As promised when I showed you inside the real beach house from the hit Netflix show “Grace and Frankie,” it’s time for a deep dive into the fabulous Spanish Colonial-style house where their ex-husbands Robert and Sol live.
Have you been watching the sixth season that started streaming recently? Robert and Sol’s house plays a more prominent role this year than in the past, so we get to see more of it than before.
But the fate of the house ends on a cliffhanger in the season finale that makes me wonder if we’ll see much of it in the seventh and final season of the show next year.
I think that if Nancy Meyers had a sitcom, this is what the houses on it would look like. I could watch the show on “mute” and still find it entertaining, thanks to the sets.
Take a look!
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Robert and Sol’s Spanish Colonial on “Grace and Frankie”
Robert and Sol are played by Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston.
The exterior of their house reminds me of the Spanish Colonial from “It’s Complicated.”
But with the wood shutters and clay Spanish-tile roof, it’s almost a dead ringer
for the house Jeff Bridges recently sold to Oprah (shown below):
Robert and Sol bought this house during the third season of the show.
Gotta love all that gorgeous bougainvillea around the front door:
The Entry Hall:
I took these screenshots while watching Seasons 3-6 so we could get a closer look,
starting with the entry hall. Through the archway is a hall that leads to the master bedroom:
The Production Designer for the show is Devorah Herbert.
In the third season, Robert and Sol took their kids to see the house before they moved in.
There are a couple of steps down from entry hall into the vaulted living room with beamed ceilings:
This is a show that seems to understand our need to see as much of the sets as possible.
In SSN 6 the camera gave us this wonderful overview of the living room, and I thank them for it! 🙂
Production Designer Devorah Herbert says they had to design the house “from scratch.” They didn’t even have an exterior location chosen yet when they began creating the sets.
They later found a house that looked like it would have interiors like these.
In an interview, she told Deadline, “In Seasons 1 and 2, they were living in what used to be Robert and Grace’s house, which was designed to emphasize the coldness — the chill at the heart of their marriage — and now we’ve got these two men who are free to really be themselves for the first time, so they buy a new house.”
The design was influenced by the characters who live here:
“Robert, who is more of a traditionalist, and Sol, who is more earthy, organic, and eccentric.”
This shot gives us a better sense of how the rooms are connected,
with the study off the entry to the left (below):
The Study:
The Living Room:
They decided to “use the bones of a traditional Spanish Colonial, which is very emblematic of Southern California; also, traditional, like Robert is. Then, we decided that the house would’ve been remodeled completely, almost like a metaphor for how they remodeled their own lives.”
The classic brown leather sofa anchors the room. I found one at Wayfair that looks similar with straight arms like these called The Whitson.
Herbert continues, “What I did first was I imagined the house as it originally was, in its original state, and then brought in contemporary elements, and tried to merge them harmoniously, kind of like these two guys merging their lives together.”
“The other thing we wanted to do is, we wanted to make sure it was really warm, and we wanted to show both of their personalities, but show them blended in a way that when you look at the set, it all feels harmonious.”
The Fireplace:
Robert and Sol’s Kitchen:
I love the living room, but if the number of questions I’ve gotten about the kitchen is any indication, it’s the real showstopper for most of you.
I’ve seen online debates about whether the cabinets are gray or blue.
After watching all the episodes and spending hours (literally) staring at various views of the room, I’m going to say they’re grayish blue. But more gray than anything.
The archway leading into the kitchen is wide and lined with Spanish tile:
What really makes the room memorable, though, is the gray and white-patterned tile on the floor.
Herbert says, “Every single thing in Robert and Sol’s house is real. It’s a real wood floor; the tiles in the kitchen were from Managua, Nicaragua, and we handcrafted the doors, and carved them, and stained them ourselves.”
Another nice touch for the kitchen: the La Cornue range.
“I think that authenticity in the materials translates into authenticity in the characters.”
Brooklyn Decker, who plays Grace’s daughter Mallory on the show, says Robert and Sol’s house is her favorite of all their sets.
She told Architectural Digest, “They have these painted encaustic tiles from Granada Tile in their kitchen, and I liked them so much I ended up buying them for my son’s bathroom.”
Some of the furniture was brought over from the house Robert used to own with Grace, such as the dining table below. It’s a very different vibe here, though. Much more casual.
I’m not sure where they got the exact curtains in the dining area, but you can find similar gray Ikat panels at reasonable prices on sites like Amazon, Target, and Wayfair. (Amazon affiliate link.)
Update: I just got an email from a reader who writes: “The dining room drapery is from The Shade Store, the fabric is Cheshire in color truffle. I am a design consultant at The Shade Store in West Hollywood – Melrose. The set decorators for Grace and Frankie order some of the window coverings through our showroom.”
Thanks, Ken! This is why I love my readers. 🙂
The Master Bedroom:
The hall that runs along the side of the living room leads
to the master suite behind those double doors.
An overhead shot of the master bedroom on their first night in the house
shows it’s a little more contemporary than some of the other spaces:
The fireplace in their bedroom:
The Back Patio and Outdoor Fireplace:
This is another great “room” of the house where a lot of the action takes place.
Who wouldn’t want a patio with an outdoor fireplace like this?
It reminded me of the backyard in the Reese Witherspoon movie Home Again (below):
When he’s giving his kids the tour of their new house, Robert says it was built in 1928.
I couldn’t track down any information about the real house where the exteriors were shot. If you’ve got any scoop on it, let me know!
Would you rather live in Robert and Sol’s Spanish Colonial
or in Grace and Frankie’s Beach House?
These photos are all screenshots I took while watching the show on Netflix.
I was kind of shocked by the way the sixth season ended and have my fingers crossed that we’ll get to see Robert and Sol’s house again next year.
They’ve announced that the seventh season will be “Grace and Frankie’s” last. Will you miss the show (and the sets) as much as I will?
For more information, see Architectural Digest and Deadline.
Check my TV & Movie Houses page to see other faves I’ve featured,
including a look inside the real beach house where Grace and Frankie live on the show.