The red-brick Georgian in Winnetka that starred in Home Alone is about to look a lot more like the house fans know by heart. After changing hands for $5.5 million, the new owner is pouring time and money into restoring the interiors to their 1990 movie style, right down to the cozy Christmas vibe that made the place feel like a character of its own. The project is part nostalgia play, part serious construction job, and it is already reshaping how this quiet North Shore block lives with one of the most famous façades in film.
Instead of chasing a glossy, modern mansion look, the renovation is deliberately rolling the clock back. The plan is to bring back the bold colors, traditional finishes, and family-friendly layout that defined the McCallisters’ on-screen home, while still keeping the property livable for a real family that has to navigate tourists, traffic, and Chicago winters.
The sale that set the makeover in motion
The current restoration only makes sense when you look at the sale that kicked it off. In January, a buyer picked up the Home Alone mansion from longtime owners Timothy and Trisha Johnson for $5.5 m, a deal that also spelled out the full price as $5.5 million and instantly reset expectations for what this house should be. That purchase, documented in village filings, confirmed that the new owner was not just buying a big suburban property, but taking custody of a pop culture landmark that had already outgrown the usual rules of a quiet cul-de-sac, as detailed in records on the Home Alone address.
From the start, the buyer signaled that this was a passion purchase, not just a real estate play. In one account, the new owner joked that they would have paid far more, saying they “would have paid 10x” because they loved the movie and the house too, a line that underlined just how emotionally loaded this particular closing was and that was captured in coverage of what the new owner planned to do. That kind of statement sets a tone: this is someone who is willing to invest heavily to make the property match the version that has lived rent free in viewers’ heads since the early nineties.
Turning a gray mansion back into a movie set
Over the years, the real house drifted away from its on-screen persona. Renovations and repainting left it, in the words of one observer, “really kind of a gray house and lost its spirit and magic,” a blunt assessment that captured how far the exterior and interior had wandered from the warm, saturated look people remember from Home Alone. That critique, tied to local TV coverage of the property, helped fuel the idea that the place needed more than a light refresh and was cited in reports that the gray house and charm.
The new owner is now leaning hard in the opposite direction, with a renovation brief that calls for the house to be “returned to its original ’90s look” and “restored to the way it looked on screen.” Plans described in multiple reports promise to bring back the classic red and green palette, traditional millwork, and the kind of cozy, slightly over-the-top holiday styling that made the McCallister home feel like the center of the universe. One detailed rundown of the project said that after selling for $5.5 M, the property would be reworked so the House Will Finally Look Like It Did on Screen, with the owners pledging to revive the movie-era layout and finishes, a commitment laid out in coverage headlined “After Selling for $5.5 Million, the ‘Home Alone’ House Will Finally Look Like It Did on Screen” and linked through the phrase After Selling for that exact amount.
Rebuilding a fantasy interior that never fully existed
There is a twist to all this talk of “restoring” the house: much of the Home Alone interior that fans know was never actually inside the Winnetka property. According to a Netflix documentary, the production team built most of the interior sets on a soundstage inside New Trier West High Sch, using the real house mainly for exteriors and a few key shots. That behind-the-scenes detail, recounted in a blog that dug into the property’s history, underscores how ambitious the current project is, since the renovators are effectively trying to recreate a Hollywood set inside a real suburban home, a challenge laid out in coverage that cited According to that Netflix account.
To bridge that gap, the project manager has described a plan to align the real rooms as closely as possible with what audiences saw in the 1990 classic. In one recent interview, the renovation was described as an effort to make the Iconic Illinois House Featured in Home Alone Set to Be Restored to ’90s Design, with specific references to recreating the staircase views, dining room proportions, and other camera-friendly angles that defined the film. The goal is not to build a museum, but to create a functioning family home that still lets visitors instantly recognize the foyer where Kevin staged his cardboard cutout party or the windows where he stared out at the snow, a balance that the Iconic Illinois House report framed as a careful blend of nostalgia and practicality.
Managing crowds, driveways, and a very famous curb
Living in a movie landmark sounds glamorous until you factor in the constant stream of fans. The current owner has already told local officials that the property is “uniquely burdened by regular tourist foot traffic and frequent on-street stopping,” a diplomatic way of saying that the block can feel like a year-round sightseeing stop. That description surfaced in a zoning request tied to a plan to redo the driveway and front approach, which argued that the requested variation was driven by “site-specific functional and safety” needs rather than aesthetics, language that appeared in filings about the requested variation and its purpose.
Those same documents explain that the owner wants to return the driveway and front yard closer to an earlier appearance, partly to handle cars more safely and partly to sync the exterior with the movie-era look. Village records note that the property’s previous hardscaping exceeded code limits, and the new plan is framed as a way to fix that while also making the house feel more like the one people remember from the film. The request, which references how often drivers stop to snap photos or idle in front of the house, was detailed in a report on how the owner of Winnetka’s Home Alone house wants a new driveway and how the property to an is part of the broader restoration strategy.
From Instagram teasers to full-on Christmas nostalgia
Hints of the makeover first surfaced on social media, where a short update announced that the iconic Home Alone house was being renovated with the goal of bringing the interior back to its 1990 movie look. That post, which framed the project as a kind of fan-service renovation, quickly circulated among film buffs and local followers who have long treated the house as a must-see stop on trips through the North Shore, and it was shared through an Instagram account that tracks Midwest attractions.
Since then, coverage has leaned into the holiday angle, describing the work as a “holiday-ready makeover” and even calling it “Aaaaaaah-mazing,” a playful nod to Kevin McCallister’s famous scream. Reports say the famous Home Alone house is set to reclaim its cozy Christmas look from the film, with decorations and styling that echo the original production design rather than the more subdued choices of recent years, a promise highlighted in a feature that said the Aaaaaaah moment is coming back. Another report framed the project as a full return to ’90s glory, noting that the Home Alone house, located in Winnetka, sold this year for $5.5 million and is now being renovated to match its on-screen glory, a transformation that was summed up in a piece filed Cox Media Group.
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