THE SPANISH-STYLE CALIFORNIA HOUSE IN "HOME AGAIN"
- Sep 3, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Today we're looking at the Spanish-style hacienda from Home Again, the 2017 movie starring Reese Witherspoon. The film was produced by legendary Nancy Meyers, whose movie interiors have become almost as famous as the movies themselves, while the screenplay and direction were handled by her daughter, Hallie Meyers-Shyer.
The house is located in Brentwood, Los Angeles, and according to several sources, it was previously owned by Jennifer Garner and, before her, Cindy Crawford. So the Hollywood pedigree was apparently there long before the cameras arrived.
Home Again also has its own little tribute to Hollywood history. One of the rooms, belonging to Alice's father, is filled with movie posters and Academy Awards, very much like the Hollywood-inspired spaces we saw in Nancy Meyers' The Holiday. Both movies have that slightly dreamy, old-school L.A. feeling where the film industry is not just somewhere in the background — it's part of the house.
And the house really does get a lot of screen time: around 80% of the movie was filmed in and around this property. So the set decorators had plenty of opportunities to make every corner count.
The interior is eclectic, but this is California eclectic, rather than the New York version we looked at in The Intern. There are rustic elements, bohemian details, Spanish-style architecture, globally inspired decor and plenty of warm, slightly weathered textures.
A California palette: dusty pink, terracotta and a little bit of sunshine
Home Again is a light romantic comedy about starting over in your forties, but we're here for the house, so let's leave the plot alone.
Alice moves back into her childhood home with her daughters after getting divorced, and the interiors have this very warm palette of dusty pink, blush, peach and terracotta. It feels almost like the house is quietly marking the beginning of this new chapter: a home shared by three women who are starting over together. And there is a lot of pink. Probably more pink than Reese Witherspoon has seen since Legally Blonde.
But this is definitely not a Barbie house. The pink is surrounded by ochre, warm sandy tones, natural straw, rough textiles and weathered surfaces. The result feels much closer to a beautiful California sunrise than anything sugary or overly girly.
The Saarinen table that started a design revolution
The breakfast nook features one of those pieces that is almost impossible to mistake once you know it: the famous Saarinen Tulip table, designed by Eero Saarinen in 1956.
The table was part of his iconic Tulip Collection, which was later included in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. At the time, getting rid of the traditional four-legged table and chair bases was a pretty radical idea. Saarinen wanted to eliminate what he famously considered the visual clutter underneath tables and chairs, and the result became one of the defining looks of mid-century modern design.
The Tulip shape has been copied and reinterpreted endlessly ever since. If you like the look, search for tulip dining table or tulip chairs and you'll find everything from vintage originals to very affordable modern versions.
Spanish details, California attitude
The architecture does a lot of the decorating here. Terracotta floors, arches, exposed ceiling beams and wrought-iron details immediately establish the Spanish hacienda setting. Then the decor softens it with slipcovered furniture, pottery, woven pieces, colorful textiles and all those slightly rustic objects that make the house feel lived-in rather than staged.
The Pinterest-famous belly basket
The entryway is full of rustic and globally inspired pieces, including one of those belly baskets that you've probably seen approximately a thousand times on Pinterest.
The basket here is by Bloomingville, and it became one of those decor objects that somehow ended up everywhere, especially in dreamy nursery photos and storage ideas.
Ikea makes a version called Fladis, and there are countless similar ones around now. Search for woven seagrass belly basket and you'll see what I mean.
The entryway also has woven wall baskets and a rustic bench, another combination that works particularly well with this kind of Spanish-style architecture. You can find versions everywhere from Etsy and Amazon to more design-focused brands such as The Citizenry.
Alice's kitchen: blue, white and a whole lot of citrus
The kitchen has one of my favorite combinations in the house: blue-and-white ceramics against warm wood, terracotta planters and all those little hits of yellow and orange.
The blue-and-white pieces have that Delftware look, while the backsplash appears to use stick-on vinyl tile rather than permanent tile, a useful little trick if you're trying to recreate the look without committing to a full kitchen renovation.
Then there are the terracotta herb pots, bowls of oranges, pitchers of juice and the warm wooden butcher-block countertop. The whole thing has a little bit of that Coastal Grandma feeling, which actually makes perfect sense for a California house. It's the kind of kitchen where even the groceries are doing some of the decorating.
In the dining area, there’s also a Scandinavian classic that fits surprisingly well into this otherwise very warm, eclectic interior: the Wishbone Chair, designed by Danish designer Hans J. Wegner in 1949. Its distinctive Y-shaped back is where the name comes from, and the original CH24 has been in continuous production since 1950. Wegner was inspired by traditional Chinese chairs, but turned that idea into something much lighter and more organic, with a curved wooden frame and a hand-woven paper-cord seat.
The chairs in the movie look very similar to the original, and I found an almost identical version at Pottery Barn, which is a much easier way to get the look without going full Scandinavian-design collector.
There are so few little details on this kitchen counter that I ended up identifying even the dish soap. It's Murchison-Hume Heirloom Dishwashing Liquid, one of those unusually pretty cleaning products that doesn't need to be hidden under the sink. Murchison-Hume is known for making everyday cleaning products look almost like countertop decor.
The coffee machine in Alice's kitchen is a Breville espresso machine, another very California-kitchen choice.
The bedroom that made the internet stop scrolling
Photos of Alice's bedroom circulated everywhere after the movie came out, and the star of the room is obviously the headboard.
Ellen Brill, the main decorator on the set, explained in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that the headboard was made from rugs by Raoul Textiles. The company's collections still have plenty of textiles that feel close to the world of Home Again.
Another detail I particularly like here is the bedside arrangement: the nightstands don't match, and neither do the lamp bases, but the lamps themselves stay within the same soft, milky color family. It's a very playful decorator move — similar, but not matching.
And again, there is that pink. But surrounded by ochre, sand, straw and rough natural fabrics, it feels surprisingly grown-up.
A tiny home office above the stairs
Alice is planning to become an interior designer, so naturally she needs a good home office, and hers is tucked into a little landing above the staircase. It's a pretty simple setup: a rough painted desk, colorful watercolor-style prints, woven baskets and chairs with woven backs that echo the rest of the house.
There are also patterned curtains here that look very similar to the Bingham Printed Damask Drapery Panel from Ballard Designs.
It's a good example of how little it sometimes takes to make a space feel finished. Nothing here is particularly complicated, but the mix of pattern, texture and color does all the work.
The guest house
The same curtains appear in the guest house, which has its own living room and bedroom.
The coastal influence continues here, with stripes, woven furniture and natural materials. If you want to find similar pieces, try searching for turned legs table. There are versions at practically every price point.
The rug in the guest bedroom is the Jute Ticking Indigo Handwoven Rug by Annie Selke, a striped jute rug that fits the room almost suspiciously well. Similar striped jute rugs are also easy to find at more mainstream retailers.
The backyard is basically another room
As with so many Nancy Meyers movies set somewhere warm, the area around the house is almost as photogenic as the interiors. The main house and guest house share the same backyard, and quite a few scenes take place out here. So naturally, the outdoor spaces got just as much attention as the rooms inside.
The pair of rattan peacock chairs on the front porch are particularly spectacular — spectacular enough to appear right in the opening scenes of the movie.
The ones used on set look very similar to the Ediva Oversized Peacock Chairs by Baxton Studio.
The mysterious history of the butterfly chair
On the other side of the backyard, on the guest house porch, there are two canvas butterfly chairs.
These chairs have a surprisingly murky history. What we do know is that the original design appeared in Argentina around 1938, but the credit for inventing it has been attributed to several different designers over the years.
The earliest versions were made with leather seats. Today you'll find them in canvas, leather and all kinds of other materials, and they go by a ridiculous number of names: butterfly chair, safari chair, sling chair, wing chair. So if you're looking for one, search all of those terms. There is a whole rabbit hole waiting for ya.
Woven furniture, iron lanterns and a very California backyard
The outdoor styling continues the same language as the house: woven furniture, terracotta planters, textiles and those beautiful dark iron lanterns. Try cast iron pendant outdoor lanterns if you want to find similar ones.
There are also plenty of textiles outside: pillows, tablecloths and, finally, a boho crochet hammock with fringe hanging between the trees.
Search for boho crochet hammock and you'll find plenty of versions of this exact idea.
And then there's this final shot from the movie, which might be the most cinematic one of all.
Honestly, I can see why this house has been all over Pinterest for years. It's not because every single piece is spectacular. It's the combination: Spanish architecture, California light, warm colors, vintage-looking textures, woven furniture and just enough Hollywood fantasy to make the whole thing feel like a life you'd happily move into tomorrow.
