It can be hard for a television show to stand out in 2019, but the suspenseful yet funny Netflix series Dead to Me has become a breakout hit. The streaming service responded to fans’ desire for more by green-lighting a second season, but according to Brandi Kalish, people aren’t just looking for answers about that cliff-hanger ending. The set decorator (she has also worked on Silicon Valley and Teen Wolf) says she’s been somewhat inundated with emails from people who want to copy the decor on the show, particularly in the home of the main character, Jen Harding.
Played by Christina Applegate, Jen is a real estate agent based in Laguna Beach, California, and the way Kalish sees it, she probably gets enough inspiration from the homes she sells to make her own place pretty picture-perfect. “She’s selling multimillion dollar homes. She obviously has good taste and she is exposed to wonderful decor,” Kalish tells Architectural Digest. The exterior of Jen’s home is a house in the San Fernando Valley, but the entire inside was built on a soundstage and dressed to the nines by Kalish. The kitchen, for example, is decked out in Wolf, Smeg, and Sub Zero appliances, with Lamps Plus light fixtures and island stools and an HD Buttercup table and custom-made banquette in the breakfast nook area.
“She has money to make her house a certain way. She also is trying to carry herself in a certain way. You know real estate agents need to have their house decorated in a manner that their clients would be like, ‘Okay, they’re going to get me a great house,’” says Kalish. It was also important to make sure Jen’s house reflected the aesthetic of the area. “Laguna itself has a flair about it decor-wise. We scouted a ton of houses and got a ton of inspiration of how people are living in Laguna,” she says.
To achieve the desired look, Kalish stuck to a color palette of blues and greens throughout, and she also added Jason Soltero paintings, a carved map of Laguna Beach, and plenty of work from local artists. “I’m getting a bunch of emails about the big blue painting—this really big swath of blue, abstract, almost like water—in the main living room. It is by a local contemporary artist who has a gallery in Laguna Beach and her name is Sheila Olsen,” she says.
But the thing fans want to know most about, says Kalish, is Jen’s bedroom: “They are reaching out and asking about the drapery, the bed, and just the overall decor. This one woman reached out to me and she was like, ‘I am so lost. I’m redoing my master bedroom and I have no inspiration, and I saw Dead to Me and I was like, that’s the bedroom I want. Am I crazy for reaching out to you?’” For the record, Kalish doesn’t think it's crazy and is happy to answer. The drapery was custom-made, the bed is from Restoration Hardware, the chairs are from HD Buttercup, and the exercise bike is Peloton. Jen also has Matouk bedding from HD Buttercup, which Kalish calls “the best of the best."
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Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that Steve (James Marsden) has the same linens. “It’s that embroidered hotel stripe, but with Steve’s bedding, it was the gray because he’s cold, and with Jen’s bedding, it was more of the blue because she has Laguna style,” says Kalish.
