Set Decoration 1980s and 1700s

  

The time travel series Outlander, based on the books by Diana Gabaldon,  is now in its seventh season.   The last episode of the first half of the season will be shown this week.  The second half of the seventh season is being shown in 2024.  And more exciting – there is an eighth and final season still to be filmed. 

I’ve loved Season 7 especially since there have been lots of time traveling when Brianna and Roger McKenzie return to 1980s Scotland.   If you haven’t watched Outlander  – I recommend giving the first season a try.  Just remember to use close caption because the Scottish accents can be a little hard to decipher sometimes.

The set design and costumes have been so outstanding in the series, thanks to the original Production Designer Jon Garry Steele and Costume Designer Terry Dresbach.  But, with such a huge and long production, there are inevitable changes and both of these people resigned before the end of the series.  Terry left after Season 4 stating she would never design for another production. 

   

   

One of Terry Dresbach’s masterpieces was the wedding dress for Claire.  It was gorgeous.

    

Jon Gary Steele left after Season 5.  I thought the show would suffer terribly with both of these losses, but it hasn’t at all,  which is surprising.   Both Terry and Steele were irreplaceable, or so I thought.  Trisha Bigger took Terry’s place and Mike Gunn is now Production Designer.

   

   

Terry Dresbach’s costumes were so loved, they even went on tour!  Here the Outlander Costumes do a stint in Los Angeles with showrunner Ron Moore proudly showing off his wife Terry’s work.

The sets Steele designed for Outlander are legendary.   There are too many of his sets to name them all here –the apothecaries, the various sets in Paris and Versailles, the Boston apartment, and those in the New World, and many more.

  Master Raymond’s Apothecary by Steele

Here are just a few sets to remind you of Jon Gary Steele’s best work on Outlander.

    

First, Castle Leoch

   

   

A mockup of the castle.

 

The exterior of Castle Leoch was filmed at an existing ruin of a castle, the interiors were built on a huge soundstage.

    

   

The Castle’s interior was built on a soundstage.  Besides the Great Hall, Steele created bedrooms, the kitchen, the Laird’s office and Claire’s surgery.

   

   

A night scene at the castle with fires and candles blazing.

     

The Paris Apartment:

   

   

The entire Paris apartment was built on a soundstage, including the exterior courtyard.   

 

 

  The apartment will filled with gorgeous French antiques - cost be damned.  It was incredible.

     

The Paris apartment bedroom with beautiful wood floor.

   

 

The Paris apartment’s spiral staircase showcasing one of Terry Dresbach’s stunning creations.

   

 

At the Paris apartment, another beauty from Terry Dresbach – a summer dress for a visit to a garden and horse show.

   

River Run Plantation

   

   

The exterior for the River Run Plantation in North Carolina was actually found in Scotland.  Steele created the interiors on a sound stage.  He recreated a southern plantation with its dramatic interiors, including this staircase.

 

 

The living room at River Run.  In all, he created six rooms for River Run’s interiors.

   

One of Steele’s largest creations was The Big House on Fraser Ridge, where Claire and Jamie lived.

   

 

The entire house was actually built in Scotland, but its interiors were empty.  Those were built on a soundstage.

 

 

   

Showing the back of the house with its fox trot design.  At the left is Claire’s surgery, separated from the house by a large breezeway.

   

 

 

The actual house was burned to the ground for an episode!!  What a waste!

   

 

The house was filled with American antiques.  The colors were authentic to the time.  Many book readers felt Steele created too grand a house for Frasers Ridge, but it was a stunner.

   

Book readers really hated the spiral staircase, but I loved it.    Terrible screenshot.  Sorry!

   

 

Claire’s surgery with its authentic brick floors and not so authentic bifold glass doors.  A recurring decorative theme used throughout the seasons were the arched cubbyholes.  These cubbies were used in all the apothecaries and Claire’s various surgeries, starting with Castle Leoch. 

 

 

 

Castle Leoch – showing Claire’s original surgery with its arched cubbies.

 

But, considering all the sets Steele designed, nothing can compare to Lallybroch, the ancestral home of the Laird Broch Tuarach, aka Jamie Fraser.   Something about Lallybroch is so magical.  The castle is featured through all the seasons – from a just married Jamie and Claire to their grown child Brianna returning to meet her family from the 1700s.   This season, Brianna and Roger return to Lallybroch in the 1980s and buy the ruin to live in.  They renovate the castle and move in it with their two children and Roger’s great great great great great grandfather.  Don’t ask!!!

 

 

The Lollybroch set was a major test for the new Production Designer Mike Gunn.   He must take the original 1700s designs from Jon Gary Steele and bring them up to the 1980s.  No worries – he passed the test with flying colors. 

   

As a designer, I found this renovation of Lallybroch so exciting, even more exciting than the Big House at Fraser Ridge.  There’s is just something about Lallybroch that is impossible to endearing.

    

   

The real Lallybroch, located in Scotland.  Various outbuildings were removed by green screen, leaving the beautiful ruin in all its glory.

 

   

A 1885 photograph showing Lallybroch, or its actual name Midhope.  It is a five story tower house.   It was built in the 1500’s and in 1678, it was renovated with its entrance tower removed.   Also, it was extended and heightened.  A new doorway was added as was the courtyard.  In the early 1900s, a devastating fire left the house a ruin, abandoned and now unsafe.

 

An aerial view of Lallybroch showing all the outbuildings that surround it.  Although, today, the white roofed buildings have been removed.

 

 

Jamie and Claire ride away from Lallybroch, one of the many times they come and go through the years.   Everytime one of them leaves the castle, tragedy ensues.  Don’t leave!!!!!!  Stay put!!!

  

Early 1900s showing the front steps with a metal railing.  The front door is studded.  The windows are paned.

   

 

   

Bree and Roger come to the house in the 1980s.  The door seen above is long gone as is the stair railing.

    

   

Let’s look at Lallybroch as seen in the 1700s.  Here Claire is seen in the muddy courtyard.  Notice how Outlander treated the windows – with wood and diamond shaped paned glass.

    

 

Claire rides off to find Jamie.  

  

 

1700s  A large center hall divides the house.  On the left is the dining room.  Across is the great hall.

   

A jib door in the dining room leads to the kitchen.   

Notice the murals.  These were replicated with permission from a museum.  William and Mary chairs surround the long table.  

   

Some fifteen years later, a Christmas party is thrown for the returning Jamie – hoping to find him a wife, which he does, unfortunately since he was still technically married to Claire who is now living in the 1960s. 

   

 

So cute!

    

Across the center hall from the dining room is the Great Hall with its large fireplace and Knole sofa.

 

   

  Looking from the Great Hall to the Dining Room with the Center Hall in between.

The Great Hall, looking at it through the double doors.  Here it is seen in the daylight.   Behind the large open fireplace are the winding stairs that lead to the second floor bedrooms.

A night time view of the Great Hall with its Knole sofa on the left.

  

Claire and Jamie in the Great Hall.  The stairs wrap around the open fireplace.

     

A Knole sofa sits in the Great Hall.  Jon Gary Steele copied the original Knole sofa to create this prop.

   

Dancing at the Christmas party thrown for Jamie, some 15 years after Claire has left him for her own time.

   

In the Great Hall, more tables set up for the Christmas party. 

   

More Christmas decor.  Notice how the floor here are stone flags.  And over the left side, you can see the balcony which leads to the bedrooms.

     

Here, twenty years later, Claire returns to the 1700s and reunites with Jamie.  Again, the Great Hall has hardly changed at all.

 

 

A few years after Claire returns to Lallybroch,  her now grown daughter Brianna has time traveled back to the 1700s to visit Lallybroch and all her unknown relatives.  The house had hardly changed in those 20 years.

 

The kitchen, a dark space made of stone.  

 

The kitchen was made with a special wall oven – a detail that Diana Gabaldon wrote about in the book and something that Jamie bragged to Claire about when describing Lallybroch.      The ceiling is very low in this room.

 

 

Another view. 

 

     

 

  The Laird’s library, filled with his books.  There is a center fireplace with two flanking windows.  More William and Mary chairs are used here. 

  

A red cloth covers the Laird’s desk. 

 

 

The bookcases and large globe in the library.

 

Upstairs, the Laird’s bedroom is gorgeous filled with blue and white tapestries.  There’s a large rice bed and many English antiques.  Just gorgeous!

 

A view of the tall mantel with blue and white porcelains and the vanity table with an antique mirror.

 

The large rice bed in the Laird’s bedroom.

      

  Bree returns to Lallybroch on her way to America to find her mother and Jamie.

1980s

Now, years later, Briana and her husband return to Lallybroch in their own time – the 1980s.   They buy the castle and set about to redecorate it.     The new Production Designer must now take Jon Garry Steele’s designs from the 1700s and update them to the 1980s.  Not an easy feat.

Lallybroch, home where Jamie Fraser was born and eventually inherited.

 

 

   BEFORE & AFTER LALLYBROCH

From the 1700s to the 1980s

  

1700:   The courtyard is a flurry of activity.  Here, the tenants came to pay rent to the Laird, Jamie, and they all want to meet his new wife Claire.

           

  

1980:   When Roger and Bree first move into Lallybroch, they live in the trailer, or caravan, which is parked for a few years in the courtyard.

            

1980:  Trailer Interior

     

Inside the trailer, it’s all leftover decor from the 1960s and 1970s.  Lots of orange and brown with paneling.  Maybe this is how trailers looked in Scotland, but in America, ours didn’t look anything like this with the stained glass and grills.

 

The sofa takes up the entire back of the trailer.

But, the sofa converts into a queen bed for Brianna and Roger.  Roger barely fits in the trailer, he is bit too tall.

The children share a bedroom with 60s style paneling.  Notice the daisy pillowcases.

 

The other side of the bedroom.

Trish Bigger said most of Bree’s clothes are vintage as opposed to newly created costumes.  Bree also got an updated hairdo with bangs.

 

  Roger at the dining table. 

LALLYBROCK INTERIORS, 1980S:

 

The Center Hall:  Roger does a lot of the renovation work along with hired labor.  The front door remains the same from the 1700s as do the stone flag floors.  The half wainscot remains, but the walls are painted a sunny yellow.  Another new touch is a coat rack by the front door.

Looking down the center hall.  The dining room is on the left and the great hall is on the right.

          

1700s:  Notice the wood door is the same as the restored front door.  All the doors through Lallybroch are the same.

THE DINING ROOM:

Here is how the dining room looked in the 1700s.  The walls were covered in murals that are copies of actual antique tapestries.  There is a large fireplace in the room along with antique William and Mary chairs.

1700s:  Along the back wall is a jib door that leads to the kitchen and service area.

 

1980s:   The dining room saw a huge change in decor and use.  The room appeared much larger when filled with smaller scaled 1980s furniture.  And so, the the dining room became part family room and part casual dining area.  The colors are repeated from the trailer with lots of orange, green and gold.  The floors are wood in this room, just as they were in the 1700s.   The murals are now faded and are barely seen.

Instead of the jib door leading to the kitchen, the wall was opened to allow easy access.

The fireplace mantel remains the same as it was in the 1700s.   

 

 

1700s:   The fireplace in the dining room which was left exactly the same as it was, although I’m sure the chimney was cleaned out.

 

A close up of the living area.  Notice the remains of the murals on the walls.  The lamps are 60s relics.

The vintage lamp. 

 

    Dinner at the now casual table and green chairs. 

 

 

Close up of the murals showing the faded unicorn.  Vintage hi-fi.

 

The painting above the 1700s mantel was painted by Brianna.  The subject matter is her and Roger’s 1700s log cabin on Fraser Ridge.

  

THE GREAT HALL

1700s:   Across the stone flagged center hall from the dining room is the Great Hall.

 

 

1700s:   Through the double doors is the Great Hall with its large fireplace and the winding staircase behind it. 

      

1700s:   The Great Hall.  You can see the beautiful wood staircase behind the fireplace. 

1980s:   The Great Hall now half way renovated by Brianna and Roger.   Notice the staircase has disappeared, maybe it wasn’t built solidly enough for the 20th century?

             

1980s:   Close up of the open fireplace. 

 

The Great Hall was painted the same gold as the other rooms.  To the right of the fireplace an area was carved out to make room for Brianna’s office.

Not seen is the second floor landing that overlooks the Great Hall.

During the season 7 filming, this room was never completed – maybe to show what a large endeavor the renovation truly was for the McKenzies. 

      

 

 

1700s:  The landing that overlooked the Great Hall.  The bedrooms were reached from this landing.

 

1980s:   On the landing, Bree chose to keep the evidence of the English army whose sword slashed through the plaster during the uprising. 

      

     THE KITCHEN

1700s.   The old kitchen was very rustic with stone walls and an open fire.  Brianna and Roger had to completely gut this kitchen, raise its ceiling, and modernize the space.

1980s.   A computerized drawing of the kitchen looking at it from the dining room. 

 

 

And the actual kitchen with its island and washing machine.  Along one wall is an Indian blanket.  Again, the colors are gold and deep orange.

 

 

Mandy and her parents.   It was Mandy’s heart defect that caused the family to leave the 1700s and return to their own time in order that Mandy could have her heart repaired.

 

I love that refrigerator!!!

 

 

Of course there is an Aga.  Through the door is the Priest Hole, which Claire told Jamie’s sister to build back in the 1700s.   A priest hole was found in Catholic Scottish homes in order to hide from the Protestant English army.

 

 

 

Through the door is the priest hole.

 

Inside the priest hole.   One difference is that originally the priest hole was reached by stairs.  It was more of a dungeon than a closet as it now appeared in the 1980s.

 

1980s  Past the kitchen is this hallway with other rooms leading off of it.

       THE LAIRD’S STUDY

1700s:   The Laird’s study was paneled.  It had a large fireplace and diamond paned windows.

 

 

1980s.  The desk was reused but the file cabinets are all new.  Also reused was the antique William and Mary chairs. 

 

 

Roger McKenzie examining a ball of gold sent from Jamie.

 

The fireplace remains, as does some of the molding.

1700s:   The original mantel.

 

1980s.   The same mantel remains.   Above the mantel is a flag that came from Roger’s childhood home with the Reverend Wakefield.

1970s.  This is a scene from when Claire and Brianna came to Scotland and visited Roger at his home where the flag hung from the wall.

 

Props and Easter Eggs are an old rotary telephone and photos of Claire and Bree from Boston.

 

 

Claire and her first husband on their wedding day.

As of Season 7, the first half, these are the only rooms shown on Outlander.  Perhaps next year they will show more rooms, especially the Laird’s bedroom.

   I’d love to see how the Production Designer Matt Gunn would handle the 1980s version of the Laird’s bedroom.

Heading into another six months of Droughtlander while we wait to watch the second half of Season 7 next year.

If you need help getting over Droughtlander, give me a call so we can commiserate.  

Screenshots courtesy of Outlander-online.com