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Whether it’s Meryl Streep’s casual California kitchen in It’s Complicated or Diane Keaton’s East Hampton Beach home in Something’s Gotta Give, the category of cozy late-’90s and early-aughts interiors is practically owned by movie director Nancy Meyers. In recent years, the look has re-entered the interior design zeitgeist in a serious way, a backlash against longstanding minimalism and the Marie Kondo method that had homemakers stripping down rooms to their bare essentials.
“Nancy Meyers rooms are not sterile,” says Cori Halpern, owner of Cori Halpern Interiors in Toronto. “There’s a lot of warmth to every space she creates, and each one is very layered in terms of lighting, textiles, objects, rugs and so on.” Halpern notes that Meyers’s countertops are never empty, but full of life and its objects: piles of books, bowls of fresh fruit, potted herbs, fresh flowers. “My style is similar,” laughs Halpern. “It’s the more-is-more aesthetic.”
Rather than editing down the contents of a room, Meyers’s approach is to fill a space with objects that reflect both the individual and what Halpern calls “the real mess” of life: “I think we love her interiors because they look like people actually live there and are imperfectly beautiful. You want to sit on those couches and around those islands.” Ultimately, Halpern says, the spaces evoke a welcoming vibe.
Take the kitchen in It’s Complicated. “She’s got layers of tactile elements in (it),” says Halpern, “lots of natural light pouring in, bamboo blinds, a white marble work surface, fresh flowers, open shelves with white dishes displayed, hanging copper pots, canisters holding wooden cooking utensils, and an inviting island with upholstered stools for family to sit at.” Most of her kitchens also feature a skirted cabinet curtain, a detail that adds old-fashioned texture.
In Meyers’s film The Intern starring Anne Hathaway, the kitchen is more modern but just as inviting. “There are some themes and recurring homey details,” explains Halpern. “You have fresh herbs on the windowsill in clay pots, visible cooking utensils, and open shelves again. It’s a very layered look with lighting coming from different sources.”
While Meyers is big on neutrals, Halpern notes that even the classic kitchen in Something’s Gotta Give features colour. “She puts a hint of colour in everything she does. It’s never 100 percent white,” explains Halpern. In the film, a darkmatte-green soapstone island features an inset sink and large shelves down below stocked with cookbooks, while the second serves as another work station topped with bowls and vases filled with flowers.
Glass cabinetry showcases white dishware, while retro hardware pulls and beige casual drapes add a vintage element. Beside canisters packed with wooden utensils and the cluster of displayed cooking oils, there’s even more cookbooks, sitting in a line along the kitchen counters. The luxury appliances don’t hurt either, a Wolf range and an oversized Sub-Zero refrigerator.
“People are looking for a more personalized approach,” says Tiffany Piotrowski, owner of the Barrie-based Tiffany Leigh Design. “This is opposed to, say, going out and purchasing generic objects to fill your shelves or just buying the look that everyone else is doing. People want their homes to reflect who they are authentically.” Piotrowski notes that Meyers’s gift is to bring a character to life through set design.
As Meyers herself put it to Elle Décor in 2012, “I see the house as a lead character in a movie. It tells you so much about a person.”
Even still, from film to film, her living rooms have running themes: soothing neutral furnishings in creams, beiges and browns that centre around an oversized coffee table filled with books. Slip-covers hang loosely over furniture, creating a cozy vibe, and there is always an oversized rug. In Something’s Gotta Give, a cushy almost-white sofa sits on a navy and white striped rug – the ultimate beachside backdrop; in It’s Complicated, the big rug is jute. Side tables abound but never match.
“In The Holiday, Cameron Diaz’s space is ultra-modern,” says Piotrowski. “She basically lives in this sort of white box house. But she’s still got incredible layered bed linens, framed art on the walls, oversized rugs and those great blackout curtains. And an amazing sound system.” Piotrowski explains that these interiors set up the contrast with Kate Winslet’s cottage home: “It’s more rustic with stone walls, wooden beams and a living room with big armchairs and mismatched fabrics.”
While patterns are usually reserved for pillowcases in the Meyers style universe, Winslet’s cottage features Jean Monro’s Salisbury fabric on an armchair. Tabletop lights are a must, as are candles. “I would say most designers don’t love pot lights,” laughs Piotrowski. “Similar to Nancy Meyers’s films, we are in an era of people romanticizing their homes again, and a big part of that is the lighting. Just not overhead lighting.”
Neutrals aren’t the rule in a Meyers living room, however. “In The Intern, she gives us this amazing pop of colour in Anne Hathaway’s Brooklyn brownstone living room with this gorgeous lime-green sofa – this is not a neon,” says Halpern. “Yet the other tones in the room are sort of warm whites and creams. She does this really great mix of traditional and contemporary pieces.” Halpern says this can be an antique newel post staircase or traditional French doors that let in natural light.
Of course, most of Meyers’s characters are wealthy, but for those who wish to recreate the aesthetic in a modest home, it can be done.
“In a condo, you need to use a bit more imagination,” says Halpern. “But you can use a new neutral colour – like the burnt orange she uses in The Parent Trap. You’d be surprised how much orange she uses, because it doesn’t resonate as bright.” Halpern says you could also do slip-covered furniture, textural details, soft lighting and mismatched throw pillows over neutral-coloured furniture.
“In a condo, to recreate the Nancy Meyers look, it’s all about layering: the rug, the slipcovers, the many sources of table lights. The mix of materials just gives you a sense of warmth.”