Here’s How The White House Master Bedroom Has Changed Over Time

Flickr | Tom Lohdan

The President and First Lady have to sleep sometime. Out of the 132 rooms located in the White House, the master bedroom has gone through the most changes. For some presidents, the current master bedroom wasn’t even a bedroom.

Business Insider recently published an informative video detailing all of the changes to the master bedroom.

Located on the second floor, the master bedroom was first used by President Abraham Lincoln and First Lady Mary Todd. What’s ironic: Lincoln himself never slept in the famous Lincoln bed, since that was reserved for guests. Mary Todd slept in the room next door, which is called the Living Room today.

Here’s a look at Benjamin Harrison’s bedroom in 1893:

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Library of Congress

For the next one hundred years, there wasn’t much upkeep on the design until Harry S. Truman was in office. From 1948 to 1952, the room underwent massive renovations. They updated and expanded the room that used to be the living room and turned it into a sitting room.

Jackie Kennedy used that expanded room as her private master bedroom in the early 1960s, while JFK stayed in the room next door. She wanted the room to remind her of her home in Georgetown. She even had the curtains copied from her last place of residence.

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JFK Library

Mamie Eisenhower covered the room in pink, and Lady Bird Johnson did some more redecorating while her husband was in office. And Nancy Reagan had hand-painted Chinese bird wallpaper covering the entire suite. That wallpaper didn’t sit well with the Clintons, as they tore it down, according to their White House interior designer.

Images from within the Obama’s private quarters were recently published in Architectural Digest (though bedrooms are not featured). Check out some of their private spaces below:

Only time will tell how President-Elect Donald Trump may choose to change his living quarters.

Learn more about the White House second floor in this video from the White House Historical Association:

Curiosity, Design & Architecture, Home
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