Friends set designer reveals reason Monica's apartment was purple

The set designer of Friends has opened up about why he chose purple for Monica's apartment. Photo / Getty Images

Monica and Rachel's apartment on Friends was basically its own character on the sitcom, with its bold lilac-painted walls.

Now, the set designer, John Shaffner, is opening up about why he made the daring decision to paint the entire apartment purple — and how it was the source of great anxiety for people.

In a video for Great Big Story, Shaffner opens up about his method in designing TV sets, giving particular insight into his process with Friends.

The designer tells the video that he always starts with a "sketch model" that is entirely white.

"When we were presenting Friends, I presented a white model, and the producer said, 'Well now, what are we going to do about colour?'," he recalled. "And I said, 'I think we should paint the set purple'."

Understandably, people freaked out at the suggestion.

"Everybody was really anxious about it, until I painted the little model purple. Colour is really important in establishing the show identity. When you switch to Friends, you saw that it was purple and you stay tuned."

And it's paid off, too. You can't deny that the apartment is one of the first things that comes to mind when reminiscing about the 90s TV show. Not only that, but people are so enamoured with the apartment that they have tried find it in New York.

Unfortunately, the show was filmed on a sound stage. Probably for the best, too, given how many avocado-on-toast's you'd have to sacrifice to afford it.