Twelve hidden messages in the Sussexes’ stylish study
It is the spotless Montecito study that gives a snapshot of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s luxury California lifestyle.
Boasting calming cream walls, expensive vintage oak furniture and a £1,600 designer throw, with its subtle product placement and carefully choreographed touches, it appears the ultimate celebrity “crib”.
So just what are the specially selected items that make Chez Sussex the envy of design devotees everywhere?
1. Telescope
As the Duke and Duchess continue to clock up multi-million deals with the likes of Netflix and Spotify, what better way to count their lucky stars than gaze skywards at the end of a cosy night in with Oprah Winfrey?
2. Fine bone china
You can take the girl out of the palace but you can never take the palace out of the girl. In drinking tea out of a trendy black and white teacup and saucer – rather than the crass Keep Calm and Carry On mugs that frequent most modern British kitchen cupboards – Meghan oozes Santa Barbara sophistication.
3. White crystal
Not to be confused with the sort of bauble contestants win on The Crystal Maze. The translucent object might look like a lump of rock but according to experts, a white crystal symbolizes innocence and purity, carrying good “energies” that act as a light in the darkness.
4. Dog bowl and cushion
Pet pooches are rarely attractive accessories, but in Meghan’s case, her beagle Guy has the added advantage of matching the Kelly Hoppen-esque cream and taupe colour palette. He also bears an uncanny resemblance to the soya lattes the Duchess promoted earlier this year.
5. Hessian rug
Nothing says globetrotters like a large hessian rug. They may no longer be the Queen’s Commonwealth ambassadors but there is no mistaking the scale of Harry and Meghan’s global ambitions with this subtle nod to ethnic chic.
6. White roses in a gold vase
Clearly not the kind of woman who would accept a bunch of garage forecourt carnations, the white roses look too far in bloom to have been bought by Harry for his beloved wife’s big day. Presumably he was busy picking her a hand-tied birthday bouquet in between juggling in the garden.
7. Black leather-bound folder
When you’re a woman with a plan, a handbag stuffed with crumpled pieces of paper simply won’t cut it. To-do lists for world domination are best organised in a zip-up black leather-bound folder, complete with the owner’s initials to ward off prying eyes.
8. Matching ‘to do’ trays
His and hers or just hers and hers? It’s hard to tell but there needs to be somewhere to store the first draft of Harry’s memoirs. It could just be perspective but is one slightly bigger than the other?
9. Solid silver photo frames
They definitely contained family photos – perhaps even of the lesser-spotted Lilibet but they remained too blurred to zoom in on. As they opened their home to a global audience of billions, the couple once again reminded us that when it comes to family, privacy remains the number one priority.
10. Taupe throw
Hermes’s £1,600 Hermes Avalon Signature blanket acts as the ultimate status symbol. For the price of a second-hand car, the Sussexes have also lucked out by accidentally ending up with a ‘blankie’ carrying Harry’s initials.
11. MacBook Air
They might no longer ‘do’ social media, preferring instead to make all announcements through their Archewell website, but that doesn’t mean the Duchess doesn’t need the latest technology at her fingertips – especially when negotiating deals with the likes of, er, Apple TV.
12. The Bench
It became a New York Times bestseller within a week of its release, so it is only to be expected that Meghan would want to showcase her first children’s book The Bench with no less than 11 copies piled high in prominent view. The less said about famous authors buying up their own books to push them up the bestseller charts, the better.
