10 Movie Bachelor Pads That Will Inspire Major Apartment Envy
While you’re used to lusting after real estate, we bet you never gave much thought to apartments built around actually inspiring lust. The best bachelor pads in movies are always fully tricked out to impress the ladies, but for this list we wanted to consider other factors like space, views, architecture and icon status. So get ready to dim the lights, put on some sexy music and enjoy our top 10 movie bachelor pads.
10. The Apartment
While the apartment in this 1960 classic isn’t much to look at, we had to include the quintessential bachelor pad. Jack Lemmon’s Bud Baxter allows the big wigs at his corporate job to use his modest UWS apartment for various extramarital affairs. Bud is content offering up his place for this upsetting reason until he falls for the charming elevator operator (Shirley MacLaine). So while the interior isn’t the fanciest on this list, and this movie’s plot hasn’t really aged well, this apartment gets points for location, its large windows and its status as an icon in the bachelor pad movie lexicon.
9. Pillow Talk
Released in 1959, this might be the original bachelor pad as we now know it-tricked out with all kinds of switches to set the mood. Rock Hudson’s playboy character shares a party line with Doris Day only to eventually fall for her in the end. His place is pure bachelor, including a spiral staircase to the bedroom and switches that control the lights, locks, music, and sleeper sofa. It’s vintage charm (and the fact that a major plot point encourages him to redecorate) is why Pillow Talk lands at number 9 on our list.
8. How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days
Another more modest pick, but Matthew McConaughey’s place reminds us of how actual modern bachelors might live in New York. It’s a perfectly fine apartment, with a functional kitchen, a terrace, an early aughts standard multi-CD player, but there’s also plenty of “bro” touches like TV in the dining room and a basketball hoop in the living room. We probably like this one even more for the scenes where Kate Hudson tries to give it a girly makeover by adding plants and pink everything as one of her ways to try to lose her guy. Every bachelor’s greatest nightmare.
7. American Psycho
Speaking of nightmares, the apartment in American Psycho is definitely the location of some truly upsetting acts. Still we can’t but help lust after Patrick Bateman’s ultra modern space. Clean lines and minimalist décor make sense for a man who has so much going on underneath the surface but it’s still an aesthetic we can get behind. Not to mention his industrial-style kitchen and spacious bathroom, which are not things that exists in any NYC apartments we’ve been in.
6. Two Weeks Notice
In this 2002 romantic comedy, Hugh Grant plays a playboy real estate developer whose heart is eventually melted by Sandra Bullock’s tough lawyer. Prior to falling for Sandy, Grant is living the bachelor life in the penthouse of a Tribeca hotel he owns where the elevator opens right into his apartment! That paired with his insane closet full of suits, full bar, and huge fireplace make this a solid choice at number 6 on our list.
5. Arthur (2011)
While this 2011 remake of the Dudley Moore classic is not what you’d call a “good” movie, the apartment where Russell Brand’s man-child lives is pretty sick. Look past the partying and you’ll notice the apartment has awesome arched windows, massive bathroom and dining room, a boxing ring, a dream movie screening room, and the piece de la resistance-a levitating bed. It’s tacky and over the top in every way, which is exactly what we’d expect from a bachelor pad. So Arthur takes the number 5 spot on our list.
4. Notting Hill
Hugh Grant again! Grant’s character actually shares this pad with a single-guy roommate, and double the bachelors, double the fun. It’s floor upon floor of English charm, starting from the blue door, to the galley kitchen, all the way up the roof deck overlooking the titular neighborhood. It makes complete sense why a movie star would seek refuge from a scandal in this cozy home, granting Notting Hill the number 4 spot on our list.
3. The Dark Knight
When Wayne Manor is destroyed in Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne has to move into Gotham City proper and chooses this stunning apartment. There is a massive wall of windows, a helicopter pad, what looks to be a ginormous firepit and a labyrinth of passageways that allow him to change into Batman and confront the joker. And that’s just the apartment! Of course we have to mention the new Batcave, which counts as part of the pad, right? Can you imagine the Super Bowl party he could host there with that wall of TVs and all that space? All this to say, it’s clear that Bruce Wayne knows how to do a bachelor pad RIGHT.
2. Big
This might be a cheat since technically Tom Hanks is a 13-year old boy in this 1988 classic, and can a 13-year old be considered a bachelor? But we couldn’t resist including one of our favorite movie apartments ever. This Soho loft is every kid and adult’s dream with its hardwood floors and huge open floor plan. But it’s what Hanks does with it that makes it really awesome. His decorating scheme of inflatable dinosaurs, arcade games, vending machine, basketball hoop, bunk beds and trampoline make this apartment a no-brainer for the number 2 spot on our list.
1. Down with Love
While yes this movie couldn’t exist without the apartments in Pillow Talk, the modern upgrades make it take the top of the ranking. Renee Zellweger’s place is incredible, but it’s Ewan McGregor’s mid-century modern dream space that really wins this list. It’s got incredible views, a rich color palette and plenty of switches that control music, lights and a couch that turns into a bed. Oh and did we mention the bar that appears from nowhere? Bachelor pad cool at its best.
There's a bar that appears as if from NOWHERE.