If you’re completely enthralled by the amazing interiors of some of the best TV shows right now, then join the club! When it comes to incredible TV sets, thriller, mystery and horror TV shows do it best, especially the names on this list. From Stranger Things to Only Murders In The Building, these 5 macabre TV shows have frighteningly good interiors that we can’t help but obsess over!
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Only Murders in the Building
The amateur detectives in this Hulu and Disney+ show are closer to something out of Clue than Agatha Christie, but their posh apartment building is a plot line of its own, and a joy to look at in every episode. From Oliver’s (played by Martin Short) maximalist interiors of thick drapery, velvet furnishings, and dark green chinoiserie Pierre Frey wallpaper (Hankeou) to Charles’s (Steve Martin) “preppy American” luxury furniture (Milo Baughman, Ralph Lauren) and orange ombre kitchen wallpaper (French Cuirs leather by Élitis), the homes in this show do quite a bit of character-building.
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“Setting a murder mystery in a luxurious, enclosed environment raises the stakes,” production designer Curt Beech tells AD. Season two, which premiered June 28, begins where season one left off: with a murder in Mabel’s (Selena Gomez) stunning apartment in blush and peach hues. Her space is a visual metaphor, with deconstructed walls, a world-weary vintage couch, and a hand-painted mural. “She is literally a work in progress with a history of damage,” Beech says. “We wanted her space to be as hard to pin down as she is.”
IF YOU LIKE THIS SHOW, TRY THIS MID-CENTURY FURNITURE PIECE!
Stranger Things
Furniture with a mid-century vibe and a tastefully installed Lincrusta wainscoting makes this one of our favorite sets in this list. Although the Creel family’s youthful 1950s-style furnishings didn’t fully fit the Victorian architecture of the home, it was a welcome change from the 80s style and furnishings we are so used to seeing from previous seasons.
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Filmed at the real-life Claremont House in Georgia and on a soundstage, the large Gothic Revival–style home has a labyrinth of nooks and crannies for secrets to hide. The Stranger Things design team (including production designer Chris Trujillo, supervising art director Sean Brennan, and set decorator Jess Royal) created a rich and textured environment that would pop on screen both in 1950s flashback scenes and when the Hawkins kids discover the home long-abandoned in 1986. The building serves as both homage to Scooby Doo (especially in the Upside Down) and the Well House of Stephen King’s It.
IF YOU LIKE THIS SHOW, TRY THIS MID-CENTURY FURNITURE PIECE!
Dexter: New Blood
Production designer Eric Weiler made the interior of the fictional Iron Lake cabin minimalist because, besides Dexter’s ubiquitous dark passenger (what he calls his urge to kill), “Dexter is a very simple man with few material things,” Weiler tells AD. “[He is] prepared to leave everything behind at any given moment.” This also reinforces a character trait—and fan-favorite line—narrated by Michael C. Hall in the pilot: “I’m a very neat monster.”
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Despite being sparse, the inside of the cabin still feels cozy, and includes a fireplace with handmade locally-sourced hearthstone. “We wanted to go for a warm, almost comforting feel, suggesting that Dexter is at peace with his dark passenger,” Weiler says.
IF YOU LIKE THIS SHOW, TRY THIS MID-CENTURY FURNITURE PIECE!
Archive 81
Toni Barton’s production design in the Netflix show Archive 81 is a gem, especially when you look at the remote brutalist LMG house (filmed at a Tasso Katselas–designed home in Pennsylvania) where Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie) restores the salvaged tapes from the Visser Apartments fire.
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The show, which premiered earlier this year and was unfortunately not renewed for another season, centers mostly around the fictional Visser building in New York City (the exterior was filmed at the 1st Avenue Lofts) in ’94 and the 1920s Vos Society Mansion that previously occupied the land (filmed in Pittsburgh at both the Willis McCook House and 16th-century-style Tudor mansion Hartwood Acres). All of the symbolism used is the result of Barton’s painstaking research into writer Rebecca Sonnenshine’s series mythology. “Nothing is vague, references are specific,” Barton tells AD, from the sigil stone design at the front of the Visser building to the cults’ symbol and the Baldung ring.
IF YOU LIKE THIS SHOW, TRY THIS MID-CENTURY FURNITURE PIECE!
The Flight Attendant
Cassie (Kaley Cuoco) is trapped between fantasy and reality in this HBO Max thriller. In season one the inside of her mind is represented by the high-end hotel suite inspired by Celia Chu Design’s interiors at the Rosewood Bangkok, where Cassie wakes up next to a dead man. “[Director] Susanna Fogel and I discussed the Hitchcockian mystery [Rope] guiding the hand of our show,” season one production designer Sara K White tells AD. The 1948 film is famously set entirely within one New York City penthouse apartment. Season two (for which Nina Ruscio took over the role of production designer) repeats the same technique, placing Cassie inside a stylish hotel bar when she goes inside her own head.
IF YOU LIKE THIS SHOW, TRY THIS MID-CENTURY FURNITURE PIECE!
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