Shonda Rhimes says Bridgerton ‘inspired’ her New York City apartment

The Bridgerton showrunner said the show ‘had to influence’ her in some way

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Shonda Rhimes has revealed the inside of her New York City apartment — and says her show Bridgerton influenced some of the decor choices.

The TV producer, who is also behind Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and Inventing Anna to name a few, said that she had been “immersed in the romanticism of Bridgerton for a while, so that had to influence some of the things that I had been thinking about”.

Speaking to Architectural Digest (AD) for its April cover story, the 52-year-old said she enlisted the help of interior designer Michael S Smith, who looked after the White House interior design while Barack Obama was US president.

Rhimes said her Upper East Side apartment is about her “work life” and features regal-esque rooms with heavily patterned wallpaper, soft furnishings and intricate detailing.

Of the floral patterned wallpaper in her living room, Rhimes told AD: “That pattern allows for things like those incredible yellow curtains and some really bold choices in furniture.

“There are a lot of gilt-edged pieces in there because the wallpaper can hold all of that. The furniture can be a little bit eclectic. It’s a mix of contemporary pieces and antiques, and they all work together really nicely.”

Of the Bridgerton influences, Rhimes said: “Everything sort of spills into everything else. If I’m thinking about these books that we’re turning into a series, then that inevitably spills into how the apartment’s going to look, which inevitably spills into what goes in the scripts—it all sort of spins together.”

The first season of Bridgerton dropped on Christmas Day 2020 and quickly became one of Netflix’s most-watched series, with 82 million Netflix accounts watching at least two minutes of the series in the first 28 days.

The second season of Bridgerton is set to be released later this month, on 25 March.