Supergirl may be a hero from Krypton, but she still needs somewhere to live and work. After a long day grabbing lattes and solving problems for Cat Grant, one of the most successful publishers in National City, she kicks back in her eclectic and surprisingly crafty apartment painting or watching TV with her sister.
Recently we were given a tour of the CatCo and apartment sets from CBS’s Supergirl by Set Decorator Andrea Fenton. Below you’ll find some exclusive photos featuring details you might not have seen on the show, along with some comments on the two sets by Fenton.
CatCo
Bloomberg News was the initial inspiration . Just the open floor plan. We were looking at some of the new NPR buildings. It’s just this big open floor plan. But the designer also integrates the openness while also giving you some privacy. There are a lot of things that they think about that we don’t always think about. Like if there’s a private conversation, where do they go? Well, they go to the copier area, or they go to James’s office.
Cat’s Office
office is her sanctuary and is chic and sophisticated with the highest quality fabrics and materials. Her taste of the moment and is elegant without being fussy. Her world is always filled with up-to-the-minute information, hence the multiple screens allowing her to know what is happening as it happens. She also sees the empire that she’s created with the huge glass wall facing into the bullpen area, where Kara and Winn sit in front of her door.
Everything in is very high end. It’s all expensive, very Beverly Hills/New York City in the furniture. Vintage modern. I don’t know how long we can keep it like this. She may want to change it next season.
James Olsen’s Office
James Olsen’s office is an extension of CatCo and has him in a high end office using custom white and chrome Haller furniture for all the cabinets, shelves and desk. It also has a masculine feel to it, incorporating darker grey and brown tones with the sofa and softgoods working well with the all-white furniture.
James occasionally shares the office with the Art Department and has tons of photography and graphics equipment. His office walls are covered with various photos that he’s taken, but the ones of Superman and articles with Superman are his most coveted.
Kara’s Desk
Kara has a clean and cheerful desk—lots of pops of yellow. Very optimistic, like Supergirl. Cat Grant wouldn’t be happy with a messy assistant. Kara’s “thank you notes” and “to-do lists” always keep Cat Grant’s requests at the top of her priority list.
Apartment
When we shot the pilot, we were in Downtown Los Angeles. We used an open space like this and they loved it and said, “Let’s just keep it and do it on a stage.” So what that meant for me is that I couldn’t keep the furniture that I rented knowing that I was going to have leave it on the set for a season or hopefully longer. I had to make everything. So I had some carpenters who were amazing. All these tables that are in this set were just recreated from the rentals.
We stayed pretty true to it. We couldn’t afford everything, but we tried as close as we could to get it. She has really good taste in lighting, I have to say. A lot of the stuff is Ikea. Her rug and coffee table are Ikea.
It’s a nice place, but she’s a TV character and people don’t want . They don’t want to see a girl who lives in a flat with nothing. That’s just not interesting. Other than that, we cultivated her interests. The designer had suggested giving her some art as a background. She’s a photographer. She’s into art. She’s just like us—she cooks, she bakes, she does all these things. She can cook with her special eyes, so her stove doesn’t even have to work!
We gave her a young look. She’s a young girl. She’s also someone who finds things and she can fix them up. We thought she probably found some of these tables and chairs and painted them herself. Things don’t have to be expensive if you can make them yourself.
Supergirl returns to CBS tonight with an all-new episode at 8 p.m. (7 p.m.) For a lot more on Supergirl, click here.
