![]() ![]() While it’s fairly easy for First Families to make minor changes to the State Rooms, such as choosing artwork they like, any bigger changes, like reupholstering furniture, require committee approval. Most of these rooms - like the Blue Room, the Red Room, the Green Room, and the State Dining Room - are like museum galleries and are used only for special occasions (teas and receptions with other heads of state and dignitaries, things like that). Decisions about the State Rooms are guided by a preservation-first ethos and are made by a group called the Committee for the Preservation of the White House. The building is divided into the public State Rooms - the ground floor that tour groups see, where dignitaries and heads of state are received and which leads to the Oval Office and the administrative spaces in the East and West Wings - and “the Residence,” comprising the First Family’s private living quarters on the second and third floors. His residences, from his time as a senator from Delaware in the 1980s and beyond to his vice-presidency, tell a similar story about his perspective and worldview: They’re furnished with traditional pieces (think bentwood dining chairs and a farmhouse table in his Wilmington home in the 1980s), classic elements (wingback chairs with damask upholstery in his Senate office), and hints of personability (a recurring signature color across many of his homes and offices, more about that later).īiden’s a politician who plays by the rules, and that’s probably a good thing here because the White House has a lot of them when it comes to interior design. But even that reinforces the same story: It’s an American-made classic. Maybe his showiest possession is the forest-green Chevrolet Corvette that he bought new in 1967 and still owns. His affections make him seem relatable - his affinity for ice cream the Ray-Ban aviators his dogs, Champ and Major his preference for commuting by train - but also project the image of a trustworthy, capable, and successful person (hence the Rolex he wore to the inauguration). He feels most comfortable in the middle of the road. We do know that Joe Biden’s personal taste steers toward the conventional no one can really argue against it, but no one will really be that enthusiastic about it, either. Photo: Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images Their interior designer, Victoria Hagan, nicknamed the shade “Biden blue.” ![]() The Bidens painted the walls in the dining room of the official vice-presidents’ residence a shade of blue that was color-matched to the walls of their family home. But looking to the past - what previous administrations have changed, how the Bidens have decorated their former residences and offices, and seeing the one room that has already received a refresh - offers a few clues about the kind of mark they will make. The Bidens don’t have immediate plans to bring in an interior decorator (more pressing matters, like, say, a pandemic, are taking precedence). Well, we’ll probably have to wait a bit to find out. And who could forget the blood-red Christmas trees of the Trump years? “Everyone has a different taste,” Melania Trump told the New York Times.Īll of which leads us to the question, What is the Bidens’ taste, and how will they impart it at the White House? Jackie Kennedy chucked the department-store reproduction furniture that had filled the house in favor of proper antiques, Ronald Reagan had a Western theme in his Oval Office that included bronze saddles, and the Obamas modernized the Oval Office’s look with caramel-toned wallpaper and sofas and terra-cotta drapes. Although much of the interior of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is managed by curators, First Families can impart their sensibility in subtle - and sometimes dramatic - ways. Two of the great ceremonial elements of the presidency are the design and furnishing of the White House, a working office building that is also a museum and home. One of Joe Biden’s interior-design signatures? A deep, inky shade of blue, as seen in the rug (originally made for Bill Clinton) that’s now in the Oval Office.
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