The Incredible History of Jackie Kennedy’s Decorating of the White House

Many of her changes during the extensive White House restoration project lasted.

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Plans of a Historical Scale

From the time Jackie Kennedy first viewed the White House in 1941 as a child she felt more could be done to capture the history and significance of the presidential home. She famously told Life’s Hugh Sidney, “From the outside I remember the feeling of the place. But inside, all I remember is shuffling through. There wasn’t even a booklet you could buy. Mount Vernon and the National Gallery of Art made a far greater impression.”

Photo: Via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

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White House Renovation

The White House underwent a significant reconstruction during the Truman administration between 1949-1952. The White House had become architecturally unsafe and so while the structure got fixed, the White House got some more character when the Kennedys entered it. The White House was so bad during Truman’s term that the family had to live outside the White House will repairs took place. But the White House was nothing like these 100 shocking home inspector photos.

Photo: Via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

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Creation of a Book

Jackie went on to have a book produced about the White House, called The White House: An Historic Guide and it was released in 1962. Funds from the sale of the book went to the continued restoration projects. You have to check out these bookshelf ideas to find the perfect place for a book like The White: An Historic Guide.

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Du Pont and Boudin

Jackie Kennedy transformed the décor of the White House when John F. Kennedy won the 1960 election. She got help from Henry Francis du Pont, a fervent collector of Americana items and Stéphane Boudin, a renowned designer from France, who also served as president of the House of Jansen, a leading interior decorating firm. Du Pont is seen looking at Kennedy in this photo during a tea for the Special Committee for White House Paintings.

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Finding Furniture

She felt that the rooms were furnished with pieces of furniture that lacked distinction and the history they should, in a place as special as the White House. In the end the restoration of the White House cost $2 million, covered most of the family rooms of the second floor, nearly all the public floors on the State Floor and set a precedent of high standards of style for the residence.

The Kennedys established the White House Historical Association and got the White House declared a museum in order to help preserve it. They also added a curator to the White House staff. The Fine Arts Committee was formed with du Pont as the chairman. Jackie originally hoped to borrow antique furniture from du Pont’s Winterthur mansion turned museum and he came on board because of his expertise in American historical decoration. Winterthur is one of the largest homes in the country, check out the other 49.

Photo: Via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

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White House’s First Curator

Lorraine Waxman Pearce, who died in 2017, served as the first curator of the White House. She helped find many of the pieces that became part of the rooms Kennedy and the committee restored. She wrote the first guide book to the White House furnishings but she also clashed with Jackie. She resigned in 1962. Pearce’s obituary in the New York Times said that Jackie wrote a note after Pearce left to the new curator, William Voss Elder III, that said having him on the job is “paradise.” Mrs. Kennedy also did not enjoy Pearce’s penchant to make decisions without asking for her approval.

The restoration effort led to the collection of more than 500 new acquisitions for the White House. A law was passed during the Kennedy presidency that anything in the White House will go to the Smithsonian if the first family decides it doesn’t want something in the White House. If your home is beginning to feel like the Smithsonian with all the things you’ve collected through the years, find out what you can easily toss out now.

Photo: Via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

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CBS Jackie White House Tour

Jackie led a guided tour of the White House after the restoration was complete. The Jackie white house tour aired on CBS and NBC on Feb. 14, 1962, and drew 80 million viewers. She received an honorary Emmy for the tour. It’s considered the first prime-time documentary designed to appeal specifically to women.

Photo: Via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

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The Blue Room

Jackie did some historical research and it helped her determine the placement of the French furniture, which President Monroe ordered back in 1818. The room had cream silk wall coverings, blue silk draperies and gold paneling.

Jackie came across a 1946 French magazine article that mentioned the White House once held French Empire-style gilt wood furniture built by Pierre-Antoine Bellangé. She asked staff to find any pieces and they came up with a pier table, which was being used as a sawhorse. It took six weeks to restore it.

They also found a bust of George Washington in a men’s room and placed it in the Blue Room. They put both pieces exactly where James Monroe had placed them while he served as president.

Refurbishing antiques can be a rewarding endeavor, just like discovering 80 amazing items you can repurpose at home.

Photo: Via White House Historical Association

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Diplomatic Reception Room

Jackie and her group added new wallpaper to the Diplomatic Reception Room. It wasn’t just any kind of wallpaper, though. It was antique French scenic wallpaper made by Jean Zuber et Cie from 1834. The wallpaper is called Scenes of North America and it shows images of Boston Harbor, West Point and Niagara Falls. The restoration gave the White House a timeless feel but your home can look dated if you don’t get rid of these things.

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State Dining Room

In the State Dining Room there were two portraits, one of Daniel Webster and one of Thomas Jefferson, on loan from the Boston Museum of Fine Art. A third of Abraham Lincoln hangs above the fireplace. All three works were done by George Peter Alexander Healy. Du Pont and Boudin suggested that the State Dining Room emphasize the work of Charles Follen McKim, whose firm McKim, Mead & White did much of the renovation of the White House in 1902.

The room’s paneling was repainted bone white while the chandelier and sconces were regilded. The fireplace mantel was replaced with a replica of the 1902 Buffalo mantel that had been in place prior. McKim’s tables were painted to look like white marble with gold veining. New carpet was added and Chiavari chairs by McKim, Mead & White replaced Chippendale reproduction chairs. Jackie added plain tulip-shaped crystal glasses she liked from the Morgantown Glassware Gild of West Virginia as well. The way the room was set changed, too. The Kennedys moved away from a horseshoe shape of table arrangements to rounds for better socializing.

Create a timeless look with these interior design tips.

Photo: Via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

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The Red Room

The Red Room is typically the room guests move to following the dining room and this is how it appeared in 1960.

Photo: Via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

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The Red Room

The Red Room was almost completely designed in a French style. Revamps included pinkish-red silk upholstery for the wall. The room held a gueridon, a small table with a circle top that is supported by columns or by human sculptures or mythological figures. There are sofas that belonged to Dolley Madison and George Washington’s granddaughter, Nelly Custis. Jackie brought in a French empire chair that was in White House storage and carpet woven in France was donated after Andre Meyer funded it in exchange for a meeting with Jackie. A French chandelier from 1820, French bouillotte table lamps and French torch lamps were also brought in. Window treatments of straight panels of cerise silk suspended from a gilded wood rod and rings got added, too. Here are 10 really cool ideas to update your window treatments.

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The Green Room

The refurbishing of the Green Room in the White House turned out to be one of the few places the Fine Arts Committee, du Pont and Boudin found agreement. The wall coverings Jackie chose were a moss-colored silk with a moire pattern.

A mirror from George Washington made its way to the Green Room as did many other pieces of antique furniture. A sofa once own by Daniel Webster became part of the room. Maurine Noun from Des Moines, Iowa sent the First Lady a Baltimore lady’s desk. There were only four like it around and it was the first unsolicited piece of furniture the committee received. It was later learned that the desk was not authentic, it had been constructed around 1880. The desk was later removed from the Green Room. An 18th-century English Axminster carpet in a Neoclassical pattern that was donated got placed in the room.

You’d be stunned to find out how much some antique tools have fetched at auction, including the most expensive one in the world.

Photo: Via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

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The Lincoln Bedroom

The committee added a picture of Andrew Jackson to the Lincoln Bedroom, which used to serve as Lincoln’s cabinet room. The committee discovered an engraving of the cabinet room showed a portrait of Andrew Jackson in the room. Lincoln admired Jackson, Kennedy said in the televised Jackie White House tour, and the portrait was placed in the Lincoln bedroom in the spot where it previously hung. The mirror was previously in the Blue Room. This bedroom is not the white house master bedroom.

Here’s the one trick to making wood look old if you want to add some age to your home.

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Treaty Room

The above photo shows what the Treaty Room looked like in 1960.

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Treaty Room

Kennedy decorated the Treaty Room (formerly known as the Monroe Room) to represent Victorian era history. The room included dark green, burgundy and gold. Kennedy and the committee reintroduced a table and chairs that belonged to President Grant and brought in an electrified gas chandelier that used to stand in the East Room. A large, gilded Rococo Revival mirror over the mantel that once hung in the Green Room was brought to the Treaty Room. The room had drapery based on a design during Lincoln’s era.

A table desk that once belonged to Julia Grant, the wife of Ulysses S. Grant, was also placed in the room after the committee received it as a gift. The committee also found the chair that Lincoln sat on for the Healy portrait and placed it in the room.

The committee also placed Theobald Chartran’s painting Signing of the Peace Protocol Between Spain and the United States, August 12, 1898 in the room along with copies of framed treaties signed in the White House. You’ll want to know these 13 hacks for hanging a picture next time you need to do it.

Photo: Via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

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China Room

This is how the room appeared in 1960.

Photos: Via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

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China Room

Boudin had the China Room’s paneling glazed in three shades of gray. Corner brackets in the display cabinet doors were removed and the interior was lined with red cotton velvet. The floor was carpeted with a snowflake pattern and gray velvet drapes, trimmed with red and white silk fringe were hung.

Photo: Via White House Museum

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Family Dining Room

The Kennedys had the molding removed in the above photo, which is from 1952, and had the walls organized into a series of upper and lower panels. In the next photo, the window height was lowered and coupled with the molding removal, made the room feel bigger. These 15 tips can make a small room feel bigger, too.

Photo:Via National Archive

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Family Dining Room

The walls got painted a soft yellow and yellow silk curtains were added. A late Louis XVI green marble mantelpiece with a white marble festoons and an eagle was installed. The baseboard trim was painted to match the green marble of the mantel. The table and chairs came from the Federal period and early 19th-century furniture pieces got placed in the room. If your home is in need of a coat of painting make sure you see these 29 painting tool hacks to get rolling.

Photo:Via National Archive

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White House Master Bedroom

Jackie decorated the white house master bedroom in powder blue and white. She added a portrait of Caroline and a terra-cotta bust of a child on the mantelpiece. She also had the double beds pushed together. We can only imagine what her closet looked like but here are 12 gorgeous walk-in closets that will get you jealous all the same.

Photo: Via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

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President’s Dining Room

Jackie transformed the Lincoln Bedroom into the President’s Dining Room. It’s one of the few rooms where she didn’t use Boudin’s design ideas. She picked the design Dorothy “Sister” Kinnicutt Parish developed. She wanted a smaller, more intimate dining space for her and her young family. An old dressing room became a kitchen.

The wallpaper came from France and is known as “Scenes of Revolutionary America.” The wallpaper has since been removed. Blue and green silk drapes were hung to match the wallpaper and the window treatments were green silk with gold bullion fringe.

A rug from Turkey covered the floor while an Empire-style chandelier hung from the ceiling.

Federal-style antiques furnished the room and the family sat at a Sheraton pedestal dining table. They ate with silverware purchased by Andrew Jackson in 1833. Bet you can’t guess the kind of pet Jackson kept around and what it did at his funeral.

Photo: Via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

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Vermeil Room

The Vermeil Room in the White House holds the vermeil along portraits of First Ladies and while Jackie was First Lady she used it to display flowers and fruit. This picture shows the room as a work in progress in 1963. Boudin scrubbed down the walls with wire brushes to bring up the grain of the wood and create an aged look. He painted it off-white and added a coating of blue paint. The shelves were the vermeil were displayed were covered with white velvet and a neoclassical Caryatid mantel was installed. That mantle is still in place. White damask drapes with blue and off-white fringe trim were added and blue and white patterned carpet was chosen. The room also got a gilded chandelier and became more of a gallery room.

Photo: Via John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

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Yellow Oval Room

The Yellow Oval Room is on the second floor of the White House is used to for small receptions and to greet heads of state before state dinners.

While the Kennedys were in the White House it was used as a drawing room. Jackie had it painting a soft yellow and brought in a pale yellow oval carpet. Oriental rugs topped the carpet. Sister Parish designed the room initially and then Boudin added some touches to it. Boudin replaced the furniture with French antiques from the 18th and 19th centuries in the Louis XVI style. Two green marble columns were made to hold antique, electrified candelabras.