4 min read
Austen fans, rejoice! Another adaptation of Sense & Sensibility has just made it to theaters, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, and we can’t wait to be immersed in Georgian-era fashion, antiquity, and architecture as we follow along with the Dashwood sisters’ emotional and romantic highs and lows.
Production designer Francesca Di Mottola, known for her maximalist sets in shows like Hulu’s The Great, imagined a subtler, more natural, yet incredibly intricate design for writer and director Georgia Oakley’s script. She envisioned the two houses that the Dashwood women live in during the movie, as well as the wild environs of the English countryside, to serve as main characters in themselves.
Additionally, the production team wanted to eliminate the need for soundstages to make the actors and viewers feel like these spaces were truly the homes of these characters—which would also allow for more natural movement from room to room during filming. Di Mottola says the team was lucky enough to find the Kingston-Russell House in Dorset, England, to serve as Norlund Park, the Dashwood family’s ancestral home, which ended up providing much more than a beautiful blank canvas to start the film’s journey.
Courtesy of Focus Features
Kingston-Russell House in Dorset served as an idyllic Norlund Park, complete with wild grasses and gardens.
“The home’s dining room has this stunning original chinoiserie painting from the 17th century and at one point we weren’t sure that the space was practical enough to film 12 people in a dinner scene while having enough cameras and a big enough table,” says Di Mottola. “We ended up making it work because it was so worth it to have this type of original work on the walls.”
Courtesy of Focus Features
The dining room features an original show-stopping chinoiserie mural that was period-appropriate for the film.
However, there was still plenty of work to do beyond scoring some one-of-a-kind wallcoverings throughout Kingston-Russell House. Di Mottola teamed up with art historian Celia de la Hey, longtime curator at Spencer House, who joined the film as an invaluable set decorator to both curate and create period-appropriate furnishings and objects.
She says they were fortunate to work in England where the prop houses are well-stocked with beautiful items, and where there is an abundance of antique dealers who could help them find rich, textural pieces. However, Di Mottola says, her team wasn’t above scouring eBay for one-of-a-kind finds, and one of her favorite props was actually discovered there.
“Our graphic designer found an original drawing book from 1780 which belonged to a woman, and we showed it to Daisy [Edgar-Jones], and she studied it for a few days while taking drawing lessons in preparation for the film,” says Di Mottola. “It became such an important relic to inspire her character’s drawings in the movie.”
Courtesy of Focus Features
The production team fought to make every room in the house work to create a seamless flow and a more homey feel in the film.
The film was intended to take place when Austen most likely wrote the book—in the late 1790s, versus 1811, when the book was published. This was an intentional and important distinction for the production team, as it would cement the fashion, interiors, and architecture in the Georgian era, rather than in the more ornate trends at the onset of the Regency era.
Di Mottola dreamed up very lived-in spaces that reflected the years of love, play, and hospitality in Norlund Park that would make it all the more difficult for the Dashwood sisters and their mother to leave their beloved home for a humbler cottage on the coast. That meant even the dreamiest early Georgian antiques needed some hands-on attention before making it onto the big screen.
Courtesy of Focus Features
Di Mottola and team repurposed a room in Kingston-Russell House to become Norlund Park’s ever-important library that features an array of collected and created elements that feel at home in the late 18th-century.
“We spent a lot of time reupholstering and aging original Georgian sofas and armchairs before shooting,” says Di Mottola. “We sent pieces to someone who professionally ages fabrics, and literally until the moment we were shooting, I was distressing pieces with a little metal comb. Even the curtains were sun-bleached and had frayed fabric to give that sense of period to tell a deeper story.”
Courtesy of Focus Features
The nursery at Norlund Park in the 2026 film.
One of Di Mottola’s favorite rooms in the film is Norlund Park’s nursery, which features dozens of toys handmade by her production team, including a dollhouse replica of the property filled with tiny dolls and furnishings—also hand-distressed to look well-adored by the Dashwood sisters through the years. She notes that in the film, Margaret Dashwood brings contraband dollhouse relics from Norlund to their next home, Barton Cottage, to further play up the notion that the mother and sisters have to leave everything they know and love behind.
Courtesy of Focus Features
The film’s production team created a dollhouse-sized version of “Norlund Park” that features an assortment of hand-distressed dolls, furnishings and decorative objects.
“I was quite amazed at how much we managed to produce in-house with our team,” says di Mottola. “Our graphics team even made all these little paper sculptures and painted pebbles that we used in the cottage to showcase the passing of time. When the girls first arrive there, the cottage has a bit of an abandoned feel, but it really becomes their home in time, and all those details help to further tell their story.”
Lauren Wicks is a freelance writer and editor who covers all things lifestyle and luxury, with an emphasis on interior design and travel. Lauren began her career in lifestyle journalism as a Dotdash Meredith digital editorial fellow with Cooking Light, then worked as a digital editor for EatingWell and VERANDA before venturing out on her own in 2022. She has been writing for nationally renowned lifestyle publications for six years and has also written for several U.K.-based travel and interior design brands. Lauren lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband and son and enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, traveling, and spending time outdoors with her family in her free time.