Forget billion dollar listings and hilltop mansions—the year’s most covetable home is a bucolic little British cottage built in 1801.
Of course, this isn’t just any other cottage. Nestled within lush vegetation-filled grounds of the historic Windsor Castle, Berkshire, the Grade-II listed Frogmore Cottage first built at the command of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz has been newly revived from the ground up to now serve as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 10-room, 2-storey family home—which will welcome its newest inhabitant, baby Sussex, any day.
From a fully-equipped gourmet kitchen to the celebrity designers having a hand at its interiors—much has been speculated about this beautiful, quintessentially British estate and the ambitious renovations done to it. We round up everything we know about their new home:
It is surrounded by some of Britain’s most beautiful flora and fauna
The rich natural beauty of the Berkshire countryside located 25 miles from London is on full display around the Frogmore Estate, where the Frogmore Cottage sits, with 33 acres of private lush greenery, sprawling fields and serene lakes a stone’s throw away, offering an idyllic and private landscape for the young family to roam around.
Within the grounds also lie various garden buildings and monuments, including the 'Gothic Ruin' built in 1793, a brick pavilion 'Queen Victoria's Tea House' and the 'Indian Kiosk’ against picturesque, manicured greens.
“It has the most amazing mulberry walk, where we would pick mulberries for Prince Philip’s mulberry gin,” reveals a former palace staffer.
Artworks handpicked by The Queen fill the home
The Queen has offered the couple their picks of art pieces from her very own Royal Collection—the world’s largest private art collection—to populate their new home with. She has reportedly even drawn up the list herself.
“They have been presented with a list of paintings that would be available to them and they are making up their minds as to what they would like to hang in their new home,” a palace insider reveals.
The British Royal family-owned collection, spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences, includes over 1 million sculptures, paintings, photographs and tapestries by masters such as Leonardo de Vinci, Michelangelo and Canaletto, giving the couple plenty of ideas to transform their home into a bona fide art gallery.
A celebrity designer is behind the rustic interiors
A warm, neutral and elegant colour palette is favoured by the Duchess as seen in everything from her sense of style to her Toronto home, which featured a myriad of creamy-white and grey tones.
It appears to be a perfect match, then, that designer Vicky Charles of Charles and Co. has been tapped to perfect the interiors of Frogmore Cottage. Most know for her work on Soho Farmhouse, the rustic-chic Cotswolds branch of the members’ club Soho House, her aesthetics give a luxurious, country house-esque earthiness, using features such as exposed brick walls, reclaimed-board cladding, velvet upholstery and copper furnishings—a far cry from the traditionally stately style of royal residences.
The Duchess has also reportedly enlisted the help of friend Victoria Beckham to help add a few glamorous finishing touches to the home.
Farm-to-table dining prepared at a fully-equipped gourmet kitchen
Before becoming a Duchess, Meghan has made a name for herself not only as an actress in legal drama Suits, but also as a cultural connoisseur of sorts via her lifestyle blog, The Tig, and is a self-professed foodie. No surprise then, that the cottage is outfitted with a fully-customised kitchen and dining room for plenty of entertaining.
Two orangeries and a full organic vegetable garden also sit outside their home, where the couple has already started planting. A royal source reveals, “The Duchess has a passion for cooking so it was suggested to include a small plot in the spacious garden where they can grow some of their own produce.”
The home has an eco-conscious ethos
Both Meghan and Harry’s commitment to protecting the environment is widely known, with UNICEF, Prince's Rainforests Project and The Wilderness Foundation among the charities they support.
It is no surprise then that many of Frogmore Cottage’s renovations were also conceived with environmental conservation in mind, such as $60,000 all new green energy units and a nursery with non-toxic vegan paint.
Other thoughtful touches include a yoga studio springy “floating floor” for Meghan, an avid practitioner whose mother Doria is a yoga teacher, bookcases built into alcoves, soundproofing triple-glazed windows and two conservatory extensions.
