Community Chat

[biancardi]

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@Kweenme wrote:
Well, we just paid $600,000 for a change ...

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This money is donated thru organizations. 

[Burnsite]

Hi, Cherry,  With the new State Dining Room, I would bet that the professional preservationists only gave her a few options and had her pick from them--she didn't have a free hand.   I like the room, and think the rug is a big improvement on room as it looked during President Clinton's years. I like the chairs, too.  I think the decorators played it too safe with the curtains.

The family dining room is nice--I especially like what might be no less than two Jasper Johns paintings.  He was famous during the 1960s for targets and deconstructed flag images.  The photo in the link is very dark--in the WaPo article on the family dining room, the rug looks lighter and is very nice.

The paintings are both amazing. 

[Burnsite]

Biancardi, I think the folks that donate funds for these renos is called the Foundation for the Preservation of the White House. It is fitting that this historical building be kept in excellent shape.

Watching a TV special a few years ago, I learned that all holiday decorating is done by volunteers, and the ornaments are made by Americans. 

It's our house, too.

[Barbara in Virginia]

I have known some of the volunteers who have worked on the Christmas decorations.  They don't develop the designs themselves, but rather implement the designs created by the professional designers.

I much prefer the Clinton's choice of decor for the State Dining Room.  But I am a fan of the English Country House style of making large and historic spaces more inviting and friendlier.  Colefax and Fowler's style of bringing these grand and historic spaces more livable was very much in style when Mrs. Clinton re-did the dining room as well as the family living spaces.

I was still working as a designer specializing in historic preservation when the Clinton re-does were being done and remember the design boards that were displayed in a couple of the showrooms in our Design Center.  I loved all of them!  Their interior designer, Kaki Hockersmith, was someone they had known back in Arkansas and had worked for them there.  So she knew their style well. 

Mrs. Obama's re-do is very well done but much more austere and classical.  I personally don't generally care for blue for dining rooms as it is not a color that enhances and encourages lively conversation.  We actually have physical responses to color. But that may have been the effect they were after!

[Kweenme]

Thanks, Biancardi, guess I was looking at pictures and thinking it was fine already ... Didn't read closely enough. My bad ... Re read down to the bottom and saw the contributors.

[Barbara in Virginia]

Here is the web site for Kaki Hockersmith, the interior designer for the Clinton White House.

http://www.kakihockersmith.com/about_assets.php

[cherry]

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@barbara in Virginia wrote:

Here is the web site for Kaki Hockersmith, the interior designer for the Clinton White House.

http://www.kakihockersmith.com/about_assets.php

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I like her style the rooms are warm and inviting, Austere isn't for me

[Ladybug724]

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@Burnsite wrote:

Biancardi, I think the folks that donate funds for these renos is called the Foundation for the Preservation of the White House. It is fitting that this historical building be kept in excellent shape.

Watching a TV special a few years ago, I learned that all holiday decorating is done by volunteers, and the ornaments are made by Americans. 

It's our house, too.

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I wish that were true--would love to spend the night there!  Not really a fan of any of the dining room decor though.  Sorry.

[YorkieonmyPillow]

Oh that's hilarious......LOL

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@esmeraldagooch wrote:
I'm sure the next occupant will make it over to suit her anyway.

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