Lost on a Mountain in Maine: Fendler's Maine Home
Ruth and Don Sr. talk in the dining room of their home
another view of the same angle of the dining room when the light was looking particularly beautiful the morning of shooting
Of course the real pleasure and fun of Lost on a Mountain in Maine was decorating the Fender’s home set in 1939 rural Maine.
I got into set decorating to play with period interiors, so working on these interiors was a dream come true.
I’ll break down the details and fun we had by room.
DINING ROOM
The room at location before we decorated it:
we made custom curtains and this is the paper I used for measurements
A corner of the Set Dec office where we were trying out different fabrics, artwork, furniture, wallpaper and etc and how it might work together and in the location.
a close up on the period fabric we were able to find and us assessing how it looked next to the wallpaper at location and comparing it to images of 1930’s interiors.
This is the design image Darcy, the production designer, gave me at the beginning of the job of her dreams for the sheers in the home.
I’m happy to report that we were able to recreate them from scratch for the home and you can see them quite clearly in this shot of Donn Jr. in the living room that makes it in the movie!
We had put together most of the elements of the home, but I was still missing a lamp for the dining room and I had something very specific in my mind: something a little more rustic and textural to complement the other lamps we had already dressed in.
And then I saw this PERFECT lamp at a local antique store in Woodstock, NY where we were living and was so excited to get it for our set.
close-up of the lamp in the store and in the background behind Darcy while we were putting the finishing touches on the set.
me so happy after finding it.
you can see the lamp in the background behind Andrew, the director, on set with the kids prepping them for one scene.
PARENTS BEDROOM
Another really beautiful image Darcy gave me at the beginning of the job is this painting.
This painting was her design for the parent’s bedroom and it was our challenge to capture the essence of the dreamy wistfulness of the image but also recreate that very special canopy.
I think in the end we did get there and this still captures it best:
Ruth Fendler (Caitlin Fitzgerald) in her bedroom
I would like to note that we got that beautiful handmade fringe from a woman who owns a textile workshop in upstate New York where they still handloom and handmake fabric and trim on historic looms!
We didn’t really have the budget to commission handmade pure cotton trim from her for this job (this was a very low budget Tier 1 movie!) but got SO LUCKY that she had just enough leftover from another job she was willing to sell to us at a very discounted rate.
Then we bought the right diaphonous fabric from another store and sent it to one of my favorite drapers with a lot of photos and measurements and asked her to custom make this canopy for us.
another angle on the bedroom where you catch a corner of that custom canopy cascading down.
A little before and after of the Fendler Bedroom:
BEFORE
IN THE MIDDLE
yes we re-wallpapered this bedroom with period wallpaper!
AFTER!
canopy on!
we also made a custom cushion for this bay window
getting this window measurements precise were very important
picking the right period lace sheers to go with the wallpaper we picked out.
I feel like all the elements come together nicely here though you can barely see the pattern on the lace sheers.
LIVING ROOM
To me, the early american rag rug we found to rent is EVERYTHING with the perfect mix of rustic, americana, and colors and pattern and really pulled the set together.
One minor challenge was to find the right desk that fit perfectly in the space between the windows for the telephone for one of the key scenes in the home.
I found this desk at an antiques store but was unsure it was period accurate…
So I had to refer to the books I brought up with me and especially the 1920’s and 1930’s Sears Catalogues I ordered for the job.
Seeing some tables with that similar design in one of the 1930’s Sears Catalogues made me feel ok to get the table.
And here is the desk in the set.
so so so happy you get to see some of the rug on screen!
BROTHER’S BEDROOM
what is hard to see, is the the lace sheers are woodland scenes for some fun foreshadowing…
I think the way this set turned out was actually one of my favorites of the whole movie.
We made custom curtains, rented that rag rug which I think really worked in there and my favorite detail is working with a specialty quilt collector to find two period appropriate quilts.
The room before:
collecting various period toys and children’s books was so fun and I love the way the set dressers put it together in this corner.
one of the kid actors in the set.
And then the bed traveled to the forest for this magical scene where Donn imagines his bed while stumbling around the forest alone for days.
PORCH EXTERIOR
This was the first day of shooting and our first set and I was very happy with how all the outdoor porch elements came together.
This is from a 1930’s Sears catalogue and I loved how specific that shape of a kids bike was.
so was thrilled when we found one to rent that matched the shape AND that made it into the shot here!