Mama, I’m Coming Home

Hello, it’s Amy here, thanks for tuning in today! I know you’re going to have fun listening to this episode and you’ll probably learn something in the process. Today I’m starting by asking you a question. The question is this: What makes a place feel like home for you? This topic came up in one of the design classes I teach, and it’s such a multifaceted and personal concept. In class, we were talking about how suburban New Jersey might feel like home to some people, or rural Germany might strike that same feeling with other people. It totally depends on different circumstances for different people. But defining what those elements are can be so helpful in creating a space for yourself that feels good- essentially defining your comfort zone. Like for me, a lot of what feels like home is actually a lack of interior design and an absence of aesthetic scrutiny, like lots of chunky recliners and layers of different sized walk off mats, disorganized record collections, plaid sofas, nothing that would show up in House Beautiful magazine, but it certainly sets a scene in my mind. That’s all pretty specific, and it might be really different for you - but when we can define it, we can decide how and when to include it in our spaces, and when to push past it and get outside our comfort zones. 

This can even be applied parasocially, meaning what feels like home in the various types of media that we consume. A familiar set design, color scheme, even the way characters are positioned in relation to one another, can become iconic and make that particular show or media feel like itself.  The example of this we’re going to dissect today is for the tv show The Bachelor. This show has been on the air since 2002, and has undergone multiple variations - there’s a new Bachelor every season, and a completely new group of contestants trying to get engaged to the Bachelor. The show films all over the world, especially once the Bachelor has chosen their top ten - travel is a major part of the fantasy of romance and falling in love. But since 2007, most seasons start in the same place, the glorious Bachelor Mansion, aka Villa de la Vina, a private home located in Malibu, California. So you’re going to hear a fair bit about the show today, but it all ties back to the psychological components of interior design, and how the places we spend our time affect us mentally and emotionally.

The past three seasons have been filmed in their own “bubbles,” away from the mansion, and without travel, to make quarantining for cast and crew simpler and avoiding any production shut downs, due to reasons we are all too familiar with. Each “bubble” season has taken over a luxury hotel resort and, with a few exceptions,  stayed there the entire time. The time away from the Bachelor Mansion has been a journey to say the least, but the nostalgia for the iconic Bachelor Mansion to be back in the picture is clear. With a new season of the show starting this week, promo’s were playing up the glorious return to the mansion, referring to it as “home.” So what is it about the mansion that makes it feel like home? Today, we’re are going to take a look at the elements that make this sprawling palace an integral part of the show, and a symbol of the show’s values. The Bachelor Mansion uses interior design and decoration to reinforce the tone of the show, in ways so subtile, it’s easy to miss. But we can all learn to incorporate these types of subtle details in our own spaces to tell our own stories, and make the places we spend our time truly feel like home.

But first, it’s time for the Color of The Week. Recently, the world said goodbye to an icon of style, humor, and spirit; Betty White passed away at age 99, just before the beginning of 2022. Betty was known for many roles and characters, but most iconically she played Rose Nylund on the Golden Girls. This show had style for days, with the characters often lounging in monochromatic pastel leisure suits in their Floridian living room with that rosy sofa. To bring in a little Golden Girls magic into your space, try a coat of Sherwin Willams Coral Island SW 6332. This warm, earth-tone will bring in all the fuzzy optimism of pink, but it’s muted enough to play well with other colors. Pair this shade with lots of green plant life, navy blue, and gray tones; and watch your space transform into a sunny paradise.

Our Bachelor Mansion is not like most homes. This six bedroom, nine bath, palatial estate sits on 10 acres, boasts two jacuzzis, four fire places, and one massive infinity pool. The home has been listed between 7,500 and 10,000sf (depending on the source). This is a distinctly Mediterranean Villa style home, it’s arched windows and doorways and elaborate wrought iron details elude to a sense of history and whimsy. Some reports date the home all the way back to the 1800’s, others state it was built by its current owner, a general contractor, in 2005. The unclear size and history of the mansion add a veil of mystery, and helps to bolster the home’s mystique - it’s both historical, and brand new. Just like the idea of falling in love.

The beginning of every season starts in the front of the house, in the evening, looking at a glistening wet stone paver driveway. This driveway is never dry, it’s always emerged from a fresh rain, as if the clouds have parted for our show to begin. We are greeted by a ten foot tall, cast concrete fountain, adorned with lions heads and surrounded by a handful of the ground’s 300 rose bushes. These rose bushes are always pink and yellow and always in the same stage of bloom - fully open, in two weeks the petals will be gone. As if to indicate that the time is right, we must seize the moment.

The rose bushes are nestled in a lush cluster of trees, vines, and plants, all dramatically up-lit and providing privacy to the house beyond. There are different colored spotlights to give the house more depth and dimension, blue LED’s towards the back and warmer colored lights in the foreground. The house itself is a warm caramel colored stucco, capped with a terracotta shingled roof. A heavily framed arched doorway leads inside, with small windows and Juliet balconies dancing in the distance.

Once we go inside the mansion, the interiors actually vary season to season. The crew transforms the huge open rooms of the house into a series of private vignettes, suitable for intimate conversation. The home is normally light, bright, and airy when not in production, but during filming, the walls are paint deep jewel tones. The homes owner estimated that walls have been painted nearly 50 times - each season a different color is chosen to correspond with the themes of the stories being told. I would love to get an excavated chunk of that painted wall from the mansion - like a piece of sedimentary rock, only with layers of Bachelor history. This season the walls are a deep green, intensely contrasted by dark red upholstered pieces and oversized art - perhaps indicating the conflict this season is rumored to bring.

All of the furniture and accessories we see are brought in specifically for the show, the homeowner’s belongings are put into storage for the duration of filming. So it’s important to note that any decor is an intentional selection. There is no shortage of texture, pattern, and knick-knacks in Bachelor Mansion. There are damask patterned curtains, hung extra long at every window, lamps, vases, art work, hurricane lanterns, and of course seemingly endless amount of flickering tea light candles. All the decor is a bit of a mish-mash, nothing really coordinates, rather everything is chosen to give visual interest to the background of tight, talking head close-ups.

The most prevalent accessory, by far are all of the screens. Elaborate, carved wood screens, freestanding room dividers, wall hung metal basket weaves or overlapping squares, in the bubble seasons we saw lots of wall leaning laters with blankets hung off them. These screens are often backlit by colorful LED’s or punctuated with more tea lights. The screens are layered, one on top of the next, in the background of almost every shot.  These not doubt provide tons of practical solutions for a filming crew’s equipment, but for the look and feel of the house itself, they add another layer of mystery - a clear view to the layout of the space is almost always obstructed by a screen, so it’s harder to tell exactly where in the mansion we are, if it’s night or day, raining or sunny - in some ways it’s a like a casino or a shopping mall. There’s only one time, and that is now.

There are however, a few persistent architectural elements that are visible in every season - let’s look at those. First we have the kitchen. This oversized space is often a conversation spot for the contestants during the day and is covered in dark wood, heavily detail cabinetry. This space feels exceptionally traditional, and has remained relatively untouched over the last 15 years. Next -  the carved stone fireplace mantle in the living room. This area has been used for both quiet conversations and group discussions, and while the furniture around it is often changing, the light colored, elaborately carved limestone remains consistent, and it the perfect dramatic backdrop for a confession of love or a tearful break up.

For me, the most important, consistent element that lets me know we are definitely inside Bachelor Mansion is what others might describe as a detail. The telltale sign we’re home in the Bachelor Mansion? The ornate Spanish tile that serves as a wall base, right where the floor meets the walls. This happens in almost every room and even shows up in some of the outdoor spaces. It’s a distinctly California detail and it is actually one of my favorite things about the house.

So, what does all this tell us about the show? The style we see is overwhelmingly transitional, meaning not super old fashioned, but it certainly isn’t modern. Often the show will travel to super sleek, modern hotels for the final proposal, but the mansion is always warm, cozy, and familiar. This is a physical manifestation of the show’s outlook on love and it’s target demographic. It's rooted in history and tradition. Like I said at the beginning in multiple publications, it’s been said that the mansion was built in the 1800’s. But that is starkly contrasted by other reports that it was a complete new build in the 21st-century. Which is true? It's probably a little bit of both. But what's important is that the house feels both old and new at the same time. It’s a re-creation of an old style of construction that is outdated, and yet that style of construction, the Mediterranean villa, is so well loved and so popular that most people are more than willing to overlook it's irrelevancy, because it helps perpetuate a fantasy.  That fantasy is the storybook romance. The love against all odds trope.  The Romeo and Juliet vibe. The Bachelor’s outlook on love is rooted in these traditional narratives, but often decorated with modern touches. 

The show as of late, has been pushed to embrace diversity and change many of the outdated narratives that show up again and again, season after season. And while the show has made efforts in this direction, it's ultimately not part of the show’s brand. And to understand the brand, all we have to do it look at the mansion. There might be a funky LED shining on a wall, but at the end of the day that wall is trying to look like it's 300 years old. To take a truly modern approach would mean to leave behind the element of fantasy and nostalgia.

So all this to say, our homes and place of work aesthetically support our own personal brands. When you understand your outlook on life, and the story you’re telling, it can much easier to make decisions around an interior environment that help support it. So ask yourself, what my values? What do I want the world to know about me? These are the types of question that should be informing your interior design journey. And this is just one of many examples of how brand and identity play our in a piece of architecture. If you like this topic, check out the episode House of The Rising Sun, which is all about the Cullen House from the Twilight movies.

And remember you’re killing it. I’ll talk to you next time.