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The 2026 Sense & Sensibility adaptation, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, uses a Dorset country house and carefully aged furnishings to create its late-18th-century setting. Production designer Francesca Di Mottola says the team built the Dashwood family’s world around real rooms, historical objects and handmade details.
The 2026 film adaptation of Sense & Sensibility, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, brings the Dashwood sisters’ story to the screen with production design centered on a real Dorset country house, period furnishings and objects made by the crew. In a report for Veranda, production designer Francesca Di Mottola explains how the team shaped the setting to reflect the family’s life before and after leaving their ancestral home.
The team used Kingston-Russell House in Dorset as Norland Park, the Dashwood family’s ancestral home. Di Mottola told Veranda that the production wanted to film in real locations rather than rely on soundstages, allowing performers and cameras to move between rooms and giving the interiors a more connected, lived-in quality. The house’s existing features also informed the design: its dining room contains an original 17th-century chinoiserie painting.
Di Mottola said the mural was worth adapting the scene around, even though fitting 12 people, a large table and the cameras into the room posed a practical challenge. Art historian Celia de la Hey, a longtime curator at Spencer House, joined as set decorator to source and develop period-appropriate furnishings and objects. The team used antique dealers and British prop houses, and also searched eBay for distinctive pieces.
One eBay find became a personal reference for Edgar-Jones’s character: an 1780 drawing book that belonged to a woman. Di Mottola said Edgar-Jones studied it while taking drawing lessons for the role. The production also reupholstered and distressed Georgian sofas and chairs, sun-bleached curtains and made toys for the nursery, including a miniature replica of Norland Park. In the story, Margaret brings small dollhouse objects to Barton Cottage, carrying reminders of the home the family has left.
How the Homes Tell the Story
The design choices give the adaptation a visual way to show what the Dashwoods lose when they leave Norland Park and how they gradually make a new home. Di Mottola described the ancestral house as a place shaped by years of family life, hospitality and play; aged upholstery, worn curtains and handmade toys turn that history into details visible on screen.
The contrast between Norland and Barton Cottage is more than a change of address. The cottage begins with an abandoned feel, according to Di Mottola, then becomes more personal as the women settle in. Small objects and paper sculptures help mark the passage of time. For viewers, the reported approach connects the interiors to the characters’ changing circumstances without relying only on dialogue.
The production also chose a historical moment that affects the look of the film. Setting the story in the late 1790s, rather than around the novel’s 1811 publication, places the costumes, architecture and interiors in the Georgian period. That choice makes the design part of the adaptation’s interpretation of Austen’s world, rather than a neutral backdrop.
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A Georgian Setting by Design
Jane Austen’s novel was published in 1811, but the production intended the film’s events to take place around the late 1790s, when Austen most likely wrote it, according to the Veranda report. The distinction matters to the design because the team sought to evoke Georgian-era interiors and clothing, rather than styles associated with the Regency period’s early years.
Di Mottola, whose previous work includes Hulu’s The Great, described this project’s design as more natural and subtle, while still detailed. The goal was to make the two homes and the surrounding English countryside feel central to the story. Filming in Kingston-Russell House helped retain original architectural and decorative features, while the crew altered rooms and furnishings to serve the film’s scenes.
The report describes a mix of sourced and fabricated elements: original antiques and the chinoiserie mural sit alongside objects created or aged by the production team. This approach allowed the sets to suggest accumulated family history while keeping them usable for filming.
“We ended up making it work because it was so worth it to have this type of original work on the walls.”
— Francesca Di Mottola, production designer, speaking to Veranda
period-appropriate vintage furnishings
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Details Beyond the Design Report
The report focuses on production design and does not provide a full account of the film’s plot, release schedule or critical reception. It also does not specify which scenes were filmed in each room, how much of Kingston-Russell House remains visible in the finished film, or how many other locations were used. Di Mottola’s descriptions explain the production’s intentions; the report does not independently assess how audiences will read every design choice.
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The Film’s Theatrical Run
The film is in theaters, according to the supplied report. Viewers can see how the house, furnishings and handmade props work in the finished adaptation, including the contrast between Norland Park and Barton Cottage. The source material does not give further release dates or announce additional production-design material, so no later screening or streaming milestone is confirmed here.
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Key Questions
Who stars in the 2026 Sense & Sensibility adaptation?
The film stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, according to the report.
Where was Norland Park filmed?
The production used Kingston-Russell House in Dorset, England, as the Dashwood family’s ancestral home.
Why did the film use a late-1790s setting?
The production intended to place the story around the period when Austen most likely wrote the novel, rather than its 1811 publication date. The choice informed the film’s Georgian-era interiors, architecture and fashion.
What was the 1780 drawing book used for?
Di Mottola told Veranda that Edgar-Jones studied the book while preparing for the role and taking drawing lessons. It served as inspiration for her character’s drawings.
Did the production make any of the props itself?
Yes. The crew made nursery toys, a miniature Norland Park dollhouse, paper sculptures and painted pebbles, alongside sourcing and aging antiques and other furnishings.
Source: rss
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