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- US presidents have redecorated the Oval Office in different ways since it was first built in 1909.
- Most presidents have sat at the Resolute Desk, but others brought in their own personal furniture.
- President Donald Trump has added numerous gold embellishments to the Oval Office.
It’s been nearly 100 years since the Oval Office was first built under President William Howard Taft. Throughout that time, US presidents have each made different design choices to redecorate the formal workspace.
Some presidents, like President George H.W. Bush, have brought in their own furniture to replace the Resolute Desk. Others, like President Donald Trump, have reinstated vintage Oval Office pieces while adding their own personal flair.
Take a look at how the Oval Office has changed through the years.
The first iteration of the Oval Office was built under President William Howard Taft in 1909 as part of an expansion of the West Wing.
Inspired by the White House’s oval-shaped Blue Room, the president’s formal workspace was designed by architect Nathan C. Wyeth.
Taft’s Oval Office featured an olive-green color scheme.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt redesigned and moved the Oval Office as part of another West Wing expansion in 1934.
The Oval Office was moved to the southeast corner of the White House.
Roosevelt kept a variety of items on his desk, including photos of his sons, ceramic animal figurines, and an appointments easel with his daily schedule, according to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.
President Harry Truman’s Oval Office was the first to feature a rug with the presidential seal.
Truman decorated the Oval Office with the turquoise rug and matching curtains. The walls were painted a lighter seafoam green.
President John F. Kennedy was the first president to use the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
The Resolute Desk, made of wood from the British ship H.M.S. Resolute, was gifted to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria in 1880. Previous presidents kept the desk in the second-floor office of the White House Residence and the Broadcast Room, according to the White House Historical Association.
President Lyndon Johnson replaced the Resolute Desk with his own desk, which he’d used as a US senator and vice president.
He also redecorated the Oval Office with white drapes with red trim, evoking the American flag.
President Richard Nixon chose bold hues of blue and yellow to decorate the Oval Office.
Nixon’s Oval Office rug, in the same blue color as the American flag, was designed by first lady Pat Nixon.
President Gerald Ford changed the color scheme of the upholstery to burnt orange and khaki.
Ford’s decor included the wheel from the SS Mayaguez, an American container ship that was seized by Cambodian forces in 1975 and rescued at Ford’s direction.
Ford also added a mahogany Seymour tall case clock in 1975.
The clock, built between 1795 and 1805, has remained in the Oval Office under every subsequent president since 1975.
President Jimmy Carter brought the Resolute Desk back to the Oval Office.
Otherwise, he left most of Ford’s decor.
President Ronald Reagan redecorated the Oval Office during his second term with a rug designed by first lady Nancy Reagan.
The rug featured the presidential seal in the center with sunbeams emerging from the middle, surrounded by a border of olive branches.
President George H.W. Bush redid the Oval Office in shades of blue and gold and brought in the C&O desk that he used as vice president.
The Resolute Desk was moved to the Residence Office.
President Bill Clinton chose Arkansas-based interior designer Kaki Hockersmith to give the Oval Office a new look.
Hockersmith designed the yellow curtains and the blue rug with the presidential seal. Clinton also chose to bring the Resolute Desk back to the Oval Office.
First lady Laura Bush designed a new rug for President George W. Bush’s Oval Office.
The rug featured a sunbeam design with the presidential seal at its center, reminiscent of Reagan’s rug, and a lone star in a nod to Bush’s home state of Texas.
President Barack Obama added striped wallpaper and a new rug with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.
The quote on the border of the rug read, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
During his first term, President Donald Trump reinstalled Reagan’s rug and added a portrait of President Andrew Jackson.
He also brought back Clinton’s gold curtains and chose a new off-white wallpaper.
President Joe Biden brought back Clinton’s Oval Office rug and added new portraits.
Biden hung portraits of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton.
In his second non-consecutive term, Trump has made significant changes to the Oval Office, adding numerous gold embellishments.
Many of the gold decor pieces in Trump’s Oval Office came from the White House collection, but Trump also imported some statuettes from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump also added flags representing different branches of the US military and additional presidential portraits, with President George Washington in the prominent center spot above the fireplace mantle.
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