Best On-Screen Interiors

For all Seventies aficiondos, David O Russell’s star-packed production has inspiration by the brown-corduroy bucketload. This is decadence at its most indulgent: think indoor shrub beds, velour bedspreads, and the fluffiest of shag piles.

Filmed on the captivating Pantelleria – the remote little island off the south-west coast of Sicily – the white-washed walls, quirky kitchen, record-strewn living room, and general ambience of the home rock star Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton) shares with her boyfriend Paul De Smedt (Matthias Schoenaerts) not only exudes avant-garde personality but gives an irresistible taste of island life.

Despite being filmed entirely in black and white, the exquisitely executed set of this Prohibition Era outing evoked the mood perfectly. The wallpaper and fabric textures were as authentic as the dressing-room mirror and engraved crystal tupperware.

The Beverly Hills backdrop for the 1967 classic is as chic as Mike Nichols’s Oscar-winning film. From the curved central bar, to the black leather armchairs, Mrs Robinson’s interior decor taste was every bit as alluring as her character.

Pepto Bismol pink and spearmint green is a colour combination that will be forever associated with this Stanley Kubrick classic. Aside from the gaudy shades so synonymous with the Seventies, the sparse minimalist home of Mr Alexander – with its bookshelves as walls and oversized expressive art work – was well ahead of its time.

Shot in saturated colour, Amelie was as rich in home inspiration as it was in verse. The title character’s bedroom was every bit as quirky as she was with its thick quilted bedspread, dark red wallpaper, boudoir lampshades and be-coned dog portraits.

George Falconer’s glass house – and every other interior shot in Tom Ford’s late Noughties cinematic outing – has that irresistible retro charm. Shot in a John Lautner-designed modernist residence in California, it is a lesson in clean-lined simplicity.

Looking back to look forward may seem disconcerting, but the interior spaces of Stanley Kubrick’s late Sixties film are every bit as relevant now as they predicted they would be. The red Djinn chairs designed by Oliver Morgue in 1965 which were used for the film have become highly sought-after collectors’ items since.

The big-screen adaptation of Ian McEwan’s acclaimed novel exuded quintessential British charm. Intricate cornicing, elaborate chandeliers and florals upon florals featured heavily in the stately home of the Tallis family and offered just the right amount of chintz, without heading into garish ground. Meanwhile the sweeping curtains and richly embroidered upholstery were lessons in achieving old-school luxury.

Holly Golightly’s New York apartment may have been small in square meters, but it was big on personality. For those looking for inspiration on how to make a bijou space work well, look no further. Golightly’s clever use of kitchen storage is a particular point worth noting.

All Richard Curtis films have interiors that err on hotch-potch, quirky and comfortingly familiar territory (think Notting Hill, Love Actually, About A Boy, About Time) and Bridget Jones’s little Borough Market apartment is a perfect case in point. While we don’t encourage All By Myself a capella, nor alone, we do advocate the inventive styling of an unusual space.

The picture frames, the asymmetrical shelves, the coffee-table area, the unused kitchen, Aiden’s leather armchair (and that’s before we even get started on the walk-in wardrobe) – so many elements of Carrie Bradshaw’s Brownstone apartment have seeped into the mainstream interior psyche in the years since it first aired. Chic and progressive, like the lady herself.

The inside of Coco Chanel’s Parisian apartment was beautifully depicted for this biopic of the designer’s life. Sumptuous, spot-on with realistic detailing, and rich in old-world French character, it has lots of ideas fit for a luxurious library or study of your own.

Catcher Block and Barbara Novak’s New York condos were the his’n’hers of modernist Manhattan style. His, brown with hints of navy, clean tiled walls and sparsely furnished; hers, hot-pink and pale-pink with tutti frutti cushions and pearlescent teardrop chandeliers.

It’s not just fashion that is imitating Nineties style. Open-plan living, minimal fitted furniture and carefully selected, strategically placed art has made a comeback too. Boston therapist Frasier’s sky-high apartment does it best. Take note: gentle jazz playing in the background completes the ambience.

The capacious rooms of the Twelve Oaks plantation served Miss Scarlett well with her voluminous gowns. Elsewhere, dramatic staircases adorned with gilt frames; parquet-floored entrance halls with sculpted columns; and dark mahogany four-poster beds met with rich fabrics in gold, mustard, crimson and midnight-blue palettes made this a house of interior inspiration.

Wes Anderson’s kooky masterpiece won an Oscar for its production design, and rightly so. From the extravagant Thirties hotel lobby, to its later stripped-back Eighties reincarnation – not to mention every other room, train carriage and prison cell featured – the interior design was tantalisingly evocative. Bonus trivia: unable to find a suitable hotel, the production team chose the an abandoned art nouveau department store, the Görlitzer Warenhaus Department Store in Görlitz, Germany, as the bare bones of the Grand Budapest.

The stripped-back set of this Roman Polanski thriller was a clever complement to the chilling plot line. Using a palette of natural colours, the interiors were sleek and sexy – and who wouldn’t want a ceiling-to-floor length window overlooking sand dunes?

Baz Luhrmann is famed for his ostentatious interiors – from Romeo and Juliet to Moulin Rouge – and his most recent adaptation, of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, secured the film an Oscar for Best Production Design. Swathed in a pretty pink light with champagne accents, Daisy Buchanan’s sitting room is the archetypal girl’s girl living space.

The office of Dolores Umbridge in the Ministry of Magic is terrifying and entrancing in equal measures – just like its proprietor. With wall plates that would please Miss Marple and purple shiny surfaces that would have most certainly been on Liberace’s wish list, it’s an ideal example of decadent chic.

KK Barrett’s set design and Gene Serdena’s set decoration saw the pair Oscar nominated for their work, and we can see why. The coloured flexi-glass that they used to flood rooms with saturated light; the polished floor reflecting the high-rises outside; and the specially commissioned artwork by Geoff Mcfetridge are just some of the carefully considered elements that make Spike Jonze’s film so great.

With the majority of this pièce de résistance filmed in the Milanese Villa Necchi Campiglio residence, the Thirties mansion designed by architect Piero Portaluppi, it was always going to be a feast for the eyes. The walnut-clad staircase and marbled bathroom are just two of the reasons that make this interior one to remember.

For futuristic interior enthusiasts, look no further than Tony Stark’s sea-facing escape. With all the gadgetry a progressive pro could wish for, this commodious complex was comfortable as well as cool.

When Mad Men exploded on to our screens in 2007, it wasn’t just the A-lines and coiffed curls that caught our eye. The mid-century American furniture and vintage appliances of both the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce offices and the impeccable home of Betty Draper et al were picture perfect reference points for life in Sixties America.

Joyously extravagant, as history itself imparts, Sofia Coppola’s mid-Noughties production captures the essence of the French Queen’s reputation in every way. Historic, extreme and heavenly chic.

At the time, Monica Geller’s grandmother’s apartment in Friends was the height of Nineties cool. Small details were on everyone’s interior wish list: the purple feature walls, the trestle theatre masks, the blankets thrown nonchalantly yet practically over the back of the sofas, the French poster behind the TV, and the empty gold frame on the back of the door.

Another Wes Anderson production makes the cut into our round-up, thanks to the design of the Tenenbaum family’s brilliantly outlandish home. Major highlights? The indoor telephone booth, the tasselled sofas, the portrait-clad ballroom, the green-curtained roll-top bath, and Zebra-printed wallpaper.

Top points go to this 1963 cult classic for its effective use of a tiny space. From the wall colours, to the mid-century built-in bar, there’s nothing that would look out of place in a modern-day home with the culture crowd’s current penchant for all things retro-luxe.

The exterior and interior shots battled it out for most impressive in Anthony Minghella’s beautiful adaptation of this psychological thriller. Filmed on the Italian isle of Ischia, the home of Jude Law’s character Dickie Greenleaf is the stuff of Instagram dreams.