For anyone else binge-watching Friends on Netflix at the moment, (or anyone who has ever seen an episode of Friends) you will of course have noticed Monica’s apartment is painted a striking purple hue.
Now New York City’s most famous apartment, Monica Geller’s huge two-bedroom apartment in West Village became the ideal interior inspiration for all New Yorker’s and that’s all thanks to John Shaffner, the man responsible for creating the set for Friends – and also the that iconic purple room.
But when he originally revealed the sets to show bosses, he had to fight to get the bright colour signed off. Shaffner explained in a video with Great Big Story that everyone was really anxious about it and it wasn’t until he painted the little model purple that they accepted the change.
He goes on to explain the reason behind it was to help it feel very different from every other set on television at the time. ‘Colour is really important in establishing the show identity,’ he said, ‘When you switch to Friends, you see that it is purple and you stay tuned.’
Nothing to do with Monica’s grandmother’s preference then... Notably fans always wondered how Monica could afford such a huge apartment in that area of the city, but it was later revealed that she sub-letted the flat from her grandmother who had moved to Florida.
In the video, set designer John Shaffner also revealed that he had no idea where the extra door down the hall would lead. ‘We put a door all the way up this hallway and we really didn’t say where it went to. I said, ‘Why don’t we just wait and see where the story is taken?’'
But of course in season 8, we find out that it’s actually a cupboard full of Monica’s crap (and let’s be honest we’ve ALL got one of those)