Friday, December 2, 2016

The Family Living Quarters in the Obama White House, Oh Boy!


Quilt update:  The highest bid stands at $175.  Deadline to bid is 12 noon on Tuesday, December 6.  Any more bids?  It's a highly deserving cause, and you will have a happier Christmas if you make an offer, I promise.

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I rushed over to Barnes & Noble the very day that the latest Architectural Digest was published, because I wanted to see photos of the Obama White House residence--upstairs, where the president lives and the public never goes.

As long-time readers know, I have this odd little hobby of collecting White House guidebooks (I have them from Kennedy to Obama), and I like to see how each family decorates the same old rooms.  This is NOT a political post, but I will say that the worst decorator, in my opinion, was Hillary Clinton's:  Kaki Hockersmith.  What she did the Blue Room should be outlawed.

A few years ago, I found some earlier photos showing how some rooms had evolved from Bush to Obama,  but clearly Michelle Obama and her designer, Michael Smith, have done more work since then.

I wish I had a better camera, but in the meantime, here are the latest photos, starting with the Yellow Oval Room.


The Yellow Oval Room (above and below)



The same room as conceived by Jackie Kennedy during the 1961 renovation:







President Obama's Study:



The same room during the Kennedy Administration, when it was known as the Treaty Room:

 The big table, which was used in the Cabinet Room before 1902, is now used as a desk by President Obama (top)


The upstairs dining room, where the family eats dinner every night:

The upstairs dining room (above and below)

Art by Robert Mangold (1960's)

The same room in 1961, when Jacqueline Kennedy turned a bedroom into a much-needed upstairs dining room.  The wallpaper depicts "Scenes of the American Revolution," and dates to 1834.  Is it in storage somewhere?





The Obama version of the Old Family Dining Room, which is on the State Floor and used for official luncheons and dinners:

 This must be the first time a Rauschenberg painting has appeared in the White House (left)



The Family Sitting Room:

The Family Sitting Room (above and below)

Painting by Sean Scully



The President and First Lady's Bedroom:


And the same room during the Reagan Administration, in Eighties Peach:


Nancy Reagan loved the hand-painted bird wallpaper.  President Clinton apparently spent one night in this room and said the paper had to go.



And finally, the President and his daughters in his study:



I'm wondering how Trump's Versailles-in-the-Sky will translate to the White House? 


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