It’s handled — and oh, so pretty! Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) has it all: President Fitz (Tony Goldwyn), gladiators, and, well, a pristine apartment to settle into at night. Scandal’s former set decorator, Amy Wells, recently gave Us Weekly an inside look at the character’s digs and revealed where she snagged some of the iconic pieces.
Wells tells Us that Olivia’s stylish and sophisticated home was first set up on location, and she had to recreate every inch of the space once production moved it to a stage. The former White House communications consultant, of course, can’t go a day without her wine glasses and satin bed sheets, but it was actually her blue velvet chair that Wells purchased first.
“I remember looking at it and going, ‘I don’t know if I want to take this risk with this crazy color, but I just love it so much,'” Wells tells Us. “And then I ended up just saying, ‘I gotta have it.'” (Wells, who previously worked on Clueless, House M.D., and American Pie, worked on the ABC drama from 2012 to 2013. She now works on NBC’s Truth Be Told.)
Her second find: a silver metal coffee table with ballooned legs. Wells picked up the piece at a tiny interior designer’s store in Culver City, Calif., which is now out of business.
Like Olivia’s to-die-for wardrobe, Wells tried to use neutral colors, such as whites, beiges, and grays for the furnishings. She also turned to HomeGoods to add tasteful trinkets. “There was a lot of imported items that I liked to use because I felt with her that she had gone around the world. I wanted that reflected in what was in her apartment,” Wells explains.
Lucky for the set decorator, all of her hard work paid off when she got the final stamp of approval from the big boss — Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes. “It was very personal for Shonda and it was very important that we got her apartment right. And that takes a little trial and error,” she adds. “When you’re doing a character that resonates with people and is at the center of the storytelling, then you really have to tread carefully. Shonda is a very powerful presence on all her shows. When she walked onto that set the first time, I mean needless to say, I was kind of shaking in my boots. She walked on and she goes, ‘Hmm, I could live here.'”
Check out the rest of Wells’ Q&A below:
US WEEKLY: What was the process like buying Olivia’s wine glasses and bedroom sheets at HomeGoods?
AMY WELLS: I couldn’t afford even on a Scandal budget to buy a $300 set of sheets. But if I can go there and buy them for $99 for the whole set, they’re just so much more affordable. I love doing that. And someone like Olivia really appreciates that because she would have expensive sheets. She’s sleeping with the president for Christ’s sake!
US: Has Washington ever given her two cents about her likes and dislikes?
AW: [One time] the on-set dresser came to me and said, ‘Oh she really didn’t want those furry pillows on there. She really didn’t like those, so they’re gone.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, we’ll find her something else. No problem!’ You always want to have alternates around. She also didn’t like the fact that I mixed gold and silver metals.
US: What was it like decorating the Oval Office?
AW: I tried to go back to see what all the White House Oval Offices looked like for the last three presidents — and then kind of combined it to find the best possible one. It’s all very traditional so you can’t go wrong. I re-did the drapes because I have a big thing about flimsy drapes. I like drapes to be full and lined and really feel substantial. I wanted real antiques.
US: What did you love most about working on Scandal?
AW: I just really enjoyed putting her apartment together because it was such a great look. It was just so beautiful. The other thing is, there are parts of that set that you never see. There was this kind of funny glass front built-in in the wall in the hallway going from the living room to her bedroom, and it was filled with these amazing, hand-blown glass globes that I collected.
Scandal airs on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.
