OOCCHHOOMMEEJANUARY 2017 LLIIGGHHTTSS,, CCAAMMEERRAA,, KKIITTCCHHEENN Inspiring set design SWELL STYLE | GREENERGREENERY: CCOLOR OF THE YEAR || OFFICE REBOOT 14 Sunday, Jan. 15,2017The Orange County RegisterThe Orange County Register Sunday, Jan. 15,2017 15 1 1 COVER STORY SIMON MEIN SCENE Cameron Diaz’s character, Amanda, in “The Holiday” has a modern L.A. home with a sleek, bright kitchen that features light walls, black ca- binetry and a light wood work table. STEALERS MEET THE HOLLYWOOD SET DESIGNER WHO DROVE THE BIGGEST TREND IN KITCHEN DESIGN. By PAUL HODGINS MELINDA SUE GORDON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STAFF WRITER Meryl Streep plays Santa Barbara bakery owner Jane in “It’s Complicated.” She lives in a house ow many times have you seen a beautiful home in a movie with beamed and vaulted ceilings and a tile- and thought, “Wow, I could just move right in”? floored kitchen with a marble-topped island. Hollywood has long been a source of inspiration for Hfashion and design trends. When it comes to “I want that Hlook” rooms – especially kitchens – one director-designer team has dominated the scene for more than a decade: Nancy Meyers and Jon Hutman. Meyers, Hollywood’s highest-paid female director, makes films with strong, likable women in leading roles. In “Some- thing’s Gotta Give” (2003), “The Holiday” (2006) and “It’s Com- plicated” (2009), Diane Keaton, Cameron Diaz and Meryl Streep live in upscale houses with spec- tacularly stylish kitchens that share certain traits: pale neutral colors dominated by white, lots of counter space and natural light, and open designs in which the kitchen and larger living space are separated by an island. Flower arrangements, fruit bowls and other non-permanent elements provide splash- es of color. Hutman’s sets for these three films have made the “best mo- vie kitchen” lists on thekitchn.com, Food52 and other popular COURTESY PHOTO websites. He has probably exerted more influence on the look The Hamptons house inhabited by of the contemporary kitchen than even the most popular in- Diane Keaton’s character, Erica, in The kitchen from “It’s Complicated” is “Something’s Gotta Give” is filled filled with warm colors and rustic touches. SEE KITCHEN ● PAGE 16 with white cabinets and black coun- In the film it is part of a Spanish-style tertops dotted with bright flowers house in Santa Barbara. Can’t get enough? Look for more Jon Hutman’s sets in and bowls of fruit. MELINDA SUE GORDON, UNIVERSAL “Unbroken,” “Rock of Ages” and “The Tourist.” GREG GRUDT/MATHEW IMAGING 16 Sunday, Jan. 15,2017The Orange County Register 1 Marble is a popular material for island counter tops in a white kitchen. Notice that the only strong color in this Newport Beach kitchen is provided by the plants. FROM PAGE 14 kitchens in those movies that Nancy made. But here’s what I think: I didn’t terior-design professional. invent any of these looks. I’m just a guy The white kitchen has been popular who designs sets for movies.” for several years, and not just because Hutman thinks that movie-goers are of Hollywood. Houzz explains some of influenced by plot and character as the reasons for its enduring success: much as anything else when they iden- “White makes a space look bigger and tify with a set. airier, and enhances other design ele- “When people like a (movie) kitchen ments. Wood floors look richer against they are responding to the story, even white, pendant lights stand out as if they don’t consciously know it. If sculptural elements, and stainless steel they like the character, they like the appliances sparkle.” place where she lives.” Meyers’ charac- ters, Hutman said, are positive yet He didn’t invent the look plausible role models for women, who Hutman studied architecture as an usually call the shots in matters of undergraduate at Yale University and kitchen redesign. admired Yale professor and legendary Hutman says his ideas and inspira- theatrical scenic designer Ming Cho tions always emanate from story and Lee. “I was an unofficial hanger-on at character. “My approach to doing a Yale’s school of drama, which has a stylish romantic comedy is the same as great set design program,” he said of for ‘Unbroken.’ ” (Hutman was the his college days. scenic designer for director Angelina While Hutman admits to a fascina- Jolie’s harrowing historical drama tion with domestic design, he is reluc- PHOTOS COURTESY OF DESIGNWORKS about an American prisoner enduring tant to take any personal credit for This cottage-style Newport Beach interior contains some of Jon Hutman’s typical grim hardships during World War II.) influencing contemporary kitchen stylistic elements, including natural wood floors, white walls, ceiling and chande- trends. “Yes, I know people love the lier, black as a major accent, and the judicious use of primary colors. SEE KITCHENS ● PAGE 18 18 Sunday, Jan. 15,2017The Orange County Register 1 MOVIE LOOKS The film: “Something’s Gotta Give” (2003) ● The character: Diane Keaton is successful play- wright Erica Barry,who strikes up an unlikely ro- mance with Harry Sanborn (Jack Nicholson), a music mogul who was originally dating Erica’s daughter. ● The look: Erica’s Hamp- tons beach home has a huge kitchen that’s predominantly white, with contrasting dark countertops, a large central island, plenty of natural light from windows over the sink and French doors. A vase of hydrangeas and bowls of fruit provide brilliant pops of color. The film: “The Holiday” (2006) Deep blue provides an ● The character: Cameron interesting accent in this Diaz is Amanda Woods, a Newport kitchen. Fruit, workaholic who owns a Los books and greenery Angeles company that pro- provide more color. duces movie trailers. ● The look: The airy kitchen COURTESY OF ASHLEY CLARK/SKOUT gets natural light from two FROM PAGE 16 huge windows flanking the films. All these sources share a common stove as well as a side win- “We worked with him in the same goal, Hutman believes: “Casual ele- dow. Its black cabinets and “I try to get inside that world and make way you’d work with a historical re- gance. It’s chic but comfortable, stylish gray countertops contrast everything real and specific. And I pay searcher,” Hutman said. “He would but approachable, always relaxed and with off-white walls, pale attention to what the character is tell- show us what was going on in his airy – a place where good cooking and beige slip-covered stools and ing me about herself.” world and what he thought would be good living are one and the same.” chairs, and a lightly stained Hutman says his success in making next. What we were able to do was not Hutman is surprised that a style so farmhouse table. A bowl of kitchens seem real and desirable is invent a style but take a style that al- deeply rooted in America’s Northeast red apples is the only note of partly attributable to his research. ready existed and bring it to another, has taken flight in far-flung parts of saturated color. “When we did ‘Something’s Gotta slightly more advanced level.” the country. Give’ we shot in the Hamptons. I scout- Hutman points to the Hamptons, the The film: “It’s But such universal adoption of ge- Complicated” (2009) ed every house of a certain style and well-heeled Long Island setting of ographically specific styles has hap- ● The character: Meryl size in the area. I did thorough re- “Something’s Gotta Give,” as a possible pened before. Streep is Jane, who owns a search in books and magazines. The wellspring for the “white kitchen” “There was a period of time when successful bakery in Santa same process is true of ‘It’s Complicat- movement that he helped to create. “A everyone wanted a Santa Fe-looking Barbara. ed’ and ‘The Holiday.’ I look at how real typical Hamptons beach house, which house. That style was rooted in a very ● The look: The kitchen in people in that social sphere actually is where that character lived, is essen- specific time and place and culture, but Jane’s Spanish colonial home live.” tially all white with pops of color here it didn’t stop people in other parts of isn’t large, but a command- and there.” the world from embracing it.” ing window above the sink Comfortably chic But that Hamptons style, Hutman Hutman shies away from predicting looks out onto the attractive In “Something’s Gotta Give,” “The suggested, is itself a co-opting of other, kitchen design trends. But he is confi- yard.White walls and dish- Holiday” and “It’s Complicated,” Hut- more downscale looks. “A lot of ele- dent the next generation of stylish ware and a marble-topped island contrast with brown man worked with respected Los An- ments in the typical Hamptons home, movie kitchens will exhibit the same Saltillo floor tiles and black geles interior designer James Radin, like the white cupboards and the shin- qualities that his famous sets have. chairs. Bowls of ripe fruit and whose airy and spare interiors, casual gle-style exteriors, is an imitation of “They’ll reflect the character who in- bunches of leafy greens add yet subtly informed by classicism, bear elements that you find in older houses habits them. And if that character is color. a strong family resemblance to dom- in Nantucket and on Martha’s Vine- likable, if people relate to her, then estic interiors in the Hutman-Meyers yard and Cape Cod.” they’ll want to have her world too.”.