Can’t Pick Your Family: The Houses from The Gilmore Girls

There is one show that absolutely love, and that is Gilmore Girls. It was about a mother and daughter who lived in the fictional town of Stars Hollow, CT.  In the pilot, Lorelai’s daughter Rory gets into a fancy private school called Chilton and to pay for it, Lorelai goes to her well-to-do parents in Hartford for a loan. Of course, Lorelai’s mother Emily has a condition: every Friday the girls must join them for Friday Night Dinner. And so it begins. Through Gilmore Girls‘ seven seasons the drama takes place primarily between these two houses with contrasting styles and facades. Lorelai and Rory’s Stars Hollow home and Emily and Richard’s Hartford mansion.

The first home we see in Gilmore Girls is Lorelai’s house.  It has beautiful traditional style mixed with Southern charm and an interior design perfect for the Gilmore’s personalities.  The exterior features a large wrap-around porch that serves as a centerpiece for drama. Lorelai and Rory have painted each other’s nails, freaked out when termites infested the porch, and carried an anxiety ridden dog down the stairs.

The inside of Lorelai’s home is modest. There is a small kitchen with Rory’s room just off of it and a living room with a television. The Gilmore Girls house underwent a renovation later in the series when Lorelai’s boyfriend, diner owner and resident handyman Luke Danes, decided to modify the bedroom so that it would fit two people.

In contrast, Emily and Richard’s mansion has more of a European flare.  The house is very large and we see mostly the Great Room and dining room, on occasion we saw sets like Richard’s office and Lorelai’s childhood bedroom.

Much of Emily and Richard’s home is elaborately decorated with portraits and chandeliers. Although the show sometimes ventures upstairs to Lorelai’s childhood bedroom or Richard’s study, the room viewers often see is the dining room during the requisite Gilmore Girls Friday Night Dinner.

 

You may not be able to live on the actual sets used on Gilmore Girls but you can definitely find house plans like them. If you are looking for homes with sprawling porches and welcoming charm like Lorelai and Rory’s check out the Southern house plan collection. If you want something a little more regal like Emily and Richard’s mansion take a look at our European house plan collection.  With a little bit of poking around you are sure to find a home inspired by your favorite television home at The House Designers.