- 2 days ago
Today, AD is joined by ‘And Just Like That’ production designer Miguel Lopez Castillo, set decorator Karen Weisel Holmes, and Sarah Jessica Parker to tour Carrie Bradshaw’s season 3 home. As the ‘Sex and the City’ spin-off continues to explore the lives of Carrie, Charlotte York, and Miranda Hobbs, season 3 sees Carrie trading in her iconic West Village apartment for a luxurious townhouse in Gramercy Park. See how Castillo and Holmes injected Carrie’s personality into her new space and discover which iconic mementos from her past survived the move.
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00:00Hello, A.D. I'm Miguel Lopez-Castillo. I'm the production designer for And Just Like That.
00:08I'm Karen Wiesel-Holmes. Welcome to your exclusive tour of Carrie Bradshaw's home.
00:13Wait till you see the inside.
00:30So we are in the parlor floor of Carrie's home. This is a townhouse based on an actual structure in Gramercy Park in a Greek revival style.
00:41We were introduced to this set last season and Carrie was starting to figure out how she wanted to live here.
00:49I just have a lot of clothes. You do.
00:51This was a choice that was about creating a home for more than just herself.
00:56She made a big decision to leave what we refer to as the Perry Street apartment where she spent a better part of her adult life.
01:03I'm selling my apartment.
01:05So she's found this extraordinary couple floors in Gramercy.
01:09And over the course of the season, she makes decisions decorating them.
01:14Oh, stay on the runner. Oh.
01:17Hi. Hi. I got Mexican. Oh, that's so nice.
01:20But we already, we actually, we just ate.
01:23Seema came back to see my new table.
01:26I had worked on the show on Sex and the City, seasons two through six.
01:30And I had worked on it just like that, seasons two.
01:33And although I had done a lot of work in Carrie Bradshaw's existing apartments,
01:38I had never done a new Carrie Bradshaw apartment from start to finish.
01:42Michael Patrick described it as the most beautiful apartment in New York.
01:47When Seema first presents it to Carrie, he says, I have an exclusive. You want to see it?
01:51You know, something worth giving up my jewel box.
01:55Well, the most spectacular place has shown up on the market.
01:59So before we show you the rest of this floor, we want to bring you up to Carrie's bedroom, office, and closet.
02:07This doesn't actually lead anywhere. We have to go to another stage.
02:25This is the next stage. This is a staircase that would lead from the parlor to the second floor.
02:32The chandelier was a chandelier from Plaza Suite.
02:35And it had traveled to Boston.
02:37And then it traveled to New York. Then it traveled to London.
02:39And then it traveled back to New York.
02:41And it was going to be left in London.
02:44And it's a really spectacular piece.
02:46And I'm sentimental about it.
02:47So when they were going to just leave it in London, I said, can we bring it home?
02:53Follow me into Carrie's bedroom.
02:55This was a set that we did, but we did not have the second floor last season.
02:59We faked the dining room on the parlor floor as the bedroom last season.
03:04Across from here leads you into Carrie's office.
03:08This is the desk that was in her old apartment.
03:11This chair was in her apartment in the series, as was this table.
03:16And this blue table, it's evolved into the office where she is in the middle of being incredibly productive on her new book.
03:26Architecturally, it aligns with directly over the parlor.
03:31And these windows are facing towards the park.
03:34We wanted that direct exposure to daylight and the large trees.
03:38But then it became a whole other saga of developing where to best look at her at work.
03:44And also the relationship to the outside, which she has always had with the positioning of her desk.
03:50We always knew that we were going to build in a loveseat, and we were trying to figure out what is the fabric.
03:56At some point, I had bought a vintage shirt that looks like this.
04:00And it was pointed out to me that Carrie had that same shirt in her closet.
04:04And I had showed it to Sarah Jessica, and she was like, well, what if we made the built-in out of those shirts?
04:10And a light bulb went off in our heads, and we found shirts on eBay and Etsy, and we put them together.
04:17Some of them had embroidery, so we left in those details.
04:22I love working with Karen and Miguel. I've worked with Karen for years.
04:26She's sentimental about the past and the ways in which Michael Patrick and I are.
04:30But she also comes with her own really strong feelings and opinions and just a wealth of knowledge that I don't have.
04:38And the same for Miguel, who's just an incredibly gifted production designer.
04:42It's really nice to have these conversations, and I've been having them for 25 years on this show.
04:47The plot element is that she stops writing about her present time, and she takes a stab at historical fiction based on old New York.
04:58That's how all of this began to arrive.
05:01Well, you know, visual research, city maps, and into the fashion of the times.
05:07Over here, we have a few Easter eggs. These are Carrie Bradshaw's books and her collection of Vogue magazines and other magazines.
05:17There's an architectural digest here.
05:19Michael Patrick King said that Carrie saw the closet, and that was what sealed the deal with her buying the apartment.
05:26Because this closet is very similar to her old closet in terms of the layout.
05:32Even though structurally it's not the same, there is something familiar about it.
05:39So this is Carrie's closet, and we wanted to really give it a sense of history, a sense of layering.
05:46We picked these lights to also give it a sense of history.
05:50There are many Easter eggs in here. Here is the pigeon, who lives in the closet.
05:55This you will recognize from Carrie's original apartment, which lived by her entrance.
06:03Since season one, the clothing, the shoes, the handbags, the jewelry, all is archived.
06:12So we work with the costume department to be able to have Carrie's real wardrobe in here, which is highly unusual for a TV show.
06:22And if you had time to poke around, there's a story behind almost all of this clothing.
06:28Exactly. I like my money right where I can see it, hanging in my closet.
06:32This is the bridesmaid dress from Charlotte's wedding. This is another iconic piece.
06:38This is the guest room and also where Shu, her cat, lives.
06:50It has all of Carrie's old bedding, bed, dresser, and her vanity.
06:58The cat tree was a plot point, which you saw Carrie and Miranda putting that together.
07:04You don't think this is overkill? Miranda, she's my only child.
07:07And this would have been the fourth bedroom, and this is now where the shoes live.
07:15Here we see another example of the older cabinetry in this room.
07:22But we gave it a finish that looks a little dry, a little scratchy.
07:27It has some wide drawers, possibly for prints or maps.
07:31Something very specific to some of these period homes.
07:35These are all of Carrie Bradshaw's shoes. There are some from the original series.
07:41There are some that she wears this season.
07:45We ask everybody who comes in here what their favorite shoes are.
07:48Everyone has a different favorite shoe.
07:50The ones down there are the ones that Carrie was given after her shoes were stolen at the party.
07:58They say you shouldn't judge until you've walked a mile in someone else's shoes.
08:02I made it six blocks.
08:05The Manolo Mary Janes from Vogue are here.
08:09Do you know what these are?
08:11We're not even supposed to be in here.
08:13Manolo Blahnik Mary Janes. I thought these were an urban shoe myth.
08:18Carrie wore these this season. These are fabulous.
08:21These are from a woman's right to shoes. These are from the original series.
08:26This is from the series finale from when Carrie's in Paris.
08:30We tried to continue the story here in a more subtle way with the gold rug.
08:35We didn't want it to pull focus from the more important shoes.
08:40It found its place in here and I think it really makes the room.
09:01Hi, we're back in the first floor.
09:03This is the dining room.
09:05There has been several plot elements about this dining table.
09:08It also has a large bay window that leads to the garden.
09:13I personally drew the ground plants and then pulled up a lot of research from pattern books in the 19th century
09:20that were almost like catalogs of detailing for house builders.
09:25And a lot of this in the traditional construction of these houses were all plaster.
09:30Some of these are fairly ornate and precast.
09:33But, for example, the cove, which is the curved piece, at least to the flat part of the ceiling,
09:38is really all foam.
09:40And then we also make ceilings that can be pulled off for stage lighting.
09:46Sometimes we need to build our sets in a way that makes it more shootable.
09:52So there was an episode in which a big party took place here before it was decorated.
09:58And there were many people.
09:59And in order to help light it, they came up with this way of hiding brackets for lighting within the architecture of the ceiling.
10:10We tried to really get into her character's head.
10:14Knowing her for so long was helpful.
10:16And to really just think about how she lived and what were her influences and, you know, what kind of shopping she had access to.
10:23I like to think of Carrie Bradshaw at the flea market or, you know, at a vintage store.
10:29I love how much we found and Karen found in really, really seriously affordable vintage and consignment shops.
10:38And then there's some fabrics that are for sure higher end and cost more per yard.
10:43But there's a huge amount that is just from the street, literally, like curbs.
10:50So that's great to see it be put to use and be really in glory.
10:56We try to add personal life layer touches, some reference for her book.
11:01We have local drugstore matches, maybe a Tootsie Roll, that kind of thing.
11:08There are also the kinds of objects that Sarah Jessica really likes to have.
11:13Michael and I have been there from the beginning.
11:16And I think we feel it's incumbent upon us to share what we know and how we've arrived at decisions.
11:23It's a privilege to be part of the conversation, but it also is my job.
11:27And I take it seriously. It matters a great deal to me. All those details matter.
11:38Okay, we're on our way to the kitchen.
11:43Here we go through what would be called the butler's pantry,
11:47which is the more antique set of details in terms of the cabinetry and the style.
11:52Stained oak with a very waxy, preserved finish.
11:56We made this the entertaining area of the bar.
11:59So this is where all that is stored and this is more household items.
12:04Our graphics department helps us go the extra mile by having real Carrie Bradshaw mail.
12:09Then if you go into the kitchen, we imagine these chairs might have been left here in a closet.
12:15This was something that might have been built in from the original owner.
12:19And Miguel designed this and the team built it and made it look old.
12:23We also went with a maybe 1940 set of cabinets.
12:28A lot happens this season in the kitchen. Not Carrie Bradshaw cooking.
12:32No longer sweaters in ovens or shoes.
12:35Do you have a rolling pin on me? In your kitchen?
12:39Are you kidding me? I use my oven for storage.
12:41And the small size is a challenge for shooting, but this wall does come out.
12:46The cabinets pull out and they can shoot from behind if need be.
12:49We left this old dispenser of wax paper, tin foil, just little touches like that.
12:55The rotary dial phone, even being not practically usable, I think is really important.
13:01It's a visual aid that has a lot of sentimental meaning.
13:05I think those alone are sort of foundational in a way.
13:08This is the garden that Carrie shares with her new downstairs neighbor, Duncan.
13:26And what we see here is a brick courtyard that, in my mind, is the oldest part of the house that was never changed.
13:34So when Carrie first moved in, she encountered this overgrown, messy, romantic, wild, bushy place.
13:43So we end up with a much more minimalist style of landscaping.
13:47And for the season, what we're seeing here in the series, we're in mid to late November.
13:52So we're going into winter.
13:54There's a mix of live and artificials because it's very, very difficult to maintain live plants on a stage.
14:02The garden also has major plot points.
14:05Oh, my God.
14:08It's all gone.
14:09There are a few seasons that we go through.
14:11There are a few changes in the garden.
14:13People are met in the garden.
14:15There is a big plot where Carrie and Duncan meet.
14:18Welcome, wagon.
14:20Our big apartment?
14:21Oh, that's something that we say here in America when someone joins the neighborhood.
14:27Duncan rents the space downstairs to write and they have very opposite schedules.
14:33Opposite personality.
14:35He's very much of a reclusive, intellectual type.
14:38It was amazing to be able to create this space below Carrie's and to have the spaces be contiguous.
14:45That was very exciting.
14:47To have two spaces in the same building that look so different from the height of the ceiling to the finishes to the colors and even the furniture.
14:56Duncan's apartment, he rents, but he brings his personality into it.
15:00So that was its own decorating challenge of how to create a space with history that we knew very little about.
15:06And then to add on top of that the personality of a character, how to integrate that into the space.
15:24Thanks for coming to Carrie's new home.
15:26It was nice having you over.
15:27See you next time.
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