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When President Obama addressed the nation about Iraq on Tuesday evening, he did so from newly redecorated surroundings. The look is angular and modern — it evokes the feel of a den — and tends toward neutral hues of browns and taupe, rather than the gold and yellow tones favored by President George W. Bush.

Gone is the sunburst rug Mr. Bush loved so much, which was designed by his wife, Laura, and which he often said expressed his spirit of optimism.

In the rug’s place is a muted, mostly wheat and cream carpet featuring the presidential seal in the center and ringed with five quotations selected by Mr. Obama — four from former presidents (Lincoln, Kennedy and the Roosevelts) and one from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Mr. Bush’s yellow brocade sofas have been replaced with two custom-made couches of brown cotton that looks like velvet, woven with red, white and blue threads.

The couches face a boxy coffee table made from American walnut and mica, with a fruit bowl — not flowers — as its centerpiece. Among the couch pillows, a lone navy blue pillow pulls in the blue from some new ceramic table lamps.

There is new wallpaper, gold and yellow striped. The portraits of Lincoln and Washington have remained in their places, as has the grandfather clock.

Mr. Obama reupholstered Mr. Bush’s two mahogany chairs in caramel-colored leather and kept the desk, called the Resolute, that every chief executive since President Rutherford B. Hayes — except Presidents Johnson, Nixon and Ford — has used, though some used it in the White House residence.

The makeover was not done at taxpayer expense. The White House said costs were covered by the nonprofit White House Historical Association, through a contribution from the committee that paid for Mr. Obama’s inauguration.

The administration will not disclose how much the redesign cost, except to say the price was “in line with” what Mr. Obama’s two most recent predecessors had spent. (President Bill Clinton’s Oval Office had a bright blue rug and couches striped in candy cane white and red.)

Still, given the hard economic times facing the nation, Mr. Obama is bound to face questions, chief among them, Why now?

When he arrived for work at the White House in January of last year, the president said he thought the office was fine and saw no need for new furnishings.

And when he unveiled his budget the next month, Mr. Obama cautioned that the government would have to make hard choices about spending.

“There are times where you can afford to redecorate your house,” the president said then, “and there are times where you need to focus on rebuilding its foundation.”

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This post was submitted by Harshit Agrawal.

Thanks to www.nytimes.com