My Mom Had to Explain Nancy Meyers to Me — Now I Get Why Everyone Loves Her Homes

Apparently my mom, my sister and my niece were all in on something I had completely missed.

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My mom, my sister and my niece were talking about Nancy Meyers.

And I’m sitting there thinking:

Nancy who?

Seriously. I had no idea who they were talking about.

So my mom had to school me.

She started explaining the movies and the houses and how people had become fascinated with the way the rooms looked and felt.

I eventually did what I always do when somebody introduces me to something I know absolutely nothing about.

I went looking.

And down the rabbit hole I went.

There are YouTube videos that are basically nothing more than music playing while beautiful Nancy Meyers-inspired rooms float across the screen.

And people LOVE this stuff.

At first I thought, Okay…they’re pretty rooms.

Then I started looking closer.

And I got it.

First, I Had Nancy Meyers All Wrong

Here’s something I learned while researching this: Nancy Meyers isn’t actually a set designer.

She’s the writer, director and producer behind movies like Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, It’s Complicated, and The Intern. But she’s become almost as famous for the homes in her movies as she has for the movies themselves.

And that isn’t accidental.

Meyers has been deeply involved in creating the visual worlds of her films, working with production designers and set decorators to make spaces that tell us something about the people living in them.

That’s the part that made my ears perk up.

The house tells you who lives there.

Now we’re talking.

It’s Not Really About Having a Perfect House

Once I understood that, I stopped looking at the rooms as decorating inspiration and started looking at them as stories.

There are books.

Flowers.

Comfortable furniture.

Things sitting around.

Kitchens that look like somebody might actually cook in them.

Rooms that feel put together but don’t necessarily feel decorated within an inch of their lives.

You’re not just looking at a beautiful room.

You’re imagining the life that goes with it.

And suddenly I understood why people can sit on YouTube and watch pictures of these rooms go by while music plays.

There’s a feeling attached to them.

Okay, Gigi — Would You Actually Live There?

Some of it?

Absolutely.

All of it?

Oh, hell no.

You know me better than that.

Some of the Nancy Meyers look is a little too clean and restrained for this boho girl.

But I found myself liking much more of it than I expected.

It’s comfortable without being sloppy.

It’s put together without looking like somebody walked into a furniture store and said, I’ll take Display Number 4.

There are natural materials, layers and textures. There are books and collected objects. There are rooms that feel calm without feeling empty.

I can work with that.

I just need to Gigi-fy it.

SHOP THE IDEA: START WITH A TEXTURED NEUTRAL RUG

What to select: Look for a warm cream, oatmeal, tan or muted neutral rug with visible texture. A subtle geometric pattern, Moroccan influence, woven texture or gently distressed finish would work beautifully.

I wouldn’t choose a loud multicolor boho rug for this particular look.

I want the rug to create a calmer foundation and then let the more personal pieces in the room do the talking.

That’s one thing I took from looking at all these rooms: quiet doesn’t have to mean boring.

Boho Doesn’t Have to Mean Full-On Hippie

This whole rabbit hole also made me think about something I’ve probably never explained very well.

To me, hippie and boho aren’t exactly the same thing.

Hippie can be MORE.

More color. More pattern. More fringe. More funky stuff.

More I found this thing somewhere and I don’t know what the hell it is, but I love it, so it’s coming home with me.

That’s a mood I happen to enjoy.

But boho can be quieter.

Boho can be a beautiful neutral room with a textured rug, a worn piece of wood furniture, an interesting lamp, some plants and one piece of art that makes you stop.

It doesn’t have to scream:

A HIPPIE LIVES HERE.

Sometimes it can whisper it.

And I think that’s part of what I was responding to in these Nancy Meyers-inspired rooms.

SHOP THE IDEA: THE LAMP THAT LOOKS LIKE YOU FOUND IT SOMEWHERE

What to select: Look for a lamp with some character—a ceramic or stone-look base, aged brass, warm wood or another slightly imperfect texture paired with a simple shade.

I don’t want anything overly modern.

And I don’t want something with so many beads, tassels and embellishments that it screams BOHO from across the house.

I want something that looks like it might have been collected rather than ordered as part of a matching set.

That’s my version of boho whispering.

But Here’s What Really Got Me

The more I looked, the less interested I became in trying to create a “Nancy Meyers house.”

I don’t want one.

I want a Gigi house.

And maybe that’s actually the lesson I took from all of this.

Because if you’re creating a room around the person who’s supposed to live there, then my house shouldn’t look like Nancy Meyers lives here.

It should look like BigDog and Gigi live here.

There should be evidence.

There should be stories.

There should be things that wouldn’t make sense in anybody else’s house.

We have a motorcycle hanging over our loveseat.

That’s not exactly subtle movie-house decorating. 😂

But it belongs there because there’s a story behind it.

And that’s what makes our house ours.

SHOP THE IDEA: ADD ONE GIGI LAYER

What to select: Look for a substantial throw with texture—a chunky knit, woven cotton, subtle pattern or even a little tassel detail.

This is where I’d let more of my personality come through.

Give me some rust.

Muted turquoise.

Warm olive.

Camel.

Maybe cream if the rest of the room already has enough going on.

You don’t have to replace an entire room to change how it feels.

Sometimes you just need one more layer that looks like you.

Maybe That’s Why I’ve Been Loving Our House More Lately

I’ve been working on our home differently over the last year.

I’m not trying to finish it.

I’m not trying to make every room match.

I’m definitely not trying to make it look like a furniture showroom.

I’m paying more attention to how I want a room to feel.

Cozy.

Interesting.

Relaxed.

Personal.

A little boho.

Occasionally a little weird.

Definitely lived in.

And when I think about some of the home projects we’ve been doing—the living-room rug, our photo wall, the patio, even that motorcycle over the loveseat—they have something in common.

They’re making our house look more like us.

Maybe that’s why the Nancy Meyers thing finally clicked for me.

The Room Should Make You Want to Sit Down

There’s another thing I noticed about these rooms.

They don’t look like places where nobody is allowed to touch anything.

They look comfortable.

And that’s important to me.

BigDog and I actually live in our living room.

And Luna certainly thinks the furniture belongs to her. 😂

So if I’m going to spend real money somewhere in a room, I’d rather put it toward a piece of furniture we’re going to use every single day than buy twenty little decorative things just to fill up shelves.

That’s where something like a really good chair or sofa starts making sense.

SHOP THE IDEA: COMFORTABLE SEATING YOU’LL ACTUALLY LIVE IN

What to select from Monvane: Look for a warm-neutral sofa, sectional or oversized chair with deep comfortable seating and plenty of texture. Cream, oatmeal, beige, taupe or another soft neutral would work well here.

I’d lean toward a piece that looks relaxed rather than ultra-modern—something substantial enough to anchor the room but neutral enough that you can change the personality around it.

That’s the kind of piece I’d rather spend more money on.

Give me the comfortable sofa first.

Then I’ll bring in the Gigi with the rug, pillows, art, photos and all the weird little things we’ve collected along the way.

Because a sofa doesn’t need to tell my entire story.

It just needs to give us a damn comfortable place to live it.

Your House Should Give You Away

Now imagine someone walking into your house without knowing anything about you.

Could they figure you out?

Would they see books you actually read?

Pictures of people you love?

Something you brought home from a trip?

Something old you refused to throw away?

Evidence of a hobby?

A ridiculous thing that makes absolutely no decorating sense but makes you smile every time you walk past it?

Would they know you live there?

Because I think that’s the part of the Nancy Meyers aesthetic worth stealing.

Not the white sofa.

Not the giant movie kitchen.

Not a particular paint color.

The intention.

The idea that a home should reveal something about the person living inside it.

And notice something here:

I’m not putting a shopping placard in this section.

Because you can’t Amazon-order personality.

Those are the pieces you already have.

Your photographs.

Your grandmother’s something-or-other that nobody else would keep.

Your husband’s hobby.

Your travel finds.

Your kids’ pictures.

That strange thing you picked up twenty years ago because you loved it.

In our house, it might be a motorcycle hanging over the loveseat.

In yours, it might be something completely different.

That’s the point.

You Don’t Need to Buy a Whole New House

And maybe that’s the other thing I took away from this.

I don’t think you need to run out and buy twenty things to create a certain “look.”

Actually, please don’t.

Start with what you already have.

Then look around and ask:

What’s missing?

Maybe the room needs warmth.

Maybe it needs texture.

Maybe it needs better lighting.

Maybe your seating isn’t comfortable anymore.

Maybe everything is beige and it desperately needs one little shot of YOU.

That’s where I’d spend the money.

A good rug.

A beautiful lamp.

A throw you’ll actually use.

And if you need it, a really comfortable chair or sofa that’s going to be part of your everyday life for years.

Four thoughtful choices beat twenty-seven little pieces of filler decor every damn time.

So, Mom…I Get It Now

I had to be schooled on Nancy Meyers at 68.

And you know what?

I’m okay with that.

There are still things I’ve never heard of.

There are still rabbit holes I haven’t fallen down.

There are still styles I haven’t discovered and ideas I haven’t considered.

That’s one of my favorite things about getting older:

I can have 68 years behind me and still find something completely new tomorrow.

Am I turning my house into a Nancy Meyers movie set?

Nope.

But I might borrow some of that calm.

Some of that warmth.

Some of that lived-in feeling.

Then I’ll throw in some boho texture, some color, something sentimental, probably something BigDog loves that I have to figure out how to decorate around…

…and make the whole damn thing ours.

Because apparently Mom was right.

I just needed her to explain Nancy Meyers to me first.

Don’t let your age determine the size of your dreams—or apparently how late you’re allowed to discover a decorating trend.