There are houses and buildings that people keep in their hearts. Homes to which they have a close connection. Often, these homes can be your childhood home, your first bachelor's apartment or your best friend's house. However, there are other houses that are also kept in our memories that are not real: homes from movies and TV series. People say that the perfect house is the one in which the decoration reflects oneself, which is why these spaces provide us with even more information about our favorite characters and make us admire them even more. These are crucial places, witnesses to each character's most intimate and life-changing decisions.
Ranging from Monica's 90s-style apartment in Friends to Arnold's bedroom-with-a-skylight in Hey Arnold, we've seen epic houses in movie and TV productions over the years. In fact, there are some that are so cool that they've made us imagine our luxurious lives in them. The real-life locations are used when filming only adds to our desire to live out our fantasies. Who wouldn't want to live, for example, in the Cullen family's luxurious refuge-mansion in the wilderness? Or even the mansion in The Great Gatsby? While some of these houses do not exist in reality, they do exist in movies and will continue to be among the places we would love to visit. That's why, in this article, we'll review five beautiful movie homes we'd love to live in.
5 The McCallister Mansion (Home Alone)
At the top of the list is this Christmas classic that follows the story of Kevin McCallister, the 8-year-old boy who was accidentally left home alone while his family went out of town for holidays. When thinking of iconic movie houses, this is arguably one of the first ones that come to mind. The McCallister house became just another character in the movie, with its picture-perfect exterior and festive decor, and, interestingly enough, this house is actually real. Built in 1920, the house is located in Winnetka, Illinois, and features five bedrooms, a master suite that occupies the entire west wing of the house, and three and a half baths. The iconic home also features a large kitchen, a two-car garage, and a greenhouse.
To commemorate the premiere of Home Sweet Home Alone, the reboot of Home Alone, the McCallister home was up for rent for one night. For a modest $25, four lucky fans were able to step into Kevin's shoes and enjoy the property for 24 hours.
4 Noah’s Renovated House (The Notebook)
This dramatic and romantic film follows the story between Noah and Allie, two young people from different realities who fall madly in love with each other and begin a journey full of emotions and misunderstandings. There are many unforgettable moments in The Notebook, but definitely one of the most memorable is when Noah rebuilt the house to be just as Allie wanted it to be: a big white house with blue windows, a room overlooking the river so that she could paint, and a porch surrounding the house so they could have tea together and watch the sunset.
Now, does this house exist in real life? Yes, it does, although many of the scenes were shot in a different location. The house is located on Wadmalaw Island in South Carolina, it was built in the year 1772 and is valued at 582 million dollars. Funny thing is that the house doesn't actually have blue windows, it has white ones. When the production started working on the film, their idea was to buy an abandoned house and restore it as they went along in the filming. But as soon as they saw the Martins Point Plantation house, they knew they had found exactly what Allie wanted. The house has 5 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. Plus, according to the current owners, the interior hasn't changed much since the 19th century and retains many of its original details.
3 Rosehill Cottage (The Holiday)
Nancy Meyers' movies are famous for their beautiful and desirable interiors. However, there is one home that tops them all: the English cottage in the romantic comedy The Holiday, a film in which two women, one from the United States and the other from Great Britain, exchange homes during the Christmas season after breaking up with their respective boyfriends. One of the most charming homes ever seen on film, and even though it only existed on a Hollywood set, it doesn't make it any less enviable. Holmbury St Mary's Honeysuckle Cottage was the structure that served as the inspiration for designing Rosehill Cottage.
The cottage's honey-colored exterior and interior evoke the cozy look characteristic of the ideal cottage. All the features are there: the wooden beams, the fireplace, the country kitchen and the beautiful little bathtub. Moreover, seeing Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz filling up the space with their unique style certainly adds something special to this cottage.
2 Edward Scissorhands' home (Edward Scissorhands)
Edward Scissorhands is considered to be a cult classic. The main character is a very unusual man with hands made out of blades and scissors. His inventor dies before attaching real hands to him, so Edward goes through a series of unfortunate incidents that make him feel mismatched with the rest of the world.
Tim Burton, the director of the film, chose Tinsmith Circle in Florida as the filming location because of its clear blue sky. In the movie, we see a sharp contrast between the pastel-painted homes in the neighborhood and Edward's dark mansion. It was intended to make the neighborhood look simple, boring, and dull. The castle, on the other hand, has a very important role in the film, as it was Edward's first home and has a dark gothic touch that really identifies the director. However, the mansion itself is not real: a structure was created for exteriors that, shot from below, gave the impression of being a gloomy and dark place. The interior of the castle, in contrast, is a set at Fox Studios in Century City, California.
1 Tony Stark’s Mansion (Iron Man)
Rounding out the list is the Stark Mansion, the private residence of billionaire philanthropist Tony Stark, better known as Iron Man. Located on a seaside cliff on the shores of Malibu, the mansion was highly integrated with advanced technology and conditioned to be run by J.A.R.V.I.S, Stark's artificial intelligence personal assistant. The spectacular mansion would have an estimated price of $25 million and featured four bedrooms, six bathrooms, and private access to Black's Beach. Sadly, this house was destroyed in Iron Man 3 after Tony Stark publicly threatened the Mandarin in a press interview, but it is still a property worthy of being part of this list.
However, this house does not exist in the real world: the landscapes of the films were created by mixing real images, shot on the hill of Point Dume (Malibu), and CGI. The source of inspiration for the movie's artists was a house on top of Santa Monica Mountains, in Beverly Hills, a house that they actually used for some of the scenes. The interiors, on the other hand, were built at Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach.