Last time I talked about Bag End, but this time our my fictional home tour is inching a little closer to real life with the Wilhern Manor from Penelope. Granted, this movie takes place in a city that doesn’t exist — like a cross between America and England — and in a world where curses are A Real Thing. But a little closer to reality, I said. Just a little.

This is one of my favorite romantic comedies! So much so that I named my dearly departed kitty after the title character. It follows Penelope Wilhern (Christina Ricci), a girl born with a pig nose because of a family curse. Her mother (the indomitable Catherine O’Hara) tries to set her up with rich guy after rich guy because the curse can only be broken if Penelope finds love from “one of her own kind.” I won’t spoil the ending for you even though this movie is 13 years old.

The set I like in this movie though isn’t the manor itself — which is very grand in a Generic Rich Person sort of way — but the little world of Penelope’s room inside the house. Because she’s hidden away, her room is her sanctuary, complete with deep bathtub, a little library, a swing???, and the coziest bedroom nook that I would replicate in my own house if it weren’t voiding my lease to do demolition work. But, let’s take a look, shall we? We’ll tour the grounds first.

Exterior:

This is a real place — the Foxwarren Park mansion in Surrey, a gothic-style Victorian home built in the 1860s, which was designed by its owner. Fun history fact is that Alfred Ezra, a British bird enthusiast, once lived here and turned it into a small zoo of rare birds, including the last known living pair of pink-headed ducks.

The house is imposing with its jagged lines and I think a bell tower???, though I do enjoy the rounded arched doors. What’s hiding behind that gate, folks?

 

A huge backyard — if a backyard is what you’d call it — complete with creepy angel statues. Perfect for a wedding being held against the bride and groom’s wills!

 

But I do love the look of these rather steep grassy steps lined with low blooming flowers. They seem so impractical — any kind of rain would turn that into a dangerous, slippery trap — but it is very visually arresting, especially as you look up to the brick wall and massive brick house looming up behind them.

 

Then behind those garden steps are more steps, but these made of a far more practical stone. All the better to dramatically run up after escaping your unwanted wedding ceremony! But what I love the most are those imposing bay windows, each with five! tall arched windows. They jut out so far from the rest of the house, that I am super curious what they’d look like from the inside. Unfortunately, I don’t think we ever get to see, because…

 

Interior:

…I am fairly certain the inside of the house is a set and not the actual inside of Foxwarren Park. From what I can tell, the exterior doesn’t show any round windows, but we plainly see them here. Maybe that’s where the fantasy really begins!

This is one of the two dining rooms that we see in the movie. This one seems to also be where the snacks are kept, so I imagine there must be a kitchen adjoining it, though we don’t ever see it. The decor, as I mentioned earlier, is very Generic Rich. There’s gilded trim around the massive windows, lots of dark wood against pristine white walls, and shelves displaying all the tasteful items the Wilherns would love for you to see, and cabinets hiding the things they’d rather you not.

 

Baked Lays chips, for example. And bottles of soda? Maybe Penelope doesn’t like her cola cold. But this is so relatable because my mom also used to hide our bags of snacks and ramen and millions of cans of tuna behind closed cabinet doors. On the exposed shelves, she’d carefully curate a collection of those pretty “vegetables in oil” jars. In my own home these days, all the snacks & etc. are out for everyone to see. Every visitor immediately learns just how much I love Spam.

 

And to continue this symbolism of hiding things away you’d rather remain unseen, no matter how normal it really is, we come to Penelope’s bedroom, tucked away at the end of this JW Marriott hallway.

 

But the inside, what a dream! Most kids get to claim their bedroom as their very own, and they’ll plaster up posters or photo collages or whatever else to assert their own identity in there. Penelope is given this massive space and freedom to do whatever she’d like with it. It’s more generously sized than most studio apartments. But then again, most children and apartment dwellers get to leave their homes on a regular basis — well, maybe not these days — while Penelope never does. Little wonder every corner, every wall is deeply personalized.

I love that her space has multiple steps — it somehow makes it seem bigger. The colors are so much richer than the rest of the house, too — sumptuous greens and reds, and even the wooden floors have a depth of wear and color to them that you don’t see elsewhere.

And for as much stuff as Penelope has, it never feels cluttered. To the far left you see her open bathroom, in the middle looks like a reading nook with a huge bookcase, and on the other side of that is her sleeping space.

 

More little steps to the sleeping space! Having it slightly elevated immediately makes it feel separated from the rest of the room, and the arched entryway and red tree gives it a fairytale feel. Like you’re a princess asleep in your snug chambers!

 

My favorite feature of this sleeping alcove are these windows surrounding her. I always assumed they were lighting panels, but now I wonder if this nook isn’t actually one of the bays we saw from the backyard? There are five windows, after all… But I love the opaque hillside scene covering them, with the nighttime shades featuring stars…

 

…and all you do is roll it up and you get a daytime scene! This doesn’t beat an actual view, but I think it’d be very clever for a room with no view. Or a room hiding A Secret. It could be a fun solution for anyone in a windowless room too?

 

There aren’t any scenes of the little reading area, but we do get a glimpse of the bathroom. The wall tiling is a gorgeous deep green, which really makes the red linens and copper tub pop, if you will. And man, as someone who only discovered the joy of taking a nice bath like a year ago, I am envious of that tub. It is so deep! Though not very long, I suppose, so maybe you always have to soak in a semi-curled position.

On another note, you can see the left wall break away, so I imagine that must be where the toilet (and maybe a standup shower?) is.

 

From the bedroom or bath, this is the rest of the space. It’s both whimsical and a little gothic with the columns, metal screens, and dark-colored butterflies mounted to the wall. Again, more greens and reds! The birdcages also are shown to have doves and canaries in them, though you can’t see evidence of that from this shot.

 

But they’re there!

 

Here’s a better look at the entrance to her room and how her entire space is elevated. I’m not really sure how that would work — like architecturally? — but I like it. I also enjoy seeing other little touches of Penelope here, like the huge blackboard with her doodles on it and the solving-a-murder-string-photo map on the wall behind Catherine O’Hara. She spends a lot of time indoors, guys. She’s bound to come up with at least a few compelling conspiracy theories.

 

This is The Interview Window. What little interaction she has with “outside folk” mainly come in the form of male suitors that her mother and a matchmaker set up. These operate through a one-way mirror where Penelope can see out into the adjoining office but no one else can see in. She has to “meet” these men and suss out whether or not they really love her, all through a thick piece of glass dividing her world and theirs. A bit — pardon the expression — on the nose, but why not?

 

Here she is at The Interview Window talking to James McAvoy, doing some flirting via chess. Even the outside office is lit cold, while Penelope is lit warm.

 

Compared to the reds and deep greens of Penelope’s room, this place just feels freezing. Nevermind more of the Generic Rich Person’s stuff of tufted leather couches and big paintings of stern dead people.

 

Do you really want to join that joyless world, Penelope?

 

Pivot back to some of the detailing in Penelope’s room. Here’s another angle of that red tree, and my apologies to Catherine O’Hara for this weird screengrab but she looks better than I’ll ever look from this angle. Right! The tree!

It is much more obviously homemade here — red wire wrapping around real branches, maybe? And then affixed to the wall? There seem to be DIY black birds hanging off it too, adding to that whimsy-goth vibe. But more importantly, I love the glimpse of the wood-paneled ceiling here, which is a deeper hue than the flooring.

 

And this amazing armoire! I like to imagine Penelope helped make this, that every little tile was painted by her and maybe even assembled by her because if you spend 24/7 inside your home, why not take up a bit of woodworking?

At least here unlike Bag End we know that Penelope 100% uses hangers for her clothing. I wish we could get a better look at her other dresser too because even from that tiny peep behind her mom, it looks very cute.

 

Quickfire:

Here we’re on the staircase in the main part of the house — note the paintings of stern dead people! — and already the mood is so different, just from the change from green to white walls.

 

This is the second dining room, which I only pulled a screenshot of because I love those teacups.

 

I love the terrariums (terraria?) on pedestals all around Penelope’s room. Plants are a great way to instantly make a space feel more homey, and I think it has to do with the fact that they are alive and so indicate a good growing environment, even if you yourself are not a plant. I just am not entirely sure what she is watering here.

 

More terrarium action! And amazing shoes that I wish I owned myself. I also like the extra detail of the floor looking a bit worn and dusty to make it feel just a little more believable.

 

I just wanted you to know that Peter Dinklage is in this movie and he is great.

 

The most interesting detail of the non-Penelope house is this glimpse of the incredible tile flooring shown in a flashback. This is supposed to be right at the front door, but we never see it again, which is a pity.

 

And finally, we come to a scene where Penelope runs away because she wants to see the world outside her home. She runs across a huge field and through what looks like woods before arriving at this gate. I assume she must have run out the back door then, and through some woodlands on the Wilhern estate?

 

Because once she opens that gate, she sees this. Which is bananas. Is the house in the middle of the city??? But nevermind that.

The best part about Penelope’s room is that it feels like her. It has the personality of someone who is imaginative, creative, and warm, and while I won’t be installing a giant red tree anywhere in my own house anytime soon, I like that it was in her room because it suited her character. And aren’t the best homes the ones that just feel like an extension of you?