In Netflix’s new show Sirens, the gods don’t crash down from the sky—they arrive quietly, clad in Lilly Pulitzer, loafers, and linen, to spend the summer by the sea. The setting is Cliff House, a waterfront estate on a fictional island that’s a cross between Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard (but was actually filmed on Long Island’s North Fork), where every mirror reflects a secret, every detail is a metaphor, and mythology and money blur.
The shingle-style manse where the exteriors were filmed is a waterfront house in Northport, on the North Fork of Long Island, New York. The set design team added the turret, a dramatically overscale 40-foot-long anchor, and several other architectural features.
Macall Polay/Netflix © 2025Drawing on the myth of the ancient Greek sirens—dangerous creatures who lured sailors to their doom with their irresistible songs and beauty—Sirens does a deep dive into the concepts of seduction and reinvention. The story centers on Michaela (Julianne Moore), a goddess-like figure whose mere presence radiates power, wealth, and a sense of mystery. She lives with her husband, Peter Kell (Kevin Bacon), a billionaire with old New England whaling roots, in an Edenic compound where perhaps things aren’t quite what they seem. Sharing the spotlight is Simone (Milly Alcock), Michaela’s personal assistant, a foster-care survivor turned Yale grad with a penchant for preppy pastels, whose polar-opposite sister Devon (Meghann Fahy, who previously starred in season two of The White Lotus) arrives in punk-rock black to urge Simone to come home to Buffalo.
In the grand foyer, portraits of Michaela and Peter in the style of Alex Katz flank their bedroom entrance on the second floor, along with a shimmering bird mobile. The barrel-vaulted ceiling and trim are painted in eight different shades of seaworthy blue, while the art includes nautically-inflected ropework.
Macall Polay/Netflix © 2025The setting plays its own starring role in this five-part limited series: It’s the creation of Big Little Lies production designer John Paino and set decorator Rich Murray of Only Murders in the Building, who together have crafted an idyllic visual world with dark undertones. They found the house in Northport, on Long Island, and enhanced it with custom pergolas, a turret, the requisite hydrangeas (white, of course), and a 40-foot anchor in the front yard as a nod to Peter’s maritime lineage. Most of the interiors were constructed and shot on sets at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, with one set stretching nearly the distance of half a football field.
The vast kitchen, with a private chef to make everything from exotic breakfast smoothies to hors d’oeuvres for fundraisers, features classic details like marble counters, a grandly scaled island, and a rolling library ladder, and is trimmed in grassy green to reflect the surrounding landscape.
Macall Polay/Netflix © 2025The house also drives the narrative. “Michaela is a collector of lost souls and a collector of people, so her home is like a museum of metaphor,” says Paino. He took inspiration from the late architect Michael Graves, who “was really great at putting a postmodern spin on classical, Federalist architecture with simple shapes and forms ramped up on steroids.” The four-time Emmy Award nominee was also influenced by Federico Fellini’s films Juliet of the Spirits (1965) and Satyricon (1969) as well as the the original 1975 Stepford Wives, a master class in picture-perfect creepiness.
Julianne Moore, playing Michaela Kell, has the dressing room of our dreams. Her gowns often evoke Greek mythology with their draped detailing.
Macall Polay/Netflix © 2025The color palette of Cliff House is layered with soothing creams and a spectrum of soft blues—Paino sourced eight shades of blue for the hallways alone, while the kitchen channels Nantucket chic with shades of grass green and sun-faded red. “Everything was glossed to reflect the light, including the ceilings, in a nod to latter-day paintings of sirens who are always looking in mirrors,” Paino adds. “We weren’t interested in pure realism—this was a house of secrets.”
In the sitting room, a dramatic feature wall showcases illuminated niches filled with natural finds such as hornet‘s nests, ostrich eggs, and a handwoven fisherman’s basket. The work of art on the lefthand wall is an outstretched bird made from old piano keys and grand-piano legs.
Macall Polay/Netflix © 2025Art has an important cameo. “We had custom portraits painted of Michaela and Peter in the style of Alex Katz,” says Paino. “That’s a very New England thing. We went through some outrageous mansions on Cape Cod, and it is not out of the ordinary—I can’t tell you how many Alex Katz paintings I ran into!”
The stairwell is lined with Audubon bird prints and nautical art, with a piano the set designers found and painted blue.
Macall Polay/Netflix © 2025For set decorator Rich Murray, the interiors were an international treasure hunt. “The theme was entrapment. How do you lure or trap beauty? A siren doesn’t just sing—she collects,” he says. Case in point: He tapped into Michaela’s love of all things avian, along with Peter’s penchant for nautical and maritime touches, for a modern sitting room. The eclectic collection features a prominently-displayed bird made from piano keys. The dramatic main wall features illuminated niches filled with artifacts such as a round woven fisherman’s basket, driftwood vases, a hornet’s nest, and ostrich eggs. “The goal was to create a ceremonial wall for her artifacts,” says the three-time Emmy Award–winning decorator.
Set decorator Rich Murray’s photo of the Kells’ elegant marble-wrapped bathroom, featuring hand-painted bird and sea motifs.
RICH MURRAY/COURTESY OF NETFLIXMusical notes also echo throughout the design in the form of lyre shapes—a nod to the sirens’ seductive songs—that appear in furniture and trim, while Greek key patterns grace benches and rugs. Murray notes, “This was about building a dream—or maybe a trap—depending on your perspective.”
Sirens is streaming now on Netflix, and fans are already clamoring for a sequel. You may never look at a Lilly-print shift or a shingled seaside mansion the same way again.
