Penelope Green On Oval Office Redesign: 'The Audacity Of Taupe'

New York Times:

The Oval Office has been tweaked, in a makeover orchestrated by the California decorator Michael Smith. In response, television audiences and the blogosphere seemed to produce a collective yawn: too brown, too dowdy, too ho hum, they pronounced as one.

It is a subtle redo: The desk is still Resolute, a gift from Queen Victoria to Rutherford B. Hayes, built from pieces of a salvaged Arctic discovery vessel. (With the exception of Johnson, Nixon and Ford, every president has used it.) The gold silk damask curtains installed by Barack Obama's predecessor are also unchanged.

What is new? A rug woven with quotations from Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and others; two fawn-colored cotton-rayon sofas; two elegant midnight-blue lamps by Christopher Spitzmiller; and an extremely contemporary mica coffee table from Roman Thomas, a New York furnituremaker.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Jen Wood Saenz]

03:36 PM on 09/06/2010

The walls look tacky! especially the doors! with all the money they have you'd think that they could find a better decorator!! I agree that the walls were a little plain before... but now they look ghetto fab.... I guess it goes along with the territory!!

[Sarah James2]

08:35 AM on 09/05/2010

They went from drab walls to drab sofas and chairs. They put the patterns on the walls and removed the patterns from the sofas,chairs, and carpet.

I agree the coffee table is hideous, no elegance what so ever, it reminds me of a coffin. Come on guys you can do better than that. The wall paper is a nice improvement since the walls before were too plain.”

Sarah James
http://www.decordesigns.net

[ABQ-Mike]

11:56 AM on 09/04/2010

Well, well, well. It turns out that the new oval office is not only a room on enough valium to put any visitor to sleep but it also contains at least one inexcusable historical inaccuracy! Apparently at least one of the quotes woven into the rug's border is attributed to Martin Luther King when he, in fact, did not author it. Details here... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090305100.html

[Schroedinger]

09:22 PM on 09/02/2010

Meow. Meow. Meow. Catty, much? >^..^

[alex200901]

07:14 AM on 09/03/2010

^.. ^ I love keyboard art, eventhough I suck at it...ahaahhaha
\ /

[wishfulslinking]

05:49 PM on 09/02/2010

May I add, good pun aside, sallow beige is NOT taupe.

[Passerineblue]

04:49 PM on 09/02/2010

You don't put modernistic furniture whatever color in a colonial room. Ikea meets Mt. Vernon. Get the Bush furniture and put it back.

[wishfulslinking]

05:49 PM on 09/02/2010

WE have a WINNER!

[Passerineblue]

03:17 PM on 09/02/2010

Ugleee! Too blah. Looks like a motel. Lamps are horrible and so is the retro 50's coffee table. We should use the WH to show off out outstanding early American wooden furniture not this trash.

[Retrofuturistic]

02:30 PM on 09/02/2010

Ha. From "The Audacity of Hope" to the "Audacity of Taupe". How the mighty have fallen....

[zaggy]

02:15 PM on 09/02/2010

Horrible !

[msgirlintn]

01:52 PM on 09/02/2010

I think it looks great and I am so glad that they got rid of that ugly rug that Laura Bush designed.

[Billy D]

01:35 PM on 09/02/2010

If the teleprompter tells you to redecorate, you redecorate!

[SECT Dem]

01:30 PM on 09/02/2010

The country is broke, let's redecorate.

[1088]

01:33 PM on 09/02/2010

It didn't cost the tax payer any money at all!

[msgirlintn]

01:46 PM on 09/02/2010

1088.

That's just a tro// pretending to be a Dem so that they can complain. I've seen a lot of that lately. The only thing worse than a teabagger Republican is one who is ashamed to admit it.

[wishfulslinking]

05:50 PM on 09/02/2010

That is laughably not TRUE, irrelevant but not true.

[Olga Bancic]

04:35 PM on 09/02/2010

Personally, I think it is a mistake for a president to go too hair shirt in rough economic times. While it may seem counter-intuitive, it's important for the symbols of the office; State dinners, nice clothes, beautiful flowers and redecoration to continue, rather than stop because people tend to take comfort in continuity.

Besides, it never did Jimmy Carter a bit of political good when he went around turning down thermostats and carrying his own luggage. If anything, a lot of people disliked him for it.

[MajorMalfunction]

12:52 PM on 09/02/2010

All that's missing is plastic covers on the couch and chairs.

[wishfulslinking]

05:51 PM on 09/02/2010

and lampshades...

[pipetoe]

12:33 PM on 09/02/2010

dull but whatever.

[makemesmile]

02:21 PM on 09/02/2010

It is dull and unappealing. Michelle should have used that designer, Nate Berkus, who was a frequent guest on the Oprah Winfrey show.

[alex200901]

07:20 AM on 09/03/2010

OMG, can you imaginate the fake outrage that would have ensued had Nate, with his contemporary style, had come in? "oprah and obama in cahoots to overthrow the world' would have run amuk....

[Soul Call]

12:25 PM on 09/02/2010

looks like the showroom at Wicks Furniture