting the glam apartment of the lead actress in his play, Deborah Vaughn (Janis Paige). This has to be one of the biggest, pinkest bathrooms I’ve ever seen:

Moving to the Country:

The book was based on the true adventures of the Walter and Jean Kerr family. John Kerr, one of their sons, says that his parents had actually planned to look at a house that was for sale across the street. When they couldn’t get in to see it, they bought this one instead.

Everyone thought they were crazy, he says, but they didn’t care. They bought it anyway. And they lived there for the rest of their lives.

The camera slowly pans up so we can see the house they’re looking at:

I’m guessing it was just a matte painting. If anyone knows differently, fill us in.

3/12 UPDATE: A reader just contacted me with the scoop about the exterior. John writes:

“The house stood on Lot Two of MGM Studio, and was referred to as the Vinegar Tree House. It was one of the few sets built to be photographed from both the front and the rear. The front of the house looked fully complete, roof and all. The rear of the house which played the P.D.E.T.D. house was indeed lacking a roof, thus you were half correct (about it being a matte painting)!

“The bottom portion we see in the film is real, and the roof and sky are matte paintings. The backside of the structure was called Bransom Cottage. The house was built in 1938 for the film Rich Man, Poor Girl and named as it was because of the actual vinegar tree in the front yard. Other notable films that utilized the set were National Velvet and Joy In The Morning.”

So interesting! Thanks, John.

The Entry Hall:

Walking through the house on moving day and surveying the amount of work that has to be done:

The Living Room as they find it on moving day, complete with suits of armor and spare tires:

Larry’s Study:

During the renovation, you can see they’re halfway through painting the woodwork:

Larry’s Study–Complete With Clown Painting:

In this shot of his study you can see the fireplace:

The Living Room After:

All the woodwork has been painted white, the furniture recovered, red drapes hung on the windows, and a big TV unit added to the corner:

Bedrooms:

A little trivia about the music:

The musical number Kate rehearses for the amateur show (“Any Way The Wind Blows”) had been written for the previous year’s Doris Day movie, Pillow Talk (1959). The song title was, for a while, even the working title of that film. (IMDb)

The Kitchen:

The Movie Was Based on a Bestselling Book by Jean Kerr

Playwright and humorist Jean Kerr was married to Walter Kerr, a well-known New York drama critic. Together they had six children—Christopher, twins Colin and John, Gilbert, Gregory, and Kitty.

Her story about city-dwellers with a big family moving to the suburbs and fixing up an old house was not only adapted for the big screen with Doris Day in 1960, but became a TV show in 1965.

I’m reading the book now and it’s hilarious. It’s out of print, but you can find old copies for sale in places like Amazon.com.

Jean Kerr’s Fixer-Upper in Larchmont, New York:

In 2003, Jean Kerr’s house was on the market and the Larchmont Gazette ran a story about the real house that the story was based on, announcing, “House For Sale: Seven bedroom Spanish-Tudor, six stone angels, three gargoyles, four copper wolf heads, five portholes, three lions, and 27 carillon bells.”

The asking price was $4.9 million.

The house was originally a carriage house for the mansion next door. In this photo of the living room, you can see that the style was similar to the sets in the movie. Not all of the woodwork was painted white in real life, however:

According to the article, “When the Kerrs moved in, they toned down some of the more flamboyant interior features and added spaces to accommodate a family of six active children.”

You can see the Gazette’s slideshow and read more about its history here. Life magazine photographed the house in 1958 with the boys having a snowball fight in front of it, and you can see it here.

Do you have a favorite Doris Day movie? One of mine has to be Pillow Talk (I featured it here).

Visit my TV/Movie Houses page to see the others I’ve featured, from Mr. Mom to North by Northwest.

Welcome to Freaky House Photos Friday! Today I’m encouraging bloggers to take a break from the picture-perfect rooms they usually show us. We get enough of those every other day of the week, and I thought it would be fun to see something…different. Like this lime-green “modern kitchen,” as the real estate agent calls it.

A reader found this listing in Australia (thanks, Eddy!), and it can be yours for about $5 million (*cough*). I don’t think I’ve ever seen a vaulted, beamed ceiling that points down like this. This room has got so much goin’ on that it definitely qualifies as “freaky.”

Okay, bloggers–now it’s your turn to show us some Freaky House Photos:

1. Add the permalink to the specific blog post, not your general blog address.
2. Link back to this party from your post so your readers know what’s going on.
3. Double-check to make sure your link works and goes to the right page so it doesn’t get deleted.