The Friends Apartment - an Inspiring Design

Friends just celebrated 25 years since the beginning of the series. It takes place primarily in Monica’s apartment. The Friends apartment is where Rachel, Joey, Ross, Chandler, Phoebe, and Monica spend their time.

This series influenced an entire generation and became part of the lives of millions of people. Besides the characters, many fans also love the sets, such as Central Park and Joey and Monica’s apartments.

These sets created the perfect atmosphere for the show, which quickly became one of the most loved and popular series in the world. Even though many people have analyzed the show before, we’re going to take a closer look at the set and decoration.

Most of the action in the series takes place in Monica and Rachel’s apartment. You can almost consider the apartment as another cast member.

The Friends apartment has iconic purple walls, a gold picture frame around the door’s peephole, and, of course, the balcony.

Greg Grande was responsible for the show’s set. He also worked on a spin-off of the show that starred Joey. Greg Grande has a cameo in the last episode of the show.

Grande plays one of the movers, who takes the famous white dog from Monica’s apartment. It’s curious and almost poetic that this last piece is taken out by the set designer.

The gold frame around the peephole

The Friends apartment has a simple gold frame placed around the apartment door’s peephole. Although this may seem like a small feature, the frame became an iconic symbol of the series.

If you’re a fan of the series, you can buy the same frame online so you can have a similar door to the set.

The Friends apartment – different chairs at the same table

The mismatched chairs at Monica’s kitchen table changed every season. However, the chairs were always different colors, fabrics, and shapes. This created a new trend.

Grande, the set designer, wanted to develop an eclectic style in Monica’s apartment as if she shopped at street markets. This was a creative idea and he was able to show that this style is a great option.

The idea was that Monica wouldn’t be able to afford very expensive furniture. Instead, she opted for a mix and match look, which has become more popular since the show started. There is some furniture that you can imagine she inherited from her grandmother or the former tenant of the apartment.

Other pieces of furniture appear to be the product of Monica’s visit to second-hand markets. These, despite being different, combine perfectly with the powdered lilac color of the walls and with the exposed brick in the kitchen.

Without a doubt, for Monica who is a chef by profession, the kitchen is the heart of her home. She has unique home appliances as well, such as the retro-style, aqua green refrigerator. There are also wooden countertops and open shelving, which helps bring the space to life.

Although the kitchen in the Friends apartment is from a fictional series, it has the appearance of a real, functioning kitchen.

Monica’s living room poster

The creators of the series say that the poster was necessary since it was the perfect size to hide a hole in the wall of Monica’s bedroom. The French poster is a 1986 advertisement for a toy store in Paris.

The decoration manager says he chose this poster because the directors didn’t like the first option he offered to cover the space. Eventually, he resorted to his archive of French prints. His choice made his poster iconic.

If you’ve always wanted to have this poster in your living room, you can own the exact one Monica had on television for 10 series. Undoubtedly, the poster became an iconic feature of the apartment.

The decoration of the Friends series has details that you can apply in your own home as small tributes to the magnificent series.

The legendary white dog in Friends

This ceramic dog became a legendary piece of the Friends series and its decoration. Pat the dog came into the series thanks to Joey. He decorated his new apartment in the second season with this luxurious piece, although the style is a bit dubious.

However, when the time comes to leave the new apartment, he has to get rid of his luxurious objects. Ross buys the dog for $200 so that Joey can keep it.

However, nobody likes the dog and it becomes a recurring joke about Joey’s bad taste. When Chandler moves into Monica’s apartment, Joey decides to give him the dog as a farewell gift.

Monica flatly refuses to allow the dog into her home. As a result, Pat ends up on the terrace, visible through the apartment window. At the end of the series, Monica asks the movers to get rid of Pat the dog.

However, if you have an eclectic style, maybe a ceramic dog like Pat would fit your apartment perfectly.

There is no doubt that Friends and the design of Monica’s apartment left a mark on the 90s that continues to this day.