**Note** This was posted on my blog three years ago, but the popularity of this fictional house lives on.During a whirlwind trip to the Coast, I was invited to a cocktail party at a circa 1935 home and found myself surrounded by Very Design Obsessed People. While sitting on a stone terrace (which would have made Gatsby’s place look shabby), I sipped an excellent Merlot and squinted at the distant city lights. Then someone happened to mention that the “lots” facing this river—not the ocean-- were going for $1M. Just next door, someone had bought a lovely cottage and bulldozed it to make way for an Italianate villa.
The talk shifted from the economy to wedding cake mansions to upscale beachy interiors. It didn’t take long for someone to bring up the house from the film SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE.
Hands down, this might be the most fabulous “movie house” to come along in the last decade. Never mind that the kitchen counters aren’t really soapstone (but black, faux-painted wood). Almost everyone on the planet adores that house--never mind that it's fictional. It’s unpretentious yet elegant, soothing and comfortable and chic.
This is the sort of well nigh perfect house that always smells of freshly baked oatmeal-walnut cookies. Linen curtains always waft in the breeze. A place where lovers sit next to the fire and read aloud from Dickens.
If you're interested in this house, there are articles all over the Internet. You can read about how set designer Beth Rubino put together the beloved “rooms,” making sure that the cool blues and ambient whites reflected Diane Keaton’s character. You’ll also find articles on how to achieve that look, where to buy the striped rug, wicker, and a Swedish grandfather clock. What fun to scour antique “barns” for old wicker, pine hearth tables, and a “collection” of mismatched white dishes. To fill that beautiful bookcase with Ironstone and cook on that Wolf stove. What's your favorite room in this house?
