House Stalking: The Brady Bunch House

 Does the exterior of this home look familiar...and yet slightly off?

Photo From My Little Dove

This is the real Brady Bunch house as it appears today. When production found the home they tacked on a fake window to the front to make the outside of the house kindasorta match the already built sets. Fun fact: the owner's installed in the fence because Brady fans kept coming up to the front door to take pictures. #thatsnotappropriatefolks

Photo From Apartment Therapy

Ahh...here's the more familiar Brady facade! This exterior photo of the home comes complete with an awesome vintage station wagon.

Instead of going with a Los Angeles mansion, the producers of the Brady Bunch wanted a very middle class looking home. This mid-century split level only had two bedrooms! In contrast, the Brady Bunch floor plan boasted three family bedrooms, a bedroom for Alice, a large open foyer/living room/dining area, a great kitchen, a family room, and Mike's den. So...not realistic. Still, though, nice to see. Today the only TV family in similar digs would be the family on The Middle.

Photo From A Very Brady Blog

I should just ahead and pin this, because I love Mike Brady's home office. The striped curtains, the leather chair, the danish modern sofa, the crazy awesome built-ins, the credenza, the stacked stone fireplace. Heaven. Love it.

Photo From A Very Brady Blog

The view into the kitchen from the dining area. You can even peak into the family room. Y'all, this house has SO.MUCH.PANELING. It's way to much fake wood for me. But the kitchen layout is pretty awesome. The kitchen island is awesome! And some of the appliances are even stainless. I love the glimpse of the tulip chairs at the kitchen table.

Photo From Tree

Another view of the kitchen. Love the stainless double ovens. I've always been intrigued by the brick opening next to the ovens. Samantha Stevens had one in her kitchen, too. What is it? A rotisserie? Does anyone know for sure?

Photo From Fanpix

Who knows what really went on in Mike and Carol's master bedroom? I know I love the Danish Modern furniture and am digging the genie bottle shaped vintage brass lamps. Those lit panels behind the bed? Confused me as a kid. I still think they are a weird choice.

Photo From Fanpix

Chaos in Marcia, Jan, and Cindy's bedroom! I think this is from the episode where the girls move into the Brady home, but I don't have the series on DVD so I can't double check. Y'all, three girls in that tiny room with two little dressers and one closet? Where did Jan and Cindy keep their clothes (not to mention their toys!) because we know that amount space would barely hold Marcia's wardrobe.

I SO wanted this wallpaper when I was kid. Mod floral wallpaper? Yes, please.

Photo From Instillari

The Brady staircase, maybe the most famous open staircase in history? Do I even have to tell you how much I love the stacked stone planters and color blocked light panels? Do I?

Here's the awesome thing: we can watch the house evolve through the years, thanks to a couple of reunion movies (and spin-off shows!).

Photo From Sitcoms Online

There are limited pictures of The Brady Brides (and I haven't seen it since I was a kid), but it looks like the house hasn't changed much.

Photo From Calitre View

However, by the time we get to a Very Brady Christmas the house has seen significant change. Everything is white, the mod color blocked light panels have been replaced with glass block (where does this exist in the upstairs of the Brady house? Mystery room!). It looks like the awesome sauce stacked stone built-in planter is gone. The kitchen is also all white...but they left the family room in its fake wood glory!

So, did anyone else grow up watching Brady Bunch reruns? What other sitcom homes do y'all love?

Absolutely Bewitching

J occasionally gets a little annoyed with me when we are watching a movie/television show and I get distracted by the great lamp/sofa/bed/art/architecture/random decor. There's a lot of great decor in movies and tv shows to get distracted by. I thought it would be fun to assemble some of my favorite fictional spaces and talk about what makes them great.

Hooked On Houses

Growing up, Bewitched was one of my favorite television shows (thanks, TBS Superstation 17!). And even then I LOVED Samantha and Darrin's house. Hooked On Houses did a post about 1164 Morning Glory Circle a few years ago covering the whole house.  I want to focus specific design aspects of the set design of Bewitched, though, so this will be a different take. The Stephens purchased a Connecticut Dutch Colonial early on in the series. Here it is before they bought it, but after Samantha twitched her nose and gifted the house with some cute awnings.

Bower Power

When I gazed up Bower Power's first master bedroom  I realized their over the bed painting looked very familiar. Okay, I actually squeeled "Katie Bower has Samantha's foyer painting!"

LeRoy's Pink Fist

See it over Samantha's shoulder, with some horrid wallpaper, a terrible plant, and cute little credenza.

LeRoy's Pink Fist

Here it is over Darrin's shoulder! Okay, so this isn't just the foyer painting from Bewitched. It's actually a Rembrandt entitled "Girl With a Broom," painted around 1640 (yes, I went to college. Yes, I took some art history classes. Yes, I still think of this painting as Samantha's entryway painting). I think the joke is that Samantha was supposed to be the girl in the painting. When the Stephens house was redecorated, this awesome painting was removed in favor of a mirror. Sigh. However, the painting is a classic and it's fairly easy to find a reproduction.

Tartan Scot

These pictures aren't quite right. The first few seasons of Bewitched were shot in black and white, but later were colorized. So...yeah. Just enjoy the shapes! Don't you love the Danish Modern furniture? I think the coffee might be from the Lane Acclaim line. Maybe not. Still a great example of a more conservative yet still very fresh mid century modern coffee table. And that sofa! OMG! Those LINES.

Thrive Nixon Sofa

The Thrive Nixon Sofa in in Cordova Amber is very similar to Samantha Stephens's hip Danish sofa. Feel free to twitch your nose as you lounge upon it.

Retrofurnish

The Bewitched set decorators used many famous artists beyond Rembrandt. This is a Picasso hung horizontally instead of vertically on the brick wall fireplace. Love.

Hooked On Houses

A gallery wall in the corner of the Stephens living room shows off some more of an incredibly awesome art collection, and a colonial American style chair on what appears to be grasscloth walls. Honestly, this setup wouldn't look out of place on Apartment Therapy.

Retrofurnish

Ahhh. Here it is. One my very favorite pieces in all of TV Land. The Hans Wagner Papa Bear Chair. The Mid Century era is FULL of absolutely incredible chair design. Out of all of them, this is absolutely one of my favorites. It's such a sleek, playful twist on the standard wingchair. I'd ignore the insane colorway of this photo and focus on the lines. I think the colorist went a bit crazy (for some reason I feel like I've read the actual chairs on the set were brown).

Papa Bear Chair

Feast your eyes upon the gray Papa Bear. Doesn't he look yummy? Modernica still makes this chair, and it can be yours for only about four grand! Sigh. This belongs under the file things I probably will never own....

Hooked On Houses

Here you can see Samantha walking from the living area into the dining room. The kitchen is visible through the oh so era appropriate pass through. Again, I can't get enough of Samantha's sleek Danish Modern furniture choices. That table and those chairs still look amazing (I feel like I should know the designer, but I can't place them). And I love the open floor plan of the Stephens' house. Great flow.

Kitchen and Residential Design

 Yes. Oh yes. Oh my gosh, YES. I love so many things about the Bewitched house...but this might be favorite. Even over the Papa Bear Chair. Well...different kinds of love. What is Samantha standing next to? Why, that would be the Frigidaire Flair.

Kitchen and Residential Design

The Flair was produced by Frigidaire in the 1960s. The oven(s) were on top and the stove burners were located in a pull out drawer. The design is so incredibly space age that every time I look at it I can feel the optimism technology fostered in the 1960s. Really, I bet young women cooking on it in 1962 felt assured they'd spend their retirement visiting Mars. It's such a happy stove!

Kitchen and Residential Design

Here it is with the door open. Flairs are pretty beloved in the vintage community. I'd love to have one. My oh so practical I was an electrician in the Navy husband thinks its insane to buy a fifty year old stove. I think he doesn't have the proper spirit of adventure! (Also, check out the vintage sunshine yellow Pyrex!)

Hiss by Toban Nichols

Here's something every Bewitched fan needs to own. This amazing digital portrait of Agnes Moorehead's Endora is by Toban Nichols and is entitled Hiss. I've been obsessed with it ever since I saw it in this Apartment Therapy House Tour. I think it would look incredible in pretty much any room of our house.

So, those are my favorite bits and pieces from Bewitched. What television shows or movies feature houses you can't get enough of?

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