For many people, the movie Mulan brings back childhood nostalgia and fond memories of growing up. But even if you’re not familiar with the story, its Art Deco house designs are sure to capture your eye and imagination. This Chinese-inspired house design takes its cues from China’s ancient practice of building for everyday life. This type of house design typically consists of wood and stone portions with an abundance of curved edges, pitched roofs, and ornate details. At the same time, Mulan’s house design is unusually colorful. Unlike any other traditional Chinese house, weeping willow trees inspired brightly painted eaves. The uppermost roof is red to signify importance to Chinese culture, while the lower roofs come in green and yellow. This structure also includes a balcony, where one can admire the scenery and connect with nature.Mulan's Chinese House Design
The house design featured in the timeless classic The Lion King is a reflection of traditional African architecture. Whereas the Chinese house in Mulan was particularly ornate and colorful, this African-inspired house takes on a more natural feel. These buildings tend to be built with organic materials like wood and straw, and use local resources extensively. The Lion King’s design specifically features a round main house with a mud and straw roof. From there, other important features like round windows, wickerwork furnishings, and animal skin decorations come into play. The overall look is rustic, yet surprisingly modern and sophisticated. Despite using simple-efficiency construction, the look is impressively timeless. The Lion King's African House Design
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast follows the classic French fairy tale of a cursed prince somehow transformed into a terrible beast. Fortunately, one of the good things to arise from the curse is the incredible French castle design that took the audience by storm. Representing the most sophisticated and grandiose we’ve seen from Disney so far, this castle couldn’t be more opulent. The exterior features an artificial lake, multiple turrets, and sloping towers with pointed roofs. The inside is similarly intricate, with gilded ceilings, enriched carvings, and marble floors. The overall design is a good example of the Baroque-Rococo style—which often makes use of dominating curved lines and asymmetrical balance. In addition, the color scheme of pastel pinks, blues, purples, and greens works together to create an extra level of sophistication. Beauty and the Beast's French Castle Design
Most people would never consider living underwater, and yet Disney’s The Little Mermaid made us all wish for that to become reality. Its design takes inspiration from hidden wonders of the sea—without overlooking the fact that its characters can also live a regular life. This comes through most evidently in the dream house design, which incorporates parts of a sunken ship and underwater vegetation. The exterior of the house consists of a dark blue bottom, a few petite windows, a red and green roof, and a couple of portholes. Inside, these materials are combined with corals, clams, seaweed, and shell accents. Silver eels hang from the ceilings while starfish and crabs scale the walls. Marine-related items are scattered throughout, emphasizing a whimsical yet homely atmosphere..The Little Mermaid's Underwater Dream House Design
The artistic house design featured in Frozen could easily have been Disney's crowning achievement. This take on Art Deco design brings visual dynamism thanks to its bright colors, symmetrical lines, and detailed furnishing. The house design starts with a pinkish façade and a terrace. True to the Art Deco style, various linear patterns define the house walls while reflective glass is used to create a warm, homely atmosphere. Inside, curvy metal trimmings and pastel colors introduce a dream-like quality to the house. Within the same room, every item from the sofa to the coffee table features its own distinct design.Frozen's Financial District House Design
Tangled’s take on Art Deco design is quite unique and interesting, combining features of the traditional Swiss and German building styles. The cottage in the movie boasts a typical alpine backdrop, which takes shape with a timber-clad exterior, draped with thick ivy. The entire cottage has an endearing fairytale quality to it, especially thanks to its wood shakes roof, the circular windows, and the five-spoked wheel with a six-pointed star. Colors, too, play an important role here—in the vibrant sky blues and sky pinks used to paint the windows, the door, and the vases, as well as in the warm browns of the wooden furniture.Tangled's German Bavarian Cottage Design
The architectural style used in Disney’s Pocahontas is heavily inspired by traditional Powhatan designs and their reliance on the natural environment. Small, rounded houses with wooden walls are common here, and since they’re all made by hand, no two houses look exactly the same. In the movie, its house follows a similarly curved, organic design. The roof, walls, and door feature different earthy colors, while the typical open entrance and many windows contribute to the overall airy feel. Furthermore, the furniture and other decorations are also handmade and use materials from nature, such as wood, stone, and feathers.Pocahontas' Powhatan-Style House Design
The assessment of Disney’s middle eastern design in Aladdin gains importance due to the movie’s look at the ancient city of Agrabah. The palace that shines in the movie’s opening sequence takes us back to a time of grandeur and luxuriousness—one which we can see echoed in the designs of today’s middle eastern. The palace in the movie is spires, domes, and high walls. It’s covered in large-scale tiles and decorative patterns reminiscent of Middle Eastern culture. Red is the most prominent color here, but the other colors—green, beige, yellow, white don’t fall much behind. Various ornamental accents give the palace a typical royal atmosphere. Similarly, arches and lively window frames create a sense of graphic dynamism that cannot be overlooked.Aladdin's Middle Eastern Palace Design
In Toy Story, we were swept up in the adventures of a grouchy cowboy doll, a vacuous space man, and all the other little toys we picked up from the toy store. But amid the movie’s joy, an aspect of its design was certainly not overlooked. The movie’s house borrows heavily from Southern colonial designs by making wide use of porches, pointed roofs, and stucco walls. The walls in this house are painted white, while much of the interior is decorated with clean lines and pastel shades. To top off the interior design, woodsy accents like black coffer paneling and an ornate staircase certainly don’t disappoint.Toy Story's Southern Colonial House Design
The ancient Greek building style, which was initially brought to world attention by Hercules, is still a recognizable feature in today’s architecture. It’s becoming increasingly popular for villa, mansion, and even office designs. This aesthetic relies on classical columns, huge doorways, and steep roofs. The house in Hercules is no exception in this respect. It takes on various classical design principles—including the use of columns, earth-tone colors like beige, brown, and ocher, and fountains and pools used throughout the interior and exterior. The overall look is a mix of legends, philosophy, and a true appreciation of classical architecture.Hercules' Greek Villa Design