What You Didn't Know About The Friends Kitchen
Monica Geller's apartment is probably as familiar to "Friends" fans as their own four walls. After all, avid viewers have spent 10 full seasons — not to mention several years of reruns — in this eclectic NYC space several floors above Central Perk coffee shop. There's a reason that the six pals spent much of their time in this apartment and not at Chandler and Joey's, for instance. Monica's place is spacious, comfy, and oh so colorful. For those who love the show, it's no wonder it feels like a second home.
As a professional chef, Monica spent a great deal of time in her kitchen with its kitschy knick-knacks, mismatched chairs, and chunky retro fridge — and so did her chums. It was at her kitchen table that Joey ate an entire Thanksgiving turkey, Rachel served her "trifle mistake," and Monica made candies for the neighbors. This is a room that has witnessed many memorable moments.
Even some of Monica's treasures and trinkets hold memories for fans. Who hasn't eyeballed the contents of her turquoise shelves to locate the ever-present yellow happy face mug? Despite its face being hidden, you can likely spot it in the photo above. Yes, Monica's kitchen is a place many hold dear. But there are some surprising facts about this special space that you may not know.
Monica's kitchen was swap-meet chic
Monica Geller's kitchen, like the rest of her brightly-hued abode, had one cohesive look. Greg Grande, "Friends'" set designer, wanted her apartment to take on a "flea-market, whimsical, anything-goes style" (per Hooked on Houses). When you cast your eyes upon her ceramic chef statue, rainbow-hued dinnerware, and mismatched canisters, you can clearly see that he achieved this look in the kitchen. The charming aesthetic is part of what makes it so much fun to examine Monica's cooking space.
Part of this eclectic look included a seemingly endless parade of incongruous kitchen chairs. In keeping with her "swap meet" style, no two chairs were alike. While ScreenRant offers that this helped to illustrate that the characters were financially strapped and regularly bought flea market finds, this theory is undermined by the reality of Monica's slice of Manhattan real estate. CNBC puts Monica's apartment at between "1125 and 1500 square feet" in size, making it a hot commodity — one that would cost about $4500 per month (via New York Post). In other words, it's highly unlikely that Monica could afford that apartment in the real world.
The scenery was erratic
Monica's apartment also seemed to inhabit a unique place in space — one that caused the view outside her kitchen window to be in a constant state of flux. While her kitchen window usually showed a neighboring brick building, that edifice frequently decided to swap places with a clothesline, foliage, and even a dazzling view of Manhattan (via Glamour). While fans may not have noticed these glaring continuity issues, it will give them something to watch for in the future.
Another one of these inexplicable changes involves a wooden beam that separated the kitchen from the living room that appeared in some episodes and not others. The Independent and Trendingetc reported that during the "Friends" reunion, viewers learned that Ross had hit his head on it, the beam obstructed the camera's view of the cast's faces, and that it was only used during episodes when James Burrows sat in the director's chair.
No matter what oddities Monica's kitchen possessed, it will forever hold a place in the hearts of "Friends" fans everywhere. Whether they are watching Joey don his Thanksgiving pants, Phoebe whip up a batch of Nestle "Toulouse" cookies, or Monica feeding Joey "fried stuff with cheese," viewers keep wanting to pull up a chair and join in on the fun. After all, who wouldn't want to be the seventh friend?