Nancy Meyers’ Daughter Creates a Home as Chic as Her Mom’s Movies: Inside Her Beverly Hill Renovation

Veteran filmmaker Nancy Meyers has made a name for the covetable, inviting homes that star in so many of her movies. Think of the breezy Hamptons beach house in Something’s Gotta Give, the classic colonial in Father of the Bride, the dreamy Brooklyn brownstone in The Intern, the storybook English cottage and Mediterranean-modern San Marino manse in The Holiday. Her name has become synonymous with easy white slipcovers and kitchens with sprawling center islands, sparking a whole ecosystem of Instagram and TikTok hashtags and an explosion of Pinterest searches for “Nancy Meyers homes.”

Now Annie Meyers-Shyer, her daughter with writer-director Charles Shyer, has inherited a similar passion for home curation. A self-proclaimed “accidental influencer,” Meyers-Shyer launched the Instagram account @ThisOakHouse in 2023 to document progress on the two-year renovation and decoration of a 1946-era, Gerard Colcord-designed family home in Beverly Hills and has since accrued nearly a quarter million followers. (Talk about Hollywood pedigree: Harrison Ford, Reese Witherspoon and Dean Martin have all resided in Colcord homes, and the architect famously converted producer Jerry Wald’s garage into a guesthouse for Audrey Hepburn.) Meyers-Shyer’s familial cinematic eye becomes apparent in the composition of her photographs, sense of details, keen attention to lighting and an easy, welcoming aesthetic, not to mention a proclivity for natural materials. As to her ability to direct a visual team that includes architects Karen Putman and Brian Covington, interior designer Mike Moser, and landscape designers Patricia Benner and Chris Cummings, the proof is in the pudding.

September 15 marks the release of her book, This Oak House (Chronicle, $45), packed with tips, tricks and resources. On September 13, Meyers-Shyer rolled out an 8-piece line of home accessories, all under $35, at Target. In the mix are her favorite glass hurricane candle holders and linen lumbar pillows in a hard-to-find size. Says Meyers-Shyer, who previously worked as an accessories editor at Harper’s Bazaar and a public relations executive for Chanel: “I had a pilot light on inside of me and this project has ignited something in me; I’m unbelievably excited about where things are going.”

Meyers-Shyer chats with The Hollywood Reporter below.

How would you say growing up around your mother’s legendary on-screen homes have sparked and informed your own design interests and visual vocabulary?

From a young age, I was interested in design, which led me to work in fashion for many years. And I grew up with parents who had a real visual taste. I was going to sets and understanding what the homes told you about the characters who lived there. The Father of the Bride house says a lot about the Banks family. Then you go over to the MacKenzies, the in-laws, and they have the Dobermans and live in a mansion and that says something else. My parents would tear pages out of magazines and make big books full of ideas. They would explain why they had to change the color of a room. Just by osmosis, by being there, I was influenced. It was part of my life that my parents both had wonderful taste and wonderful eyes. In a similar way, my home tells my story. You see that I have two kids, love antiques, and have plants in every room. My interests are reflected in my books. You can tell who my favorite artists are. When you go to a house and think, “Anybody could live here,“ that’s weird, you know?

Given you acted in The Parent Trap and the Father of the Bride films, you experienced those home sets in a unique way. Any standout memories or a favorite set?

No, I did not act in them! I made little cameos. I was on set, and my parents were like, “Put on a dress and walk down the aisle! [Her role was a flower girl in Father of the Bride]. For them, it was a photo from set for a memory. My absolute favorite set is, without a doubt, in my mom’s new movie [Warner Bros.’ Paris Paramount starring Penélope Cruz due to release end of 2027]. I could arrive with a suitcase and live in that house. I wouldn’t change one thing. I also remember being in Cameron Diaz’s L.A. house as Amanda Woods in The Holiday and thinking, “This is unbelievable!“

Your mom mentions in the book intro how you would come over with an L.L Bean tote full of samples to discuss with her. What were those discussions like?

For anybody working on a project, having someone whose taste you trust, who you can bounce an idea off of, is invaluable. I have my very own in-house expert, so I would be a fool not to ask for her opinion on things! I would say 99.99 percent of the time she loved what I presented to her. We were aligned. A couple times, she helped to unstick me, you know? We do that for each other in our family. That’s the relationship between my mom and my sister [rising filmmaker Hallie Myers-Shyer (Home Again, Goodrich)] and me. Those sessions were fun. She really dove into it with me.

How would you describe your design aesthetic?

It’s hard to find words. I spend a lot of time at home. I work at home. I’m at home almost all day every day. I know what feels good to my eye: harmonious spaces with calming colors. I don’t want to live with a lot of bright colors or a lot of pattern. When I talk to my kids about friendship, I say, “Go towards the friends who feel warm!“ That’s how I feel about my aesthetic choices. I probably have classic taste, but that can mean so many things. My husband and I and our two boys are not fancy people. I have a sisal rug in my living room. We want to live in a way that feels easy and authentic and that’s the real through line of my Instagram.

Social media is a lot about aesthetic perfection, yet your philosophy is about restraint, aged patina, the imperfection of antiques. By documenting the process so publicly, were you swayed to make decisions that looked beautiful but maybe you couldn’t live with?

In the world of Instagram and Pinterest, when you’re fed beautiful images every time you open your phone, it can be challenging. So I had a couple guiding questions I kept going back to when I felt myself getting swayed: Is this the choice that I will still love in 10 years? You see gorgeous green cabinets on your phone and think you need them. My amazing designer, Mike Moser, would say, “I think this is a trend that you won’t love in the long term.“ I was on the hunt for things that will always stand the test of time.

Did you ever question being so open about revealing your sources?

I enjoyed that part. There’s so much transparency with beauty and fashion. You literally know who makes so-and-so’s concealer. But it’s never been that way with interiors. I wanted to share all the information I was learning on my journey, after going to the marble yards or understanding why different widths of plank make a floor feel more authentic. Information I wish I had had access to. The other side is that I’m slightly obsessive, so I can figure out what the very best subway tile is, so you don’t have to.

I love your rule about having at least one antique piece in every room and you also have a lot of storied artwork. Elements that give a room soul.

Those pieces help make a room. They don’t have to be expensive antiques from 1stDibs. It can be something you found in your grandparents’ attic or a little trinket from the flea market. It’s the idea that these objects had lives before they lived in your house. So when they enter, they bring in a patina and a feeling that a piece that’s newly made will never be able to have. It’s like needing an old soul versus a new soul. It’s the same with art. I would rather have an original piece of art from a no-name artist than a Matisse print. It’s much more interesting.

It’s so fun that the Beatrice Whitney Van Ness watercolor above your fireplace appeared in Father of the Bride house. What’s that story?

It was in my childhood home and my parents brought it to set. When my dad passed away, he left it to me. I also have the wedding cake topper from Father of the Bride in my house!

You said you feel like the Picasso lithograph in the living room corner, also from your father, welcomes you home, as the first thing you see when you walk in the door. Does your dad have other special imprints on the house?

Without a doubt. After he passed, my sister and I went to his house, where he had a gallery wall with a lot of art. I have his paintings and sculpture in nearly every room and his pen holder on my desk with one of his pens in it. Those pieces are the most meaningful. It’s like having a little bit of his essence nearby. I love sitting under the painting in my living room that I sat under as a kid. My dad had great taste. He had a very cool house, lots of collections, and was very sentimental. We also have these amazing bound scripts with all his notes in them.

Any final words?

Well, my parents had a famous saying when I was growing up that I never related to, ever, until now. It was “Work is more fun than fun,“ by the English playwright Noël Coward.