Today, Nate Berkus came home to the Promised Land. "The Promised Land" being talk show legend Oprah Winfrey's massive Montecito, California estate. For his regular segment “House Proud,” Berkus toured the property's tea house and extensive rose garden. It wouldn’t be a visit with Oprah without talk of the Spirit Realm, her fellow important superstar friends, and justification by way of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for a single woman owning an $85 million 23,000-square-foot home.
Oprah explained, in her typical nonsensical spiritually-loaded way, that she named her 45-acre estate "The Promised Land" because “Dr. King said he would not get to the promised land but one day we might. And so that’s why I called it that... because I think it’s a fulfillment of the promise that Dr. King spoke of.”
The tour focused on the property's rose garden and tea house, a structure built for the express purpose of shielding Oprah from the infrequent Santa Barbara showers - "It was created because I wanted a place to be able to come to when it’s raining." For the building's stonemasons who toiled in the hot California sun, Oprah graciously imparted daily affirmations. “I would come down and talk to them every day and really let them know that through [...] their handiwork that they were blessing this space for me.” And because the talk show goddess would rather her ears not be sullied by the sounds of "nature," the tea house has no bathroom. Instead, an upscale outhouse is located some distance away.
Employing a master rosarian to tend to her over 600 rosebushes, Oprah believes the flowers to be a portal to the Great Beyond. "I particularly love roses because they represent, I think, from the Spirit Realm what we really are. [...] They bring the fragrance from the Spirit World. That’s what I believe."
Let's enjoy a tour of The Promised Land...
House Proud: Oprah Winfrey [The Nate Berkus Show]
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