Drew Barrymore’s House Rules—No Bare Walls and Lots of (Pretty) Light

In Barrymore’s well-planned home, the kids help shape the rules: no sharp edges, furniture you can flop around on, and family screen time.

Though located in a stately pre-war building on New York’s Upper East Side—a neighborhood not generally associated with laid-back, loosey-goosey vibes—the sunny three-bedroom, three-bath apartment that Drew Barrymore shares with her two daughters, Olive, 10, and Frankie, 9, is anything but uptight. Her two cats and two dogs make themselves at home on the sofas, her girls regularly spread out their messy art supplies all over the dining room table, and even Jeremy, the family’s bearded dragon (who, by the way, is female), is allowed to roam free.

”She’ll go on a walk-about and all the cats and dogs are just like, ‘OK!’ They don’t bother her,” says Barrymore. “There’s a lot of harmony among the creatures in this house.” But while the family motto might be “go with the flow,” life here is not without some structure.

Check Out the Stylemaker Issue Featuring Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore’s House Rules

Drew Barrymore has certain rules she sticks to, many of them pertaining to her self-professed obsession: interior design. Here, she shares the laws she lives—and decorates—by.

Can Those Can Lights

“Recessed overhead lighting is not warm and it doesn’t make anyone look pretty,” Barrymore says. “I feel like it gives me dark circles under my eyes and makes me feel like someone is tapping on my head.” Instead, she embraces sconces, hanging pendant lights, and flush mount fixtures that give off a diffused glow rather than a harsh, downward beam. “Lighting to me is a beautiful decorative art and you can find tons of cool stuff on salvage sites and in salvage stores,” she says. “And if you go thrifting and flea marketing, which I love to do, you’ll almost always find amazing deals on lighting that will add personality to your space.”

Related: 15 Easy Ideas for Better Lighting

Round Your Corners

“Ever since I had children, I can’t bear to see a sharp edge in my space,” Barrymore says. “I look at it and think, that corner could take out somebody’s eyeball!” It’s a maxim that applies to both her home and the furniture and appliances she designs for her Beautiful collection at Walmart. “Even my kitchen island has a soft edge,” she says. “The minute I walked into that room for the first time I said, we need to sand that right down!”

Cover Your Walls

“Bare drywall upsets me so much. I need plaster, wallpaper, tile!” says Barrymore, who loves to wallpaper ceilings and is planning to cover her entire dining room in creamy clay tiles. She also livens up her home’s vertical surfaces with her copious art collection, which ranges from original paintings to posters from the flea market. “I’m constantly moving the art around, messing with things,” she says. “I’ll even have friends over for a hanging party sometimes.”

Related: How a Statement Ceiling Can Breathe New Life into Your Space

Let the Sunshine In

“I hate blackout curtains,” says Barrymore. “They make me feel claustrophobic and scared. I get really freaked out if I wake up in a hotel room in the morning and it is pitch black. If curtains are blackout, I always open them before I go to sleep—I’m up with the sun anyway—and at home I love nothing more than a sheer curtain in a pretty Indian blockprint.”

Related: The 8 Best Curtains of 2023 for Every Room in Your Home

Define Your Spaces

“I like the idea of what I call ‘closed-concept’ living,” says Barrymore. “I want to start a movement. I don’t want anything to do with an open kitchen where everyone can see my dirty dishes during a dinner party! And I like the idea that you can have different design stories for different rooms. The pandemic really taught us that everyone in a house needs their own space—preferably with a door. And I’d rather have a bunch of tiny rooms than one big one.”

"I’m a big believer in the idea that every room has six ‘walls.’ The floor and the ceiling are both fair game for decorating."

Drew Barrymore

Don’t Forget to Look Up—and Down

“I’m a big believer in the idea that every room has six ‘walls’,” says Barrymore. “The floor and the ceiling are both fair game for decorating.” In her apartment, she painted the foyer floor in an oversized ivory checkerboard pattern and wallpapered the ceiling in a silvery, star print that brings to mind the night sky.

Keep the Big Pieces Neutral—and Not Too Pricey

“Oh, what kids do to couches!” laments Barrymore. “Not to mention the dogs…” Despite her love of design, her main priority is that everyone, be they human or furry, feels free to flop around on the furniture. To that end, she makes sure to buy reasonably priced upholstered pieces in colors that don’t show a lot of dirt and fancies them up with more colorful throw pillows from Etsy or Serena & Lily. “I like mismatched pillows that feel collected rather than like a set,” she says.

Related: How to Clean Upholstered Furniture to Keep It Looking Spotless

Make Screen Time Family Time

There are no shortage of televisions in Barrymore’s house. “We watch a ton of movies and shows so I’m not judging anyone about screens,” she says. “But when it comes to my kids, I’m not a huge fan of personal electronics, like iPads. During the pandemic when schools were virtual we were forced into all being on our separate devices and I didn’t like it. Now, I keep the iPads in a locked safe and they only come out for special occasions. I’d rather that the three of us all pile into my bed and watch together.”

Home Is Your People

“I have a tattoo that says ‘home is where we are’, and it’s true,” Barrymore says. “Wherever I am with my girls I feel like I’m at home. Even if we’re just at a restaurant, I pour out the contents of my bag—my camera, my crossword puzzle, my lip balm, my book, a deck of cards—and we’re right at home.”

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