No doubt, President Obama'saddress to nation about Iraq war is of prime concern to all Americans,Iraqis and international community. But Mr. Obama recent address has a new hottopic for interior designer to talk.
The address was made fromnewly decorated surrounding. The Oval Office has been tweaked, in a makeover orchestratedby the California decorator Michael Smith. In response, television audiencesand the blogosphere seemed to produce collective yawn: too brown, too dowdy. Tooho hum, they pronounced as one.
It is a subtle redo: The desk is still Resolute,a gift from Queen Victoria to Rutherford B. Hayes, builtfrom pieces of a salvaged Arctic discovery vessel. (With the exception ofJohnson, Nixon and Ford, every president since Hayes has used it.) The goldsilk damask curtains installed by Barack Obama’s predecessorare also unchanged.
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| Present Oval Office |
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| Oval Office used by George W. Bush |
What is new? A rug woven with quotations from Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and others; two fawn-colored cotton-rayonsofas; two elegant midnight-blue lamps by Christopher Spitzmiller; and anextremely contemporary mica coffee table from Roman Thomas, a New York furniture maker.
