Throughout the many years and eras of coming-of-age filmmaking, there's been one major consistent factor that each character knows and loves: the comfort of their bedroom. Outside of movies, teenagers find solace in their bedrooms. Sometimes closing the door, laying on a mattress and thinking about growing up is exactly what we all need. As a teenager myself, I can proudly say that after a rough day, spending alone time in my room can be a cure for anything. What beats listening to your favorite artist while painting your nails in your (slightly) messy room? In fact, as I write this, I've propped a few pillows up behind me, and I'm listening to The Cleaners From Venus' 1980 album, 'Blow Away Your Troubles'. Yes, I am having an awesome time. 

I recently re-watched Greta Gerwig's 2017 coming-of-age film Lady Bird to knock a film off my Movies to Watch Before Graduation list which can be found here . In a little more than a month, I graduate, and just like Lady Bird's protagonist, Lady Bird McPherson, played by Saorise Ronan, I'll be heading to New York City where I am honestly terrified. Yes, let me have my small-town girl moment. The city is gigantic, with fresh faces, opportunities, and very dirty subway trains. 

There's a connection with Lady Bird and I, and it's not just our end goals, but our rooms, which completely allowed me to see myself in her. I love when films do this. When they spend extra time on the little detail to guarantee that one person can walk out of the theater a different person. It was refreshing to see a girl in her very own element; her messy room and tearing posters, where she's ugly cried and fought with her mother.

Set in Sacramento, California, the coming-of-age movie is loved by teenagers everywhere, as it's truly on of the most relatable films we've seen on teenage maturity. From compulsive lying, to trying to fit in with other girls, or having a mother/daughter relationship that never seems to work just right, Lady Bird navigates through all of it, growing as she does. When I first saw Lady Bird, I was around twelve years old, and I don't remember loving it. Did I appreciate the cathartic score by Jon Brion, or the dreamy-like sequences of Sacramento? Of course. However, I wasn't old enough to fully understand why everyone loved the film. That was, until I re-watched it a year or two ago, where I started to grasp the push and pull of becoming an adult that Gerwig was trying to convey. I loved it. 

My favorite set design in the enter film is Lady Bird's bedroom. Filled with pictures, written words, and string lights, her room seems as inviting as it is reluctant to let go of things, especially old memories. If examined with close detail, you might notice sentences written in thick sharpie here and there. In an interview with Apartment Therapy, production designer Chris Jones said, "I read that Greta Gerwig said she wanted Lady Bird to 'look like a memory.' I think a lot of us have these very real memories about our teenage bedrooms - whether it's the posters that hung on the walls, or the books on the shelves, what we stashed in the desk drawers."

With just one overall look at this frame, I can already picture the type of girl Lady Bird is. She's chaotic and cluttered, but not necessarily messy. Dated furniture such as the white drawer, or off-white desk, suggests she's in a period of her life of change, or in a transition period of growing into a young adult, but not ready to let go of some of her childhood memories. The clutter of the room feels very real, and even I can attest to having an old, rinky-dink piece of furniture still in my bedroom, waiting to me let go. I have old glow-in-the-dark stars that are stuck to my ceiling, and hot pink curtains for my windows which I still love to this day. I love how the bits of my room that represent the younger versions of my carefully clash with the modern versions of me, and I also love how Jones didn't cut that feeling out from the story. 

A strong color motif shown throughout Lady Bird is the use of the color pink. From Lady Bird's hair to the color of her walls, to the color of her bathroom walls, to even her chic thrifted prom dress, the color pink adds to the overall warmth of the intimate story, and the climate of Sacramento. When asked why he chose pink for Lady Bird's bedroom walls, Chris Jones said, "Greta and I had spoken about colors, and we wanted the entire film to have a pastel color palette, based on paintings by Wayne Thiebaud, a painter in Sacramento. When it came to her room, we talked about pink or purple. But purple is kind of a royal color, and pink is a bit more playful, and we felt that the character was more playful and strong." Benjamin Moore's Pale Iris accompanies Lady Bird throughout the ups and downs of her trivial teenage life. 

In an interview with the Set Decorators Society of America, Gerwig adds, "The colors are so specific and they're so right in the way they use light and these yellows and blues, with a little bit of green. They kind of capture this horizon and flatness and this look... that was something we really spent a lot of time talking about."

Almost every teenage girl that I know has had that phase in their teenage or high school years where they want to change everything about themselves, including their style, hair, or room. I even begged my mom to repaint my room when I was around fourteen to a light purple, saying that my yellow walls (in which the previous home owners had used my room as a nursery) was too childish. While I never did end up painting over it, I grew to love my walls, which is something I'd like to believe Lady Bird also went through. The reluctance to paint her room another color could stem from a argument with her mother, another theme that Greta explores throughout Lady Bird. 

Pink, seen conventionally as a younger color for girls, acts as something Lady Bird might have battled with, especially as it's bright hues don't specifically blend with the rest of her house. Muted yellows, beiges and browns reflect Marion McPherson, Lady Bird's mother, played by Laurie Metcalf, and her love for life seeping out and away from where she resides. She works long hours as a nurse, and when she comes home, is constantly at war with her daughter. It's the kind of thing that slowly drains you from the outside in, and we see that physically in every scene she's in. 

The overall 'grunginess' to Lady Bird's room can be tied back to the film's costume designer, April Napier, who suggested along with Chris Jones, that Lady Bird's outfits should be strewn all across her bedroom, adding an even further realistic touch to her room. This gave the essence of searching for an outfit, or digging through your closet for that one shirt you can never find. Dressers took her outfits off the racks and meticulously on her bed, on the floor, and inside her closet. 

To avoid any negative space, the crew added a homemade feel to the room with Lady Bird's campaign posters for 'president', and Gerwig's writing herself, pulling quotes from Joan Didion, or song lyrics from bands like Bikini Kill, or Pixies. The effect of clutter stands out significantly during the final scenes, where Lady Bird paints over her walls as a signal that there is definitely a change happening, not just physically, but emotionally. The scene took place during the final days of filming and when the crew had started to strip down the set. Insert shots and close ups of Lady Bird's visual expression and creativity being suffocated by growing pains can remind us that there will always be a rebellious teenager inside of us.