“Bridgerton’s” Helen Byrne Wins FIRST Floral Design Award

Netflix’s original series “The Queen’s Gambit” was the big winner of aspire design and home magazine’s 2021 “Best Dressed Rooms in TV and Film Awards” winning for categories including Best Use of Lighting, Best Use of Small Space, Best Hotel Rooms, Coolest Design Detail for Plot Enhancement and Best Living Room.

Judges, who included Oscar-nominated actor Chazz Palminteri, Tony and Emmy award winning Derek McLane who designed “Moulin Rouge” as well as the Oscars from 2013- 2018, interior designers Kit Kemp, Gail Davis and Katie Ridder, set decorators Melinda Ritz (“Will and Grace”), Beth Kushnick (“The Good Wife”), and Lydia Marks (“Sex and the City”), applauded how “The Queen’s Gambit” set decorator Sabine Schaaf cleverly transformed the living room in chess prodigy Beth Harmon’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) Kentucky home. After Beth inherits the home from her mother, with its deep teal décor and maximalist style, she makes it her own with button-backed arm chairs, art nouveau elements, and a fresh pink color scheme.

For Coolest Design Detail for Plot Enhancement, naturally, the scene where Beth imagined chess plays from a bedroom ceiling won over our judges, and for Best Use of Small Space, “The Queen’s Gambit” narrowly beat and clearly split votes between “Nomadland,” “One Night in Miami,” and “Snowpiercer” for the memorable scene of Beth learning chess in the orphanage’s basement.

Although “Nomadland” may garner many awards elsewhere, it also lost to “Schitt’s Creek” for the Best Cheap Chic Design award.

HBO’s “The Undoing,” whose set decorator was Keri Lederman, won for Best Contemporary Design, right behind “Succession,” as well as Best Use of Art, edging out “Billions.” Judges especially noted the scene with Nicole Kidman and Donald Sutherland in the Frick Museum.

For Best Bedroom Design, Hulu’s “The Great” took home the top prize, edging out “Bridgerton” and “The Undoing,” with judges noting the spectacular Regency fabrics on the bedding and canopied beds. The chinoiserie wallpapers are also luminous, and many adored the vines that are prevalent in this decor.

Netflix’s “The Crown” won for Best Use of Public Spaces, Best Period Design, and Best Dining Scenes. Judges admired the skill of Alison Harvey to create contrast in how Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson) cooks dinner for her ministers on a cramped wood table, compared to Queen Elizabeth II (Olivia Coleman) sitting spaced apart between family members on a long formal rectangular table, creating visual design cues displaying the differences between the character’s lives.

Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” won for Best Room to Evoke Nostalgia, with many judges noting how set decorator Ellen Christiansen decorated the fab 1950s-era retro kitchens with colorful cabinets, as well as Dorothy Draper-inspired rooms of classic chic with a dash of daring, showcasing midcentury details audiences love. Production designer Bill Groom was also the winner of the Elsie de Wolfe Lifetime Achievement Award.

Netflix’s “Bridgerton,” which sparked a design revival of Regency-inspired decor, won for Best Costumes to Enhance Decor as well as Best Use of Floral Design.

In the Best Use of Floral Design, which marks the first time an awards show has ever cited floral design as a separate category of its own, judges including Jenny Tobin, who has created floral designs for over 20 Oscar and BAFTA winning movies including “The Favourite” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” applauded Helen Byrne’s use of plump purple wisteria on the Bridgerton home and gorgeous English tea roses used in several scenes. Many also liked the garden scene featuring the Queen having tea with spectacular floral inspired tablescape to join the fresh lush flowers.

Hudson One Media, aspire design and home magazine’s parent company and the largest producer of showhouses in the country, is also excited to announce plans for a “Best Dressed Rooms in TV and Film Awards” showhouse next year, as well as an awards show and continuous editorial about set decor in our magazines and websites.

“Because we are spending so much time indoors, we’ve all been talking about what TV shows to watch and ways to redecorate, which inspired this idea,” says creator Jill Brooke, a former CNN entertainment reporter and aspire design and home magazine’s floral editor. “People are appreciating and focusing on design more than ever so it’s a perfect marriage and perfect timing. Plus, we get to show some editorial love to the set decorators and floral designers who rarely get the credit they deserve.”

“A well-executed, well-dressed set is tantamount to a starring role. It’s richness and authenticity is integral to creating a mood, a place in time that communicates the ensemble,” says Amy Sneider, Founding Editor-In-Chief of aspire design and home magazine.