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Happy President's Day!

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What better day than President's Day to revisit a piece of interior design history: the Kennedy renovation of the White House from 1961-63...

 
 

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Jacqueline Kennedy's bedroom detail

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JFK's bedroom

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Lincoln bedroom

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Sitting room

Read (and see) all about the Kennedy Renovation here.

See the way other presidents and the first ladies decorated the master bedroom from years past here.

All images via White House Museum.

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NEWS, history

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Comments (7)

Amazing! Thank you so much for posting this. As someone who is home sick today (Damn presidents day and every single doctors office being closed in nyc...) this might keep me entertained all day. Seriously, Thank you.

posted by suziegoombs on 2008-02-18 11:03:38
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Suziegoombs, you must pick through the White House site to compare and contrast the various eras of rehab in different rooms... I just lost a good hour of productivity to that and could easily keep going...

posted by wende in phoenix on 2008-02-18 11:27:22
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gosh - I am surprised, but the nicest versions of the master bedroom were under JFK and the Carters (quite elegant). Bush Sr. had stodgy furniture, and that inappropriate wallpaper from the Reagan era. Very surprised by the Johnson furniture -- looked like something from Sears.

posted by monika1 on 2008-02-18 15:13:56
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Not to nitpick or quibble, but the Kennedy's just redecorated, the renovation was under Truman - which was a complete and utter gut rehab - all that was left was the shell and everything inside, the guts, is all new (all the rooms were carefully disassembled and restored) - it was so rotten that the late Margaret Truman's piano fell through the floor. The Eisenhowers didn't do much and Jackie made it the showplace during her time as the first lady.

posted by dn on 2008-02-18 17:31:48
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very timeless images...those could be out of this month's Veranda or Southern Accents.

also, they had separate rooms?

posted by dougdavis on 2008-02-18 23:40:18
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it is very niec

posted by raaft_hany2002 on 2008-02-19 05:03:16
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Thank you, this is such an interesting post!

posted by mollybb on 2008-02-19 16:01:01
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