I came across this article from Lonny Magazine last week and the title made me laugh. A fait accompli, assumed to be true because who wouldn’t want to live in one of the homes created for a Nancy Meyers film? Most of them seem to be spacious, beautifully decorated, and located in picture-perfect locations.
Lonny and I are in good company when it comes to admiring them; Architectural Digest, Elle DÉCOR, and Traditional Home along with countless bloggers have done posts on Meyers’s design taste. Honestly, it seems like there’s more excitement about the set decoration than the plot of her upcoming movies, The Intern and Chelsea Hotel.
The seed must have been planted because this weekend I felt compelled to watch Something’s Gotta Give. Since then I’ve been thinking about why Nancy Meyers’s movies and their story-specific interiors are so appealing to me? Why are some of the earliest images I ever pinned stills of the interiors from It’s Complicated? What is it that makes so many people swoon for her decorating style?
My theory has a few elements but the crux of the argument is that her ‘homes’ are the perfect balance of the ideal with the real. They seem attainable, earthy, and real. It’s easy to imagine re-creating that welcoming, casual vibe in our own homes with just some simple white paint, pale blue slipcovers, and sisal rugs.
At the same time, her movies and their gorgeous sets give us, the humble viewer, a mental vacation. She takes us to the aforementioned picture-perfect locations where linen pants never get wrinkled, pancakes are the go-to late night snack, and Keanu Reeves is an ER doctor who makes house calls. I think that’s what makes her movies and her sets so appealing – the simplicity of the good life distilled into two hours with just enough reality to keep us dreaming.