Our Favorite Rooms Inside Buckingham Palace

With the royal wedding still on all of our minds, we can’t help but think about what it’s like to live as royalty. Buckingham Palace is the Queen’s official residence and a royal working place. The Palace  is 830,000 square feet, has 775 rooms, including 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms, according to the royal website. That’s a lot of toilet bowl brushes!

Lets take a look at some of our favorite rooms in the Palace…

The White Drawing Room

The White Drawing Room serves as a royal reception room for the Queen and royal family members. They often meet here before official events. This is also where many of the royal portraits are taken.

The Ballroom

The ballroom is the largest space inside Buckingham Palace. Setting up the Ballroom for a State banquet takes 10 days, including three days just laying the table with six glasses (all from a set made for the Coronation), seven pieces of cutlery and one side plate per person. On banquet nights 19 stations are set up around the table each manned by four staff – a page, footman, under butler and a wine butler – who use a traffic light system to co-ordinate the serving of courses. The Queen is literally the hostess with the mostess.

The Blue Drawing Room

Before 1855, this room was actually used as the Palace’s ballroom. It’s used today to house the Table of Great Commanders – a stunning porcelain table commissioned by Napoleon – as well as a variety of other priceless artefacts.

The Picture Gallery

The Picture Gallery, a large, narrow room with a vaulted skylight that lets in plenty of natural light — the best kind for admiring the artworks lining the walls. Highlights of the royal art collection can be found here, with paintings by big-name artists including Canaletto and Van Dyck.

The Green Drawing Room

Named for the green fabric and wallpaper used throughout the space, the Green Drawing Room acts as a waiting room for those getting ready to see the queen. Just beyond the room is the Throne Room.

The Music Room

Lavish and awe-inspiring, the music room is immediately striking for its use of domed ceilings and Romanesque columns. It’s often used for entertaining and for Royal Christenings, and three of the Queen’s children were christened here. The grand piano is by John Broadwood & Sons.