HE’S DON ‘DRAPER’
Inside Trump’s W. House revamp
President Trump may be building a wall, but first he had to tear down the drapes.
The 45th president has launched his first term by ditching Barack Obama’s crimson curtains, bringing back a bust of Winston Churchill and hanging a portrait of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office.
He has also replaced his predecessor’s rug with one President Ronald Reagan walked across on a daily basis (and not, as was previously reported, with a rug Laura Bush had commissioned for her husband, George W. Bush).
The changes “send a message that there’s a new administration in town,” said Kate Andersen Brower, author of the book “First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies.”
Trump has been bucking presidential traditions, and interior decor seems to be no exception.
While incoming first families typically start mapping out changes to the White House living quarters and Oval Office weeks before inauguration, Trump still has not announced a designer.
Traditionally, the first lady works with a decorator and White House Curator Bill Allman to “shop” at a climate-controlled, 40,000-square-foot storage facility in Riverdale, Md., which contains furniture and art dating back centuries.
“Every first lady gets to go to this warehouse. Laura Bush told me it was her favorite thing to do,” Andersen Brower told The Post.
The White House would not confirm whether First Lady Melania Trump — who has said she is not moving to Washington for the time being — has or will be touring the facility or oversee- ing a White House makeover, but there are thousands of pieces available for the choosing.
“It’s a historic record of everything that has been used in the White House over the last 200 years,” former White House cu- rator Betty Monkman told The Washington Post in 2009. “We have furniture from the Blue Room dating back to James Buchanan’s time in the mid-19th century.”
Among the items are Teddy Roosevelt’s rugs, Harry S. Truman’s nightstand and a large table given to Truman in 1952 by then-Philippine President Elpidio Quirino.
Lyndon Johnson used the table in the West Wing lobby — but decided to remove it after getting annoyed that reporters and photographers used it as a repository for hats and equipment.
The first family can also borrow any painting from any American national museum, including the National Portrait Gallery and all other branches of the Smithsonian, to display in the living quarters or the West Wing.
Kenneth Blasingame was hired by President George W. and Laura Bush when their family moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2001.
“In the residence [space], you have free rein, but you are dealing with so much space, so you have to deal with it practically or it’s just a lot of money to spend,” Blasingame told The Post.
Each president is given an allowance — and since the Bill Clinton administration, it has been $100,000 — to redecorate, although Reagan and Obama used private funds instead.
While combing through the storage facility for the Bushes, Blasingame came across a pair of green leather couches from the Grant administration and thought they would be perfect for the Treaty Room.
“Laura didn’t care for them,” he recalled.
But history triumphed over style. Her husband “loved the idea” of them having been President Ulysses S. Grant’s, and so the green couches made their return to the Executive Mansion.
Some families bring their own furniture to the White House, while others put their personal stamp on the place. Nancy Reagan spent $200,000 on new china, while Michelle Obama added furniture from accessible retailers Anthropologie and Pottery Barn.
“Michelle tried to mix high and low in the same way she did with her fashion,” Andersen Brower said.
Typically, staffers move the first family’s items, including those from the archives, into the White House during the Inauguration Day festivities, although the Trump administration hasn’t confirmed whether it has followed suit.
In any case, Trump — who obviously loves a gilded touch — seems happy with his new digs.
“It’s a beautiful residence,” he told The New York Times last week. “It’s very elegant.”