Inspiration from You've Got Mail: Kathleen Kelly's Apartment

Don't you just love You've Got Mail?

One thing I love about it is that it has great scenes from each season.

Fall: "Don't you just love New York in the Fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies."
Winter: Of course I want to see Greg Kinnear sing "the horn...the horn...it sounds so forlorn."
and it would be a shame to miss New York in the Spring...

And of course I could watch it countless times just to see Kathleen Kelly's apartment.

Here are a few things I love about it:

Books everywhere (on bookshelves, in baskets, stacked on the table)

Quilts & floral patterns

Pictures hung in obscure places 

Anything is better with Tom Hanks! & daisies.

a comfortable couch: hard to beat.

Kathleen Kelly's apartment is not spotless. It looks like someone actually lives there, which is refreshing for a romantic comedy.

There are lots of old-fashioned things (floral prints & framed family photos), 

but it doesn't look dated. 

Her apartment is rearranged throughout the movie. Even the bed linens change. 

Gotta love that Nora Ephron.

Lots of plants & fresh flowers

Sunny windows & sheer curtains

Interesting furniture placement. The bed comes out diagonally from the wall, the desk is in the middle of the room, & she has two couches - on opposite ends of the apartment. Good ideas for decorating a small or oddly shaped apartment. 

Note the framed doily. Awesome. 

My sister & I lived together for a few years after I graduated from college. One day we were watching You've Got Mail, and I said "bah! I just want our apartment to look exactly like that!" She paused the movie and said: "Look around."

Comfortable couch, floral fabric, sheer curtains, books everywhere...the same wall colour. Years of studying Kathleen Kelly's great apartment - & absorbing her style by osmosis while watching You've Got Mail so many times - had apparently paid off.

Come to think of it, it's almost fall & it might be time for a walk to Starbucks for a tall decaf cappuccino. And it's always a good time for a re-watching of You've Got Mail.

Post & pictures adapted from Life on Canvas.