The Heeler House as seen in Bluey is basically a TARDIS—bigger on the inside. The establishing shots show a small Queensland house on the hill, however in many of the episodes, it’s pretty level with the neighbors and it’s on a cul-de-sac, so it’s quite the mystery as to how anyone could possible draw up floor plans for this fictional cartoon home.

We’ve been watching Bluey since our daughter was about 6-months old. She is crazy about the show—and we found that we enjoy it quite a bit as well. There are so many nods to adults and adult humor. There are even “blink and you’ll miss it” moments like when they break the fourth wall and look directly at the camera. Even more proof that the head of the house, Bandit Heeler, is literally every late Gen Xer, Elder Millennial, or Xennial is his puppeteering wizardry as he proclaims, “My back! My neck! By back AND my neck!” But what makes this show great is the tear-jerking situations and heartwarming messages of hope, friendship, and love.

Why is it impossible?

Like a lot of fictional shows, there doesn’t seem to be a true floor plan for this home. It may even be on purpose as the show’s creators, animators, and storytellers are definitely a product of 80s and 90s sit-coms. And we all know that Full House house is one of those fictional homes that’s not only bigger on the inside, but an impossible layout. So maybe the Heeler House is impossible on purpose?

After watching all the episodes available in the US about 15,000 times because my daughter loves it so much, I can safely say that there are episodes that contradict other episodes and scenes that completely don’t make sense—and sure we can forgive the show using jump cuts showing Bandit for running around the house, perhaps skipping rooms, but some glaringly obvious continuity errors begin with the establishing shots of the lone house on the hill. We then see a fairly large veranda on basically every level of the home, which cannot be scene in most exterior shots.

Another proof of this is Season 3 episode 1 where Bluey decides to take the “spare room” which never existed before that episode. All shots we’ve previously seen don’t show an adjacent room, nor a door across the hall, but for some inexplicable reason, there’s a former nursery that’s being vacated to create a spare room, which Bluey takes over, but then (SPOILER ALERT) later doesn’t.

So yes, the house is problematic, but the show is still so good, maybe what I’ll do is draw a floor plan of rooms we tend to see the most of, which are pretty established, save the few oddball episodes that completely redesign interior for no reason.

Sketching & Drafting

When approaching the drafting of the Heeler House, I decided to do some quick sketches watching the show. I would quickly sketch out dimensions of each room I saw, added some furniture and had a very basic layout of each room—though furniture and placement of items were often moved around from episode to episode. I also decided to take liberties with some of the planning since things were often changed from episode to episode (like the spare bedroom placement). Then one of the biggest, strangest inconsistencies is the position of the kitchen and the deck. In many shots you can see the deck should overlook the entire backyard and fill the entire back half of the home, though some establishing shots show that the deck is facing Judo’s mom’s house instead of Pat’s house. Some of the things that grounded each room were seen throughout the episodes so I made those my constant items, and I made the decision to forget all of the exterior shots, except to try and make sure to have the placement of the rooms work with the rest of the house—especially with the random bulkheads sheen in a few of the wider angles. With those bulkheads, I assumed that the second floor was actually a split level as there are two staircases.

Kids Playroom

This is probably the most iconic room in the house, with the kiwi rug, and wrap-around veranda with access to the backyard. The family can be seen playing in the room, running out of the room, or around the room, so this is a well-established room, which sits at the back corner of the house and has an opening facing Judo’s mom’s house and the backyard.

Living Room

This is where Unicorse shows up, but it’s mainly grounded in the orange couch with a chaise lounge. It also has an opening to the veranda. I made the educated guess that this room is actually just inside the front entry way and on the other side of the front stairs, since it also has the stairs to the upper level in most shots.

Bingo & Bluey’s Room, Bathroom

I made sure to include both beds, the ledge that serves as a seating area above their beds, and their veranda. I guessed that the front staircase is next to their room, and the bedrooms are all on a split level. The bathroom can be seen sometimes via the hall, but in one of the newer episodes there’s a new spare room across the hall. I took that out and just made it the bathroom.

Bathroom(s)

Yes. There’s a lot of them. Four by my count, but I placed them towards the front of the house and on the right side (if you’re looking at the house), primarily because it’s probably where all the plumbing would go if the bathrooms are relatively near each other.

Master Bedroom

Another problematic room was the master bedroom, with dimensions seemingly all across the board. I grounded that room with the king bed, night stands, and the en suite master bath, which can be seen in many episodes. The other thing to note was the master bedroom overlooks the city and often is depicted to have a tree with pink/purple flowers that fall on the deck. This tree is no where in any of the exterior shots. Facing the house, you’ll see the backyard tree with red flowers peeking out on the left and a palm tree on the right side. There are no other trees in the backyard, so I have to assume that the tree is the neighbor on the right (if you’re facing the house).

TV Room or Family Room

This room is crazy awesome in that it’s attached to the sun room, the kitchen, and sometimes the dining room, with an open doorway to the stairs. In this design, however, I had to take the liberty and make it adjacent to the sun room, though there does seem to be another room or hall, or possibly a bathroom, or another door to another set of stairs—who knows! This was also one of the only ways to make the kitchen work with the configuration where you could see half the house and the deck from the backyard (as seen in many establishing shots).

Kitchen & Deck

The struggle is real with this kitchen. Sometimes you’ll see the kitchen sink window on the side of the house, sometimes you’ll see it looking out to the backyard. It makes no sense really, but this sweet feature of the house is really where all the family gatherings happen.

Bandit’s Office

His desk, chest with printer on top were the landmarks I used to ground that room. Position of the room is highly speculative

Wrap-around Hall

I built a wrap around hall with a half wall that looks down into the living room—this was a choice that worked for me when planning the layout of the house. Further, I made it a split level which also worked with some of the random bulkheads seen downstairs in some of the episodes.

Garage?

Yes, there’s a garage in one of the episodes, and it’s literally never seen again. It opens up to the cul-de-sac (maybe?). I placed it on the back of the house because there was a huge space I couldn’t figure out there. It could have been Bandit’s office, but the door and window placements didn’t fit.

Bluey Airbnb

Some of the reference material for this article was sourced from some internet things such as the Bluey Airbnb.

Visit the story on the house here https://youtu.be/ivOh5sxQH30