Practical Magic

‘Practical Magic’ was Robin and Stephen’s second film with director Griffin Dunne. The house they built far transcended a typical film set. It was so real, in fact, that after the movie came out they got a phone call from Barbra Streisand. “Where is that house?” she asked. “I’m interested in buying it.” “It’s fictional,” Robin told her. “And unfortunately it’s been torn down.

Inspired by a late nineteenth century scrollwork and East Coast lighthouses and Victorian homes, Robin and Stephen built the interiors of the home in Los Angeles and then spent 6 months building the exterior of the house from scratch on San Juan Island, Washington and landscaping the gardens and grounds. This work on the gardens would later inspire their work on their own home in Montauk. The interiors of the home were built in Los Angeles and filled with treasures the couple found through architectural salvage, also a foreshadowing of their future projects.