In the hierarchy of fictional houses, only a few have switched off a magic like the house of the Owens family from the 1998 film Practical magic. The film, in which Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman play the leading role, was published 27 years ago, but the fans are looking for real estate lists for Victorian villas with all -round verands and conservators in the hope of finding something that captivates a fraction of the Gothic romance of the house. It has probably become the most memorable character of the film – and it also required some magic.
Based on Alice Hoffman's 1995 novel about the Owens', a family of women who cursed themselves in love, but was blessed with supernatural skills, the film needed a house that suddenly served as a sanctuary, laboratory and storytelling. Director Griffin Dunne understood that the family house of Owens was a figure that had to embody magic, wisdom and secrets for centuries. According to Dunne, he was enchanted by the script when he read it for the first time. “It was literally like a boiler. Every emotion, every topic and every ingredient you could imagine Enthusiastic about houses.
Sandra Bullock in Practical magic.
When it was time to materialize the Owens family, Dunne Robin Standefer and Stephen Alech, the design duo, which Elle Decor A-List design company later became Roman and Williams. At this point, however, they were mainly known for their work in film production. Her friendship with Dunne started on previous film sets like that of Search and destroy.
In cooperation with only Hoffman's novel as a blueprint, the designers' challenge was to implement literary descriptions into the three -dimensional reality. The house described in the book was both Gothic and inviting, mysterious and yet functional – a home in which Midnight Margaritas could be mixed alongside morning coffee and in which love spells and family meals took place in the same rooms. Standefer and Alees were inspired by the most romantic elements of the Victorian architecture, which contained the 19th century scrorton, the lighthouse functions of the east coast and all-round verands.
An original sketch of the Practical magic home.
The designer approach was methodological and yet intuitive. They imagined a house in which every object suggests stories about the women who lived there. The kitchen was acted with its masterpiece, inspired by large English areas, but both as a cooking room and as a family heart. “The AGA is almost like a shrine” Enthusiastic about houses The range in the kitchen. “This is the place where you do your job. Place the boiler here.” The adjacent conservatory served as a mystical heart in which the most memorable scenes in the film develop and a space that suggested both greenhouse and temple.
Construction began in 1997 on San Juan Island, Washington, where the production rented land for $ 80,000 and spent six months to build the exterior from scratch. It was built entirely on a platform to preserve the holy local country underneath. Every board, every shingle and every piece of gingerbread cladding was specially made for the cameras and to create a structure that looked as if it had survived in New England for decades.
The kitchen of the Practical Magic House, designed by Elle Decor A-List company Roman and Williams.
The logistics was complex. While the outside on San Juan Island, the interiors were built on Los Angeles sound stations at the same time. The famous conservatory was built in California, disassembled, sent to the north and rebuilt on site.
The creation of the illusion of a lived magical house required a careful staging. Accordingly HistorylinkSet designer searched for antique transactions all around PUGET SOUND to find local treasures to fill the house. The gardens were built using a mixture of real and artificial green, and the department of the props had to fill hundreds of mysterious bottles for the cupboards with a glass front in the so -called tanning room.
The interiors of the Practical magic home.
But the house that captured the hearts of the audience only existed during the shooting. There was nothing within the structure, and the Victorian shell, which lasted half a year, was dismantled within days after the packaging, since the production had agreed to restore the tribal country into its original condition after use.
With the news for which Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman will return Practical magic 2Fans already speculate about what the new Owens family will look like. But how do you follow a house that has reached mythical status in popular culture? The original Victorian mansion set an incredibly high bar and not only creates a film set, but also an architectural dream that refuses to fade out of our collective imagination.
Julia Cancilla is the engagement editor (and local witch) at Elle Decor, where she monitors the brand's social media platforms and writes the monthly column Elle Decoroscope. It covers design trends, pop culture and lifestyle through storytelling to examine how our houses reflect who we are. Her work was also published in the ink Magazine, House Beautiful, Marie Claire and more.