White House's Lincoln Bedroom Being Remodeled
Whatever Election Day holds for her husband, Laura Bush is about to establish her own White House legacy in a bold transformation of the Lincoln Bedroom.
When completed later this fall, the nation's most famous guest room will retain the celebrated rosewood bed bought by Mary Todd Lincoln in 1861 as its centerpiece. Flamboyant rococo revival furniture by renowned cabinetmaker John Henry Belter will remain. And a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was signed in the room in 1863, will still be available for late-night perusal, in a glass case on a polished antique desk.
But, in the first sweeping rethink of the Lincoln Bedroom in at least three decades, the timid lemon walls, celery-green curtains and pale floral carpet are being banished in favor of a blast of Victorian bliss.
Heady hues of emerald green, golden yellow and deep purple will carpet the floor, drape the windows and envelop the massive, six-foot-tall carved headboard. Walls will be papered in a restrained palette of cream tones -- a nod to contemporary tastes -- but the pattern has been derived from the Victorian Age. Two elaborate cornices such as might have topped windows in Lincoln's day have been carved and sent to the gilders. An opulent white marble mantel was commissioned to better complement a rococo-style mirror installed last summer.
The pièce de résistance, both decoratively and symbolically, will be a carved bed canopy in the shape of a crown. It too has been sent for gilding. When affixed to the ceiling, the crown will support yards of regal purple satin over white lace, both trailing to the floor.
White House curator William Allman, who detailed the project Thursday at a White House Historical Association symposium on the decorative arts, describes the decor as"back for the future." He offered swatches of wallpaper, carpet design and historical antecedents to museum curators and decorative arts historians.
On an afternoon tour of the mansion, the second floor was off-limits. But dropcloths covered the stairway leading to the private quarters, evidence that the Lincoln Bedroom is still a work-in-progress.
"It will be very Victorian, very appropriate and very grand," Allman assured.