Oscar-worthy decor: Five ways to give your home movie star looks
If you’ve had a conversation about the movies at all this years, it’s likely these five films came up: Barbie, Oppenheimer, Poor Things, Maestro and Saltburn. There was so much to discuss, from America Fererra’s rousing Barbie speech, to Bradley Cooper’s Maestro nose, to that scene in Saltburn.
If you are a décor nut like me, you might even have discussed these films’ most important characters - the sets.
This year the biggest films were all about immersing you in their cinematic world, with rich, often over-the-top production design.
There was the bubblegum pink pandemonium of Barbie’s imaginary land, contrasted starkly with the austere black and white 40s décors Christopher Nolan’s 7 Oscar winning Oppenheimer. Bradley Cooper’s Maestro gave us a two-hour-nine-minute tour through Hollywood’s design history.
And we ended the year rolling around in the lush, maximalist dreams of Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things, and Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn.
We can’t all move into a 14th century English mansion house filled with vintage Turkish rugs and Elizabethan antiques - more’s the pity - but we can learn something about design from these films.
Here’s how to bring a little of 2024’s Hollywood style into your home.
Barbiecore
They reckon that the world ran out of pink paint when they were making the sets for Barbie. Anticipation of the film was so high, Barbiecore almost became a thing. But hot bubblegum pink is a hard sell for any home outside a child’s bedroom.
There are ways to include that kind of playfulness, however. But they often come at a price. Think 60s style beach umbrellas, Phillip Starck-style Ghost chairs and colourful Kartell lamps. Oppenheimer v Maestro
Both films are set in the 40s (with Maestro taking us all the way into the 80s), and both films feature a character whose last name starts with Oppenheim (Cillian Murphy’s titular J. Robert Oppenheimer in one, and Matt Bomer’s David Oppenheim in the other). But stylistically, they couldn’t be more different.
Nolan’s vision is one of Ivy League labs, academic homes, bleak desert landscapes and utilitarian office buildings. Cooper leads his audience through a potted history of Hollywood style, both cinematically, and in terms of production design, changing the film’s look to match each decade of Leonard Bernstein’s career.
There’s something engaging about 40s chic, however, with some style-watchers predicting that proto-mid century style will make a come back in 2024. Think faded jewel tones, late deco curves, scenery-print barkcloth, bold ethnographic art, and industrial office furniture.
Poor Things, great décor
I can’t tell you that I enjoyed Poor Things. I can’t even tell you that I respect Poor Things, but I can tell you I wish there was more slightly surreal, Belle Epoch - Art Nouveau design in the world.
The swooping organic shapes, rich jewel tones and decoration for decoration’s sake is everything a maximalist lives for in this greige, minimalist life. Think Tiffany-style lamps, lead light windows, Simon Lewis Ward’s giant cast concrete knuckle bones in your living room.
Salty over Saltburn
It’s been four and a half months since I saw it and I’m still thinking about this brilliant film - and only about 60% of that is down to the bath scene. The rest is all about that house.
How did this film not get an Oscar nom? Spoilers, but who wouldn’t slowly and methodically pick off a family of self-centred toffs to get their hands on a 14th-century mansion packed with antiques? Let’s be real.
The look is old-world casual, vintage charm, stuffed velvet sofas that once belonged to Granny, vintage Persian rugs, china cabinets full of blue and white crockery, piles of books on every surface, oak standard lamps, charcoal sketches, and yes, clawfoot bath tubs.