Behind The Curtain: How I Became Production Designer For "The Bachelor"

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Angelic Rutherford has spent her career designing everything from the first date to the final rose ceremonies of America's favorite guilty pleasure, "The Bachelor."

Rutherford recently spoke with ELLEDECOR.com about her career and how to design sets that are makeout-friendly. (Yes, really.)

Courtesy of Angelic Rutherford

I was never a college kid...

College didn't come naturally to me, and I transferred and dropped out three times. I had started out helping with the set design in my high school theatre group. I was obsessed with "Star Wars" in the early '70s and '80s, and I loved the cantina scene. That really sparked an interest in creating environments and sets and scenes.

I wanted to try to build sets and learn more about special effects makeup, so I started freelancing as a scenic painter in Orlando at places like Walt Disney World's MGM Studios, Nickelodeon, and a couple of shops in town. This was before CGI, so we were painting the huge backdrops they would use inside the park. I would bounce around all day – essentially, my boss would tell me things like, "Paint this whole "Toy Story" scene, and then jump on this other scene when you're finished." It was great.

After four years...

I had gotten an opportunity to work at a Shakespearean theatre in Cleveland – that year, they were producing "The Tempest," and I would work on local commercials in my spare time.

Then I got a job as an on-set scenic for feature and independent films in California. I was newly engaged, and going to the West Coast sounded nice. My specialty was aging, so I would take a piece of equipment or a wall or a table and wear it down and make it look very old, and then dress the scene for production.

I was asked to jump into some reality shows, and then "The Bachelor" came around. My friend was working on the show and I believe something happened to their production designer at the time.

Courtesy of Angelic Rutherford

I didn't watch the show, but he sent me VHS tapes. I thought it was funny and weird and interesting, and it didn't have a real style at the time. It was an overload of flowers and candles, and I thought it could be better. I said to myself, "OK, I could do this for one season."

I flew out to meet the producers and met everyone in the office, and it was great. I got hired as the production designer for Jesse Palmer's season in 2003. My friend took me to "The Bachelor" mansion, and they had just wrapped on "The Bachelorette." The entire house was purple inside, the lights weren't on, and it needed a lot of help. We had maybe 10 days before we had to start shooting "The Bachelor," and it was really, really fast paced, but I remember thinking, "You know, this might be a really fun adventure. Let's see what happens."

The whole point of the show is that they have to feel very comfortable on set, and if they don't feel comfortable, they're not going to act how they normally would in real life.

I didn't know the show too well then, so it was really fun to design it from the ground up and give it a real style. My style was really modern at the time, so we did a lot of construction to give it a new, clean, modern look.

The difference between a show shot on a soundstage and a show like "The Bachelor" is that we're shooting on location. It's a big, huge, giant set, but it can't feel that way at all. You definitely have to take into consideration who's on the show. The whole point of the show is that they have to feel very comfortable on set, and if they don't feel comfortable, they're not going to act how they normally would in real life. They're in a mansion, but it has to feel like real life.

At the start of every season...

The teams sit down with the producers and we get a rundown of the dates, the locations, where we're going, what we need, budgets, all of that. I'm in charge of the art department, and it's a huge, well-oiled machine. We design and set up the dates and the on-air interviews.

I think about the main focus of the show, and I get a color scheme in my head and take it from there. We recently had farmer Chris Soules. I wanted his season to be very classic, kind of down home feel, very warm, like where he's from in Iowa. So we used a lot of Pendleton fabrics and really warm wools and natural fibers and linen. I think we did this really great herringbone wall in his living quarters. I loved that season because I love that Americana, Ralph Lauren vibe.

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But the thing about having a bunch of girls live in the house is that even though it's "The Bachelor," it's the girls' house too, so it needs to feel feminine and colorful, because that's their place. The fabrics have to be really versatile – it's not like you can cover the couches in velvet, because the girls are wearing their bathing suits on the couch during the day, and when it's a rose night, it needs to be dressy and reflect that night.

We had two main rooms during Ben's season: The rose room and the mixer room, which is always a little more casual. But Ben is so easygoing and so sweet, adorable, just a really really nice guy. The house is casual, but it had its formal feel as well. I liked to use a lot of brass and stones, and as many natural fibers as possible. Large scale lanterns and big stone or wood pieces translate so well and have a really great effect on camera.

As the show is filming...

We try to maintain the set and make sure it stays clean. It can be such a nightmare when you have white couches in the mansion and girls are drinking red wine. Sometimes, the guys are cleaner than the girls. The ladies can be quite messy. We have an overnight crew that maintains the set and makes sure everything's ready for the next day. Or, if they're filming in one room, we sneak in and sneak out of another and clean it.

Once we start traveling, we have two art department teams that hopscotch to locations, so that we're already starting to design the dates and the rooms for the next week's episode while this week's episode is filming. And we have a rose team, which designs the big, huge rose ceremonies and cocktail parties. There are about 24 of us on set, and they really understand the style that I've created on the show for a really long time – what's over the top and what's not.

We have so much fun working on "Bachelor In Paradise," because everything's custom. It's a very construction-heavy show.

Courtesy of Angelic Rutherford

The first season, we were on location at a small boutique hotel with massive grounds to shoot on. They were great because they were like, "Do whatever you need to!" We were rebuilding bars and making decks. It kind of had a whole maze kind of feel with a "Gilligans' Island" vibe. I went crazy with Mexican blankets, upholstered everything with Mexican blankets. You want to be able to make out everywhere. The design premise for this show is that every space has to be makeout friendly and really fun.

One of my favorite dates we worked on was...

For Brad Womack's season we had to put on this huge carnival for two people, and it was the most amazing experience. One of the props was a ticket booth we had rented from a carnival company, and the tickets were from the original Grease movie. We had to put the entire carnival up in one day for the date that night, and it was the hottest day in Los Angeles history for 150 years, or something crazy.

Filming in other countries is always really challenging and scary and fun. You don't know what customs is going to take out of your shipment to set, or what's going to happen. Like during Ali Fedotowsky's season, when we filmed in Iceland, there was a huge volcano that had just erupted, and that threw our schedule off a bit.

We're usually on location for the finale episode, so you have to find a magical spot for the proposal. During Sean Lowe's season, we were in Thailand, and the location had a little pond that was unfinished, so I made this little stage for him. We found these amazing fabrics and materials and sculptures and we built a deck for the finale. There was a rice paddy and water buffalo in the background, and it was really magical and beautiful.

My super favorite finale was Chris' season...

We were scouting for locations around his hometown in Iowa, and the last one on our list was this old, dilapidated barn that he used to play in when he was little. It was pretty scary when we first walked in. We had to clean it out, reinforce it, and paint it, but I loved the result.

Behind the Curtain is a series about how the design industry's top talent got to where they are now.

From: ELLE Decor US

As told to: Devin Alessio