Carlos and Reede were tasked with making the world of Palm Royale real, but they also needed to give each key character visual settings that would tell audiences who they are. When it came time to create a luxe cocoon for matriarch Norma Dellacorte (the inimitable Carol Burnett), Carlos and Reede knew Tony Duquette was exactly who Norma would have hired had she existed. “Tony Duquette was good friends with Elsie de Wolfe,” says Ellen Reede, “and they had often traded letters and notes” on each other’s designs. With this in mind, the team made Norma’s set luxurious and old-world, sophisticated, and a bit cluttered. “We almost wanted a Wuthering Heights feel to her house, where it had been this grand estate, but as she’s gone into assisted living, ivy and vines are taking over the house in a very beautiful and romantic way. And it shows the historic history of her presence in Palm Beach,” says Carlos. Younger socialite Dinah, by contrast, is married to a diplomat, and her domain is brighter, preppier, neoclassical, and aspirationally tasteful.
Most of the filming took place in Los Angeles, so although the sets look like historic mansions, much of what you see has been custom-built and decorated by Reede and her team with objects from 1stDibs, Chairish, and Melissa Levinson Antiques. Every drawer in every piece of furniture is full of objects and ephemera, so that the actors would be immersed in their character’s lives. “These women had a tremendous amount of money, and so they would have their designers go off to Europe and shop and bring back all of these antiques,” says Reede. If they found an ideal piece of furniture, they’d reupholster it complete with fringe and piping. Between that level of detail and the veritable forest of live plants that lent some East Coast–style humidity to the set, you almost believe you’re strolling on Worth Avenue.