The Emmy award-winning sitcom Modern Family is about an unconventional extended family in California, filmed mockumentary-style.
Not only is it funny, must-see TV, but the houses of the three families that it follows are all fun to look at.
Let’s take a closer look at them, starting with Phil and Claire’s house.
*UPDATE: Claire & Phil’s “Modern Family” House is For Sale *
The “Modern Family” Houses
Phil and Claire Dunphy’s House
The staircase wall behind them is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Labrador Blue.
Phil and Claire Dunphy live in the suburbs with their three kids, Haley, Alex, and Luke.
“The kitchen is now truly the center of the house,” series creator Steve Levitan says. “We couldn’t do a show called ‘Modern Family’ if we didn’t see the kitchen as part of the dining and family room in one flowing space.”
Production Designer Richard Berg describes the Dunphy home’s style as
“Pottery Barn-Restoration Hardware Traditional Modern.”
The original title of the show was “My American Family,” and the concept was that they’d be followed around by a fictitious Dutch filmmaker named Geert Floortje.
His back story was going to be that he had lived with Jay’s family as a teenage exchange student and had a crush on Claire.
They dropped that part of the story but still incorporated the family interviews on camera.
Cameron and Mitchell’s Spanish-Style Home
A reader named Neal wrote in to say that this is his house:
“My house is a Spanish style SFR built in 1929 near Fox Studios where the show is actually filmed and virtually all interior scenes are done at Fox for all three houses. They do use my house for the exterior shots.”
They wanted it to look like the kind of home you’d find in the Hancock Park area, production designer Berg says, so they added details like tiled kitchen countertops, arched doorways, and crown molding.
The main rooms are painted in Benjamin Moore’s Louisburg Green.
The house is a mix of traditional, contemporary, and Asian design.
Eric Stonestreet, who plays Cameron says, “We like to joke that they
went to Asia to get a baby that would match their décor.”
In the funny-scary mural a friend painted for Lily’s nursery you can see the
faces were painted to look like Mitch and Cam’s:
On the show they live on the ground floor and rent out the upper level of the house.
Jay and Gloria Pritchett’s House
Series co-creator Steve Levitan says they didn’t have to look far to find the perfect house for family patriarch Jay and his new wife Gloria to live in because it’s right down the street from his own home:
“I would drive past it every day, and it looked like the modern house that so many rich divorced older guys seem to end up in.”
The front door has a distinctive and unusual look with its abstract geometric
mosaic of windows and a handle that is off center and diagonal:
That red wall in the entry is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Currant.
Production Designer Richard Berg says the concept was that the house was white on white when Jay was living alone as a bachelor.
Then his young new wife brought in the animal prints and vibrant colors when she moved in.
Jay complains about the overwhelming number of pillows in their bedroom:
The photos in this post are screenshots I took while watching the episodes.
You can catch the show Wednesday nights on ABC.
You’ll find set photos and some source information in an article at the LA Times.
The Dunphy house is on the market and you can read about it here!
Visit my Houses Onscreen page to see the other shows I’ve featured, listed A-Z.
Oh my goodness! Thanks for this! I adore Claire and Phil’s house. Not only does my husband have to deal with my calling him Phil and elbowing him whenever we watch this together, he has to listen to me complain that our kitchen doesn’t flow as well as the Dunfy’s does.
Thank you, Julia! Modern Family has become a kind of touchstone for my family. A group of us routinely gather in cyberspace and recap our favorite scenes, and we are all in agreement about how perfect each home is for it’s occupants. Richard Berg and his team did an amazing job capturing each family’s dynamic. Thanks for the behind the scenes scoop, and for all the design details!
Love Jay & Gloria’s home the best!! The art the color, very unique!
Do come and join my luscious bath & body giveaway!
xoxo
Karena
Art by Karena
The pillows! I’ve never watched this show, but now I’m tempted. The pillows on Jay and Gloria’s bed are hilarious.
You have to watch it! It’s one of the best ever.
I love all three houses! And I can’t wait to see the “Mad About You” apt. That was one of my favorites!
I absoultely LOVE this show and never miss it…I think I like Cam and Mitchels’ house best….love the turret.
thank you! and i can’t wait for mad about you!
Please! Every one don’t be seduced by the Restoration-Crate-Barn look it is evil infurnitureate.
Sorry spent the evening in Scripps Ranch and the Stepford like uniformity got to me.
Anyway, I thought the Cam and Mitchel lived downstairs in a duplex; didn’t they talk about asking their landlord if James Marsden rented upstairs when they found him in the Hot Tub? I realize that the home pictured is a SFR but in TV Land one season Greg Brady would have to become Quasimodo to move to the attic and two seasons later, without a construction crew, it is turned into a hip pad.
BTW divorced older guy gravitate to Modern because they never had input when the frilly dusty rose and sage curtains went up in the Master Bedroom.
That’s right. It’s a real house in real life, but on the show it’s supposed to be a duplex and they live on the first floor. Forgot to mention that! Thanks, Billy. -Julia
Thank you for featuring Modern Family!!! I LOVE the show and LOVE Phil and Claire’s house. Every week I find myself wishing I lived there with all of their decor around me 🙂
I just want to know where the large painting with the greenery/leaves/vine came from? I love that!
Hmmm…not sure. Sorry!
Good morning and Happy Spring, Julia!
I don’t watch this show, but my husband started watching it about 3 weeks ago and said it’s hilarious! I’m really curious and seeing these pictures makes me go buy the 1st season and give a try. I think it will be worth it, right? 🙂
Hope you can feel the Spring where you live. We still have snow here, but it won’t take too long to see the first baby-leaf be born. I miss seeing or garden green!
xo
Luciane at HomeBunch.com
I have never seen the show, but I like the first house’s decor best, and the exterior of the second one.
I feel the same way, I love the interior of the first house and exterior of the second one. Always dreamed of building a house that looks like that on the outside.
You’re right! Too funny. -Julia
Mortifyingly, my brother insisted I had to start watching the show because “your family IS the Dunfys.” And it makes me nuts to admit he’s right. My husband and I are always in hysterics because – whilst he’s less goofy than Phil – otherwise the dynamics are pretty much the same. Yikes.
Having said that, my house is nowhere NEAR as lovely and ‘finished’ as theirs. More “character”, let’s say. ha.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this show. It is my favorite! Thank you for doing a post on it! I agree, the house are so much fun to look at! =)
Sitcoms just have the very best houses. I’ve only had the opportunity to watch Modern family a few times but it is very funny stuff.
I’ve been waiting for you to Feature these House Thanks for Sharing.
I think I like Claire and Phil’s house the best. But Mitchell & Cameron’s is pretty wonderful, too.
In the Dunphy’s house, do we ever see that room that is on the other side of the stairs? (You would turn left at the bottom of the stairs to get into it.) I cannot figure out what it could be?
Good question! We never get to see that. In the pilot, there isn’t a doorway at the bottom of the stairs at all. It’s just a solid wall. The doorway appeared in the second episode, but they have never seen what’s behind it that I recall. -Julia
Claire and Phil’s is my favorite. It looks like a family lives there but it’s still pretty stylish and inviting. This is such a fun show!
I like the first house best. So very cosy. And that pink room, that one is gorgeous.
Love this show! I think Cam and Mitchell’s house is my favorite. It looks comfy yet elegant. Well. Minus the mural! Thanks for this post – it was fun to see all the houses.
Thanks for the tour Julia…this was fun! Love the show…we DVR it every week and watch it together. The bones of the modern house would be my favorite, but I would decorate it with more character…contemporary traditional.
Love the show! Thank you for doing this post so I can slowly drool over each house instead of the quick hungry peeks I get when watching it ; ) Love that blue in Claire and Phils : )
I love Modern Family, although I don’t really have a favorite house. I’m dying over the mural in Lily’s room.
JULES~!
awesome little ditty on Modern Family..one of my faves! Thanks for your awesome website..its always such a fun read in the morning with my coffee.. I love love love the looks of the Dunphys home on the outside, well and the inside, too!
That blue and brown stripe chair in the family room is out of this world! Would so so so look fabulous in a certain beach house I know..
Have a great week, girlfriend!
Lisa
I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU for doing a post about this show. I’m so in love the Dunphy’s home I can’t get enough of it. Half the time I’m not even paying attention to what’s going on during the show because I’m too busy drooling over the kitchen that flows to teh dining room to the great room. Just love it!
I love Jay & Gloria’s home. It’s just gorgeous! But for how our family lives – Claire & Phil’s home would be the best fit. Excess clutter wouldn’t stand out as a mess. It’s very family friendly. Love the show! Thanks for sharing the details on the homes.
OH, this was so fun! I love that show – and I die for Claire and Phil’s staircase.
I LOVE this show so much…the episodes are always hysterical! I enjoy the interiors so much too, which is why I’m loving this post! I love how you find all these interesting tidbits too…it makes watching the show even more fun!
I love that show! Thanks for the look into all the houses! Mitchell and Cam’s is definitely my favorite out of the 3 🙂
such a fun show and I’m usually not a huge fan of ultra modern but it is Jay and Gloria’s house that always grabs me. Love the exterior of Cameron and Mitchell’s but the decor inside leaves me wanting more.
Pam
Love this post! They are all gorgeous homes, though I gravitate towards Phil & Claire’s.
Am I the only one who cannot seem to remember every seeing the second home on 90210? It is NOT the same house used for screen shots, that’s for sure.
Hi! We cannot see the shiow modern family in france yet, so I watched the pics with not a lot of interest but I discovered the little thumb called “modern family and more house news” and I fell in love with the one room cottage; it’s so shabby and romantic, even if tiny, I could easily picture myself in it. Thank you for sharing it with us – even if it’s an old topic.
I may or may not have squealed when I read the title of this post. I <3 Modern Family! It's a hilarious show and I look forward to it every week. I also really love the interiors of the houses featured. I'm a big fan of Claire and Phil's. I love the colors used, I love the mix of Pottery Barn pieces and color and art. I LOVE the walls in the kitchen. Cam and Mitchell's house is also fantastic, complete with the mural of the two of them! haha Cam is the best, I think he's my favorite character, if I HAD to choose. This was a wonderful, comprehensive post! I never knew who they were talking to in the documentary style of the show, now I know! I love Movie/TV Mondays! 🙂
I’ve been looking forward to this post since you first mentioned it was coming and it did not disappoint! I love this show and from day one have been enamored by all three houses. Thanks for another awesome post!
This is one of my favorite shows. It’s been my favorite since the first episode. I would have to say I like Mitch and Cam’s house best, I love those green walls!!!
Nice post! I rarely see the background when watching sitcoms. Maybe you could do gossip girl next 😛
That was so much fun. Thanks for doing the work on this.
Well… at first I wanted to say the first one, but then I knew there’s a bit of a “backlash” against the Pottery Barn/Restoration Hardware look but then… gosh darn it… i like it. It feels comfortable and cozy and lived in. Better than the “mid-century Goodwill” I’m living in right now.
I have never heard of this show, but it looks like it might be pretty funny. The gay couple’s baby room is hilarious with that mural of them.
Love the show, and I like that each of the houses is distinctive and they’re all so different from one another. My favorite is Mitchell and Cam’s. Who could resist a Wallace Neff house? But I prefer the exterior to the interior. Other than the arches between rooms it has little of the 20’s Spanish Colonial charm. To me, the fireplace mantel looks all wrong for the period and style, and I don’t particularly care for the transitional furniture (except I do like the dining table). In fact, I don’t really care for the furniture in any of the houses – it looks like cheap catalog stuff to me. But the show makes me laugh which keeps me watching, not the sets!
I love Modern Family! I love the Dunphy’s house 🙂
Can you do Pretty Little Liars next? This show has beautiful homes!
Julia,
One of the best bits is that Cam played football for the ILLINI! He’s even wearing a jersey in one of the pictures you posted. Yeah!
Susan
I love the outside of Cameron and Mitchell’s house but don’t care for the decor much. I love the colors used inside Claire and Phil’s. I think Claire and Phil’s house does look like the All American Family home. Least favorite is Jay and Gloria’s. I like their kitchen but think the home would be more attractive by far with out all the bold colors.
I like the 1st one best.
Is it me or is the painting on the wall in house 1 a pomegranate at one point and then a tomato?
Wow, thanks so much for including me in this post Julia! Modern Family set decor has been the bread and butter of my blog haha, I get questions everyday about where to find the stuff seen around the homes. They’re such nice spaces. I think I like the interior of Cameron and Mitchell’s home the best and the exterior of Jay and Gloria’s house best. Thanks for the fun post!
Yes! i was waiting on the modern family post! I love the houses so much. If i had to choose I would pick Phil and Claire!
My favorite is definitely Phil & Claire’s house – love it!!!
And I absolutely love the show too!
I drool over Phil & Claire’s house… Inside and out! Their master bedroom is fantastic! Cannot remember which episode revealed it, but I wanted to take a screen shot of my tele and replicate that room!!
We love Modern Family and I have always thought the houses were wonderfully decorated. Thanks for sharing all the secrets.
What a great post, Julia! We love Modern Family–it’s a must-watch for us. It would be hard for me to pick a favorite of the houses. I think the show’s producers and designers did a great job of designing sets that really “fit” the three branches of this family.
I was surprised to learn that Cam and Mitchell’s place is actually the downstairs flat of a rented house. Did you see the episode in which the upstairs is supposedly rented to a cool Reiki trainee? So funny.
Great post! How fun to take a look inside the houses!
I am looking forward to exploring your blog a bit more!
Thanks!
Isn’t Cameron and Mitchell’s house part of an appartement building?
I think it’s supposed to be a duplex with Cameron and Mitchell on the first floor and someone else living on the second. -Julia
Hi Julia,
I just thought I would share this exciting info with you since I consider you a blogging bud 🙂 I sat down with the artist Nathan Rohlander (his art was featured in Jay and Gloria’s home as well as the Dunphy home) for an interview to learn more about his work and how he got his work on the show. He was kind enough to give me a signed print of the painting in Jay and Gloria’s home for a giveaway! I know we both share an interest in the set decor so I thought I’d share it with you.
Hope life is treating you well!
-Heidi@RecklessBliss
FUN post!!! LOVE the pomegranate painting in the Dunphy kitchen and have been on the hunt for it 😉
Thank you so very much you’re my hero believe me… I play the sims 3 and i’m always trying to copy the tv series homes so this is GREAT!!!
Ella and Jaden Hiller are actually both girls. 🙂
The Dunphy house is one of my favorite tv houses ever
What are the last names of the families
Phil and Claire Dunphy. Jay and Gloria Pritchett. Mitchell Pritchett and Cameron Tucker.
my favorite house is Phil and Claire’s house I love the outside and the way the main floor is decorated and the floorplan of the place. I wonder how much these homes actually cost?