How Morticia’s ‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Cottage Honored the Original TV Show

In the second season of Wednesday, Morticia Addams (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is asked by Principal Dort (Steve Buscemi) to help chair the Gala Fundraising Committee. As they mull over the rather large ask, Mort hopes to keep both Tish and Gomez (Luis Guzman) close at hand by putting them up in the Gardeners’ Cottage.

From the outside, the dark, contemporary Gothic style of the small abode seems fitting for the Addams clan, but inside tells a different story. Gold sconces and repeating floral prints add to the disarray of eye-popping brightness, where flamingo-colored wallpaper, a rose-colored sofa piled with magenta throw pillows, and fuchsia rugs overwhelm the room. Each member of the Addams family recoils at the relentless pink onslaught.

A cacophony of pinks, ranging from cotton candy to coral, assaults the eyes as the cottage is dressed in shades like blush and bashful, hues that would only make Southern belle Shelby (Julia Roberts) from Steel Magnolias proud.

Decorated by the cottage’s previous tenant, the botany teacher and Wednesday’s  (Jenna Ortega) dorm mother, Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci), the house is a bubblegum bungalow perfect for a homicidal killer, but not quite right for an Addams. Or so it seems.

Yet for those in the know, it is far more Addams than one might realize.

“When we first come in, Marilyn’s been living here and the environment is very pink, very fluffy, and full of Chintz and doilies and everything else,” said production designer Mark Scruton.

“And the inspiration when we read that, certainly when I read it — I, only not that long ago, had seen a picture of the Addams family house in the TV show in the 1960s, which was actually completely full of pinks and pale greens and everything else. It was only black and white when it went to screen. So, we took that idea into here and did exactly the same thing,” said Scruton.

“We did exactly the same wallpaper, which was designed by Eugene Grace in the photo style, and we changed the colorways. So we started off with the pinks and the greens, and then we went to the black and the reds so that it almost changed its color overnight. And then the idea is that all the props have been brought in by Lurch,” explained Scruton.