Re: White House oval office re-decorated by gay designer: out with that ugly Dubya sunburst rug and those hideous Pickles plates!

Funny but all the comments I have read think the makeover of the office makes it look like a Holiday Inn Express lobby.   Even the gay websites don't like it.   And the quote from Teddy Roosevelt really doesn't say what he thinks it says.  He pulled the quote from the middle of a statement that is the exact opposite of what this quote says.   But then the quotes probably came from a list that some academics pulled together and Zero chose one from col A and one from col B.

On 09/02/2010 03:52 PM, Tommy News wrote:

White House oval office re-decorated by gay designer: out with that ugly Dubya sunburst rug and those hideous Pickles plates! -T

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audacity of taupe: Designers, pundits rate Oval Office redo

Obama's ceremonial office makeover mostly draws yawns

By Penelope Green

updated 9/2/2010 11:11:48 AM ET

 

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The Oval Office has been tweaked, in a makeover orchestrated by the California decorator Michael Smith. In response, television audiences and the blogosphere seemed to produce a collective yawn: too brown, too dowdy, too ho hum, they pronounced as one.

It is a subtle redo: The desk is still Resolute, a gift from Queen Victoria to Rutherford B. Hayes, built from pieces of a salvaged Arctic discovery vessel. (With the exception of Johnson, Nixon and Ford, every president has used it.) The gold silk damask curtains installed by Barack Obama's predecessor are also unchanged.

What is new? A rug woven with quotations from Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and others; two fawn-colored cotton-rayon sofas; two elegant midnight-blue lamps by Christopher Spitzmiller; and an extremely contemporary mica coffee table from Roman Thomas, a New York furnituremaker.

Some context: Mr. Smith, 45, has made lushly elegant, grown-up rooms for moguls like Peter Chernin, the former president and chief executive of the News Corporation, and Howard Marks, chairman of Oaktree Capital, as well as Hollywood demi-celebrities like Cindy Crawford and Gigi Levangie Grazer, the novelist and ex-wife of the producer Brian Grazer. Though known for being tight-lipped and protective of his clientele, Mr. Smith was an interesting choice for the Obamas, being neither too establishment, nor too local — too Chicago. (Someone close to him said that the connection was through a Chicago client who was a big supporter of the president.)

Though no taxpayer money was spent — there is a fund fed by private donations for White House décor — there were the inevitable howls of protest on the timing and the taste. Yesterday morning, Ann Curry, the "Today" show anchor, greeted her guest Margaret Russell, the new editor of Architectural Digest and a close friend of the press-shy Michael Smith, by reading a few snarky viewer comments.

"She said someone said it looked like a law office in a strip mall," Ms. Russell said later. "I said, 'Oh, my gosh, that's just mean.' Everyone is a critic and everyone is a decorator. That room is quintessentially American. America is not gilded or glitzy or fancy-pants. Although it is a public room and everyone feels the need to comment on it, it is also the president's office and he can do whatever he wants to it."

And anyway, Ms. Russell added fiercely, "In our business, the client is always right, and from what I've heard, the client is happy."

More:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38971686/ns/today-white_house/

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Tommy

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