If you think the best place to see the latest designer furnishings is an international fair or a high-end interiors store, think again. You might get more inspiration – and entertainment – from a trip to your local cinema.

Set decorators working on contemporary films are becoming increasingly influential in steering our tastes – trawling stores, studios and shows for pieces to create their make-believe homes, offices and hotels. And, with a little research, all of us can replicate the spaces they create, buying direct from retailers or prop-hire companies.

Take the forthcoming Bond film, Quantum of Solace, due for release this Friday. London-based Anna Pinnock worked closely with award-winning production designer Dennis Gassner to create contemporary, glamorous, design-aware interiors in locations including Panama City, Florida, Siena, Italy and Bregenz, Austria.

“Bond films are always grounded in what’s happening in the current scene,” says Pinnock, whose work on Gosford Park and The Golden Compass resulted in Oscar nominations. “They are almost unique in providing an opportunity to place so much design-led furniture in highly styled and unusual settings. It is essential because it suits the plot, character and style of the Bond ‘world’. Marc Forster, the film’s director, is very into realism. And actors generally respond well to sets that feel real, so I approached them as if I was doing a proper interior design job in someone’s home.”

She began her research in September 2007 by visiting the design shows Maison et Objet in Paris and 100% Design, Decorex and Tent in London. “The fairs were very useful because we came across companies such as Slide, the Italian lighting manufacturer, that we wouldn’t have known about,” she says. Armed with catalogues, she then built up the kind of technical library found in any architect’s or interior designer’s office. “You don’t know at the outset how a project will develop and building a library offers a quick way to source and reference a vast quantity of material,” she explains.

Seen on screen

The Golden Compass: Nelson stool in white leather from Vitra; armchairs from Gotham.

Sleuth (2007 version with Michael Caine): Alessi Fruitscape, Juicy Salif citrus squeezer plus Alessi vases, ice bucket, toaster and coffee machine.

Casino Royale: Barcelona chairs from Knoll.

Kingdom of Heaven: Andrew Martin fabrics and cushions for the king’s bed.

Men in Black: Tulip chairs and table from Knoll.

Batman (1989 version): Tresserra collection’s Casablanca chair and Carpet desk.

Scandal: Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chair from Fritz Hansen.

Down with Love: Womb chairs from Knoll.

Silence of the Lambs: Aga – which has also starred in Practical Magic and The Holiday plus long-running UK television soap Emmerdale.

The next step was talking to contemporary design retailers. “SCP [in London] was particularly helpful because they know exactly what’s in the market,” she says. She also used Viaduct for furniture and EC1 Lighting and London Lighting for lamps and chandeliers. None of this was product placement. “I made all the approaches,” Pinnock says. “Much of it was purchased direct from suppliers with some companies, like Fritz Hansen, offering us a discount. All the furniture from Boconcept, Bene and Interstuhl was loaned to us.”

Although the product placement market is predicted to grow to £4bn globally by 2010 (and an earlier Bond film, Die Another Day, scored a record $70m from 20 product placement deals in 2002), most interiors companies seem reluctant to follow consumer electronics and car companies into paid-placement deals. As Simon Ritterband, a director of London-based Seesaw Media, puts it: “Unlike Coca-Cola, there’s no instant recognisable branding of furniture, upholstery fabric or wallpaper and if companies don’t see an instant return they won’t put money behind it.”

But, he adds, “this is slowly changing as companies realise it can be beneficial if they underpin any loans to film-sets with a marketing campaign.”

B&B Italia did just that with Quantum of Solace. Pinnock used pieces from the Maxalto collections, including the Talamo bed and the Max writing desk, night tables, armchairs and dressers, all designed by Antonio Citterio, to create a suite in the Grand Hotel, a fictitious boutique hotel in Bolivia, at the UK’s Pinewood Studios. In return, the company gets to use photos of the set in its advertisements and recreate the room in its London store, along with a small exhibition of photographs and gadgetry. B&B Italia outlets in New York, Chicago, Milan, Paris, Munich and Barcelona will also display some of the film-pedigreed furniture.

“We’d visited the B&B Italia showroom in London as part of our initial research and thought the furniture was suitable because it has a luxurious, very contemporary feel and was a good scale for the size of the rooms,” Pinnock says. Still, this being a Bond film, B&B made up the bed in a larger-than-normal size and she dressed it in handsome linens from Libeco, a Belgian company.

Other additions to the room included a unique, hand-woven silk rug from Orientalist in London’s Walton Street and chic lights from Foscarini, Artemide and Oluce. For the en suite bathroom, she used fittings from Drummonds and a “wonderful double-ended bath” from The Water Monopoly. “It has a fabulous polished and lacquered iron finish that gives it a beautiful reflective pewter colouring,” says Pinnock. “We chose it because of its classic feel and larger scale that worked so well with the architecture of the Grand Hotel and because the finish was so eye-catching and unusual.”

Sets representing other parts of the hotel included armchairs commissioned from furniture manufacturer Ben Whistler; consoles and coffee tables, shelving, cabinets and seating loaned by Danish manufacturer Boconcept; and wall and floor lights purchased from Foscarini. The terrace was decorated with Bonacina chairs and 1970s-style coffee tables with black marble tops and brushed aluminium bases from Kelly Hoppen Interiors. “We wanted a completely unique look [and] we sifted though an enormous amount of reference material, including almost every contemporary hotel book available,” Pinnock says. “Every detail was considered – just as if we were tackling a proper interior design scheme.”

Another big project was an eco-hotel interior. Pinnock furnished the Pinewood Studios set with Knoll furniture, supplied directly from the manufacturer and sofas from Tangram. A reception desk, benches, side-boards and large metal vases were designed and built in-house. A bedroom suite included chairs and tables from Fritz Hansen, including the classic black leather Swan sofa and swivel chairs, and Lumina, Luceplan and Oluce lights. The bed, sideboard and desk were made in-house.

No Bond film is complete without a scene at M16 headquarters, which Pinnock designed with Interstuhl office chairs, sofas and coffee tables and Bene office desks, sideboards and shelving. “It all looks very sharp, contemporary and expensive. It’s very good quality,” she says. But M’s desk “had to be unique to her” so production designer Dennis Gassner designed it himself and had it made at Pinewood by prop-maker James Enright. It has a bevel-edged glass top, brushed aluminium base and a substructure of rosewood inlaid with Macassar ebony finished with highly polished aluminium mounts.

Walnut and Macassar ebony desk accessories were bought at Linley, the lighting was purchased from Louis Poulsen and Fontana Arte and the carpet was made up by Brinton Carpets. Gassner also designed a marble-topped vanity unit for M’s bathroom that was specially made by Linley in rich stained American walnut with inlays of Macassar ebony and Santos rosewood in silver-plated beading. “It’s exactly the right design for her character,” says Pinnock. “We didn’t feel it was right for M to have an antique and this piece has a feeling of heritage while being utterly contemporary.” Linley also supplied console tables and mirrors from the Linley Classic Limited Edition collection and a walnut cheval mirror for the set. Ceramics and glassware came from Kelly Hoppen Interiors because Pinnock believes they’re “a very good look for mimimalist rooms – sharp and a good scale.”

But Pinnock did not get to celebrate her work for long. “It can be disappointing to see the sets dismantled after so much detailed work,” she admits. Studio employees did participate in a grand sale of redundant set-furnishings but Pinnock didn’t buy a single piece. “I prefer not to have too much clutter at home,” she says. Surely all her research provides her with ideas for her own home though? “Sometimes but generally I’m focused on the job.”