An expensive rug that Nancy Reagan helped design and left behind in the Oval Office as "an attractive asset" is now relegated to a government storeroom, supposedly because President Bush doesn't like it.
"It was not terribly attractive. The president (Bush) did not like it." said larry Hokanson, president of a Houston company that make a $28,550 rug as a replacement.The new rug was installed on Friday as part of a $62,470 refurbishing of the Oval Office, which also included new draperies, a Chinese-style mahogany coffee table, reupholstered high-back armchairs and a pair of new, three-cushion sofas.
The Reagan rug, two years in the design and making, had been purchased at a cost of $49,625 by an anonymous donor at Mrs. Reagan's request. The first lady had worked with the White House curator and White House Historical Associatin to design the rug at a donor.
The rug, dcorated with 40 custom-dyed colors with a predominant theme of peach, or coral, was installed in June 1988 while the Reagans were in Moscow. It placed a 12-year-old rug.
White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater, the press secretary for both Reagan and Bush, had said 18 months ago that the Reagans "wanted to leave an asset to the White House and they felt this would be an attractive asset."
On Monday, Fitzwater said that Bush "is pleased with his new decorations. It think they are beautiful."
"Most presidents put their own imprimatur on their office," said Alixe Glen, White House deputy press secretary.
Mark Weinberg, a spokesman for the Reagans, declined comment about the replacement.
The new rug, made with the assistance of New York interior decorator Mark Hampton, measures 30 feet, 10 inches long by 23 feet, 5 inches wide. Like the old one, the new rug is oval.
"Normally, the designing process takes a couple months and the normal manufacturing time is about 16 to 18 weeks, but because of the prestige of this, we cut all that back to two weeks on designing and 2 1/2 months on production," Hokanson said.
He said every stitch of the all-wool rug was done with a hand-guided, electric-powered needle and that 20 to 30 people were involved in the production and design.
The new rug has a gray-blue field that centers the coat-of-arms from the presidential seal, delineated in shades of gold on an ivory ground. There is a border of gold rods tied with blue ribbons, also on an ivory ground.
The White House statement said the border's design was "derived from the fasces, a classical Roman symbol of the governing authority which apperars as the carved molding above the Oval Office doorways."