The Governor’s Mansion

Moving into Georgia’s spacious Governor’s Mansion didn’t require bringing many belongings. Packing their clothes, artwork and china painted by Gov. Nathan Deal’s late mother, and of course, the governor’s leather recliner, the governor and first lady Sandra Deal made themselves at home.

But there was one warning the first lady gave to some of her six grandchildren when the couple moved from the country to Buckhead.

“When my grandchildren first came and I met them at the door, I said: ‘OK, you’ve got to have a tour of this house because you can’t play chase and hide and seek. This is a museum. The things here are precious because we can’t replace them,’ ” she said.

As a full-time resident of the mansion, the first lady has rearranged some furniture, artwork and other items in the public areas on the mansion’s first floor and their second-floor living quarters.

“We use it like the White House is used,” she said. “You have visitors at certain times, and you use it as a family would use a house.”

The first lady also is working with an interior designer (whom she declined to name until the project is complete) who is donating assistance to update their living quarters.

Even visitors, such as a former volunteer docent, have donated items, such as rugs for the upstairs bedrooms that replaced rugs used since the mansion was built in 1967. Sandra Deal provided a glimpse into her favorite items in the mansion, which is open for free tours between 10 and 11:30 a.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER OQUENDO One of the most rare pieces in the mansion is an Old Paris porcelain vase with 24-carat gold gilt (circa 1810) that has a hand-painted medallion of Benjamin Franklin. The vase sits on a Pier Table with a mirror underneath that enabled ladies to check...

ABOVE: The Italian marble fireplace in the State Drawing Room was made in England in 1790. BELOW: The dining room table seats 18. The Deals typically entertain in the dining room once or twice a week, but when they’re not, it’s where two Cabbage Patch...