The Oval Office Makeover

No doubt, President Obama'saddress to nation about Iraq war is of prime concern to all Americans,Iraqis and international community. But Mr. Obama recent address has a new hottopic for interior designer to talk.

The address was made fromnewly decorated surrounding. The Oval Office has been tweaked, in a makeover orchestratedby the California decorator Michael Smith. In response, television audiencesand the blogosphere seemed to produce collective yawn: too brown, too dowdy. Tooho hum, they pronounced as one.

It is a subtle redo: The desk is still Resolute,a gift from Queen Victoria to Rutherford B. Hayes, builtfrom pieces of a salvaged Arctic discovery vessel. (With the exception ofJohnson, Nixon and Ford, every president since Hayes has used it.) The goldsilk damask curtains installed by Barack Obama’s predecessorare also unchanged.

Present Oval Office

Oval Office used by George W. Bush

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