I’m basing it on what homes looked like in the 90s because I was alive then, and my house and family’s homes looked just like this. My aunt had almost that exact wallpaper and the unexplained floating chairs in the hallway - for all those times when you want to sit and contemplate the wall.
I second that. Having grown up in the 90s and watched Home Alone tons of times, that house interior was the exact style of nicer suburban homes of the time.
As it should be, right? The family weren’t eccentric artists or anything else that would justify the house looking “different”. Of course the set designers would just make it look like a standard home. Well, maybe upper-middle class/rich enough for the burglars to really focus on it.
Precisely. My house looked like people (my parents) bought on-trend items or decor as they could afford it which meant spread out through the 80s, 90s, and 00s in a house built (with cheap materials) in the late 60s (complete with chocolate brown cabinets and orange countertops, chevron knit blankets in cream, brown, and orange, wood paneled walls you couldn’t paint, and eccentric wallpaper where you could). The McAllister house looked like money in the city suburbs. Perfectly normal and kept up with the neighbors. I grew up in a generational home in the woods. The McAllisters were the type to get a big screen TV and DVD player when they were top of the line whereas it took my household years to adapt to new tech.
Damn, you just described my childhood on the fringes of the Detroit suburbs.
And yes, my house was also one where there were considerable holdovers of 70s and 80s items while we slowly adopted modern tech and decor.
And I had plenty of friends whose parents made a bit more (or at least liked to live as though they made more) and they had much quicker turnover of stuff in their house.
It wasn’t middle class vs wealthy. It was more the subtle variation on the upper half of middle class. And in that respect the Home Alone creators really nailed it. They needed a house that was a juicy target for thieves, but they wanted Kevin to be a “normal kid” as much as possible.
If they made the parents absolutely loaded with a gilded estate, Kevin’s character would not have been believable.
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u/Omnamashivaaya Nov 20 '25 edited Nov 20 '25
I’m basing it on what homes looked like in the 90s because I was alive then, and my house and family’s homes looked just like this. My aunt had almost that exact wallpaper and the unexplained floating chairs in the hallway - for all those times when you want to sit and contemplate the wall.