Friends: 10 Things That Make No Sense About Monica & Rachel’s Apartment

What is Friends without the purple-walled apartment? Monica and Rachel lived in an outrageously huge apartment on 495 Grove Street. With its beautiful wooden beam that separated the living room from the kitchen, a giant window, and a balcony to peek at the people living across the street – the apartment was indeed a happy place full of fun and laughter.

The girls’ sanctuary has an iconic status among the apartments of the hangout sitcoms. But it sure did have its oddities, from an ever-changing number to the door unlocked at all times.

10 Inaccurate Address

Season 4’s “The One With The Invitation” reveals an odd detail about the girls’ address. While Ross is sending out invitations, the camera pans onto the envelope meant for Rachel which reads something like, “Ms. Rachel Greene, 545 Grove St, #20.” Grove Street is actually in Brooklyn, whereas Monica and Rachel lived in a West Village apartment.

From confusing fans with an inaccurate address to saying the wrong name at the ceremony – Ross’s second wedding to Emily was chaotic in every sense of the word.

9 Apartment Size

And if it isn’t painfully obvious, the girls did actually live in a gigantic apartment that Monica was subletting from her grandmother. The lease was in her nana’s name until the very end of the series, making it a steal.

Could the girls have afforded it on their own? Highly impossible, since at the beginning of the series, one was a sous-chef and the other, a waitress sending resumes out everywhere to get her foot in the door of the fashion industry. The writers employed the rent-control trope as an attempt to justify the affordability of the apartment. But it doesn’t take a genius to figure that given its location and size, the girls would have simply priced out even with them, say, earning steady money down the line.

8 Unlocked Door

In “The One With Phoebe’s Husband,” Rachel spends a lot of energy convincing her mother she lived in a safe street and a safe building. Yet she never actually bothers to lock her door from inside, not even after the apartment across the hall was robbed.

Monica and Rachel’s neighbors, Chandler and Joey, and friends, Ross and Phoebe would barge in whenever they liked, without any regard for their privacy. The girls should have taken up the matter with them, especially after Chandler had barged in without knocking back in season 1.

7 Old Key & New Door

Speaking of the door, Rachel somehow is able to unlock Monica’s door with an old key in season 10’s “The One with the Late Thanksgiving.” Nothing unusual about that, bearing in mind, she lived there, except for two tiny little details – she gave her key back to Monica when she moved out and it was not the same door.

In season 8, while Monica and Chandler were away on their honeymoon, Phoebe and Joey reported a fake gas leak to Treeger which resulted in the door being broken down and replaced.

6 The Junk Closet

In season 8, Chandler finally found out his wife hid junk inside her secret closet thanks to Bob and Faye Bing who sent an ugly punch bowl as a wedding gift. When Chandler headed to stuff it inside the closet by the bathroom and it was locked, which led him to ask questions.

How someone as organized as Monica lived with herself despite having a closet full of junk is beyond all reason. As is the fact that someone as observant as Chandler made it that far without the closed closet ever coming up.

5 Got Away With Illegal Subletting

All things aside, it’s kind of bizarre how Monica got away with illegally subletting her grandmother’s apartment for more than a decade. The building superintendent, Mr. Treeger, knew the girls were violating the Rent Stabilization Act of 1968 and way back in season 4 even threatened to have the girls evicted.

Joey’s ballroom dancing lessons saved the day and for some reason, Treeger kept quiet for the next 6 seasons. The girls, if caught, would have been evicted and sued for violating the Rent Control Act.

4 The Kitchen Window View Changes

Over the years, the view outside Monica’s kitchen window kept changing. Some episodes show either an apartment window of the flat across, a washing line hanging outside, the cityscape, or just a portion of a brick building.

Other instances of the changing view include two windows of the neighboring flats, a window corner, a white grill… the list just goes on.

3 The 6 Keys

In one of the most heartbreaking Friends scenes ever, at the end of the series, all six members turned in the keys to the apartment. Looking back, certain confusions about the 6 keys arise. When Monica and Chandler were on their honeymoon, Phoebe and Joey had a conversation where they discussed the Bings taking away the keys to the purple apartment.

Before Rachel left, she gave her key to Monica, and yet in season 10’s “One with the Late Thanksgiving,” she somehow still had her old key. While the writers overlooked these crucial details, nothing compares to each of the 6 friends leaving their keys on the counter in the show’s finale. They seemingly copied the keys without Monica and Chandler’s permission, perhaps after the late Thanksgiving incident?

2 The Chairs Change Themselves

Throughout season 10 of the show, someone at Monica’s was constantly changing the chairs in the dining area. While yes, the apartment was supposed to give an eclectic feel, changing the chairs too often (sometimes episode to episode) certainly killed the vibe of her living room.

Fans will remember the old Monica who freaked out when Rachel moved the green ottoman. Or how Chandler feared for his life and made up lies to escape Monica’s wrath for moving the stuff around. Doesn’t add up!

1 Apartment Number Changed

This one’s high up the totem pole of bizarre things about the purple-walled apartment. The sudden change in the girls’ apartment number from 5 t0 20 in season 1 confused fans for a while, until they learned it was an attempt to match the exterior view.

The gang couldn’t do all the spying they did from the giant window, like for example, shamelessly peeping into ugly naked guy’s apartment, or losing their breath from climbing up the stairs if their place continued to be on the first floor of the building. As a corrective action, the writers had to change the apartment number to 20 and the fans were left to deal with the slight change.

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