My favourite house is both fictional and real. 111 Archer Avenue is how it's known in Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums", but the house where the film was shot really exists on the corner of Convent Avenue & 144th Street in Harlem.
The simple answer to what I love about the Royal Tenenbaum house would be
everything, but its all about the details.
One thing I quite like about The Tenenbaum house is that almost everyone in the family has an "office" or in Chazzie's case his room is an office.
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| Chaz's Office |
Now I don't particularly like the "70's" office feel of Chaz's room, but I do like where he positioned his desk. I love the nooks and crannies of the Tenenbaum house. In terms of location though, Etheline (who shares her office with Henry) has what would be my ideal spot for an office and if there was a way to enter the house's courtyard it'd be even more perfect.
But the best room in the house is Margot's.
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| In the film Margot likes her secrets. She also apparently likes her privacy. |
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| I love the wallpaper. |
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| Have I mentioned I love the wallpaper? |
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| I wouldn't transform my bathroom into a darkroom, but it's a cute idea. |
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| Margot's "Library of Plays". Also she's the only Tenenbaum with a working fireplace. |
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Richie also has great wallpaper, which he paints himself.
In fact Richie is the "artist" of the Tenenbaum family. He has an art gallery in the ballroom.
There are other great rooms in the house with little details I'd love to find in my own dream house. Lots of beautiful wood, swinging doors, a phone cubby, and a closet full of old board games.
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| Game closet. With two sets of Operation. |
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| The library. |
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| The phone cubby (doors open). |
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| The phone cubby (with doors closed for privacy). |
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| Smaller kitchen or breakfast nook. |
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| The stairway before Javelina (the boar's head) is stashed in the game closet. |
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| Obviously my dream house would need its own flag. Aa "A" for Ama! |
But what I love about the Tenenbaum house, aside from what I've posted above has always escaped me. Now that I'm house hunting for a move to Amsterdam I need to be able to tell someone what I'm looking for - and that hasn't been easy.
I can say I want this and this and that - I want more than one bathroom; a library; two offices; an extra bedroom for guests; a massive dining room for dinner parties. I can specify the neighbourhood or that there's a garden of some kind, but it doesn't mean I'm going to get it.
I found
this great interview of Wes Anderson talking about the Tenenbaum house where he specifies the things I haven't been able to quite put my thumb on. I want my own little world. A sort of castle. Surroundings that are "dated and dusty". Bohemian. I want a house where each room seems to have its own identity.
Then I remember a house I lived in once. It was massive. Most of the walls were paneled with mahogany. There was a similar sort of staircase and a quirky bathroom with a claw footed tub and a window I always forget to pull the blind on (thankfully there were lots of trees). I like Richie had the attic bedroom.
But I'm being sentimental. Despite what I can call to memory like the porch that ran along the front of the house where I hung a porch swing (that I bought at a junkyard for $5), it was a boring house. I was a poor student. I didn't care very much about the
ambiance of where I lived so much as comfort and that I could get 200 people inside it on a Friday night.
Still, looking at the last picture of the Tenenbaum flag flying over the neighbourhood I see houses with fascades like those found in Amsterdam. Haarlem was originally a city in Holland (and New York once owned by the Dutch was called New Amsterdam). It keeps me hopeful that eventually I'll see a place and I'll have that moment when I think to myself - 'this is my Tenenbaum house'.
Now all I need is a Chazz to help me close the deal when that day comes. I've already tracked down Margot's
wallpaper.
