How to bring the Pedro Almodóvar aesthetic into your home

Just as Martha and Ingrid’s homes needed to feel lived in, the modernist Airbnb “couldn’t quite feel like a museum either, so we added both mid-century elements and modern interpretations of them,” Casado explains out. This meant custom-made loungers from Kettal alongside Stua armchairs, a Womb Chair Relax from Knoll, Pierre Chareau desks, Pierre Chapo sideboards and chairs from Pierre Jeanneret and Jean Prouvé.

Meanwhile, the hallway of Martha’s New York apartment features an Iranian console with an Indian Mehraab-style mirror and an umbrella stand from Fornasetti, and in the living room a Jean Prouvé table sits next to a pair of Bonanza armchairs from Esko Pajamies, with striking geometric prints. “Pedro likes Cassina, Moroso, Utrecht and Vitra, and we often collaborate with brands such as Jonathan Adler, Fritz Hansen and The Rug Company,” Casado continues. “You can be inspired by designers like Gio Ponti, Charlotte Perriand, Gerrit Rietveld or the Memphis group, but you don’t have to spend a lot of money. Nowadays there are so many great design stores offering pieces inspired by legendary designers.”

Choose warm woods

Almodóvarian interiors have an innate sense of warmth, and that was even more important to integrate into them The room next doorconsidering that it was the director’s first English-language feature film and was set outside his native Spain, as well as the fact that much of the story takes place in a somewhat cold, glass-walled Airbnb. The key? Deep, warm woods, says Casado, that create a feeling of coziness.

Use lamps to create atmosphere

Various lamps from Flos, Louis Poulsen, Foscarini, Venini, Casa Josephine, Mayice Studio, Sammode and even a Taliesin lamp from Frank Lloyd Wright fill the sets of The room next doorwhich radiates a soft, golden glow and contributes to this feeling of calm, contented homeliness. Would you like to inject the same warmth into your own home? “Also consider some wall sconces,” Casado advises.

Showcase art that is meaningful to you

“Pedro is like a sponge,” says the set designer. “He absorbs culture, art, fashion and music and shares his new interests with his team, and then we have to translate these into his sets.” An example of this this time was a trip the director took to an exhibition at Georgia O’Keeffe, where he fell in love with a specific painting showing a silhouette of a tree against a blue and peach sky. So of course a print of it ended up in there The room next doorin Martha’s bedroom.

Elsewhere in that house you’ll see a blue and white Louise Bourgeois print embroidered with the words: ‘I’ve been to hell and back. And let me tell you, it was amazing.” This was a piece that Almodóvar already owned. “That was perfect for Martha because she went to war and survived, and despite everything it was an adventure.” Next to it hangs another item from the director’s personal collection: an image by Spanish photographer Cristina García Rodero showing women in mourning clothes at a funeral in Puglia. “It is also connected to Martha, because she has witnessed a lot of pain and sadness all over the world.”