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White House Upgrade: First Lady's Done a Lot with the Place

Associated Press

   WASHINGTON - She's done a lot with the place.

   Like anyone who has ever spruced up their home, Melania Trump will have
   a few new touches to showcase Friday when guests visit the White House
   for only the second state dinner of the Trump presidency.

   There's refreshed wall fabric in the Red Room, repurposed draperies in
   the Green Room and restored furniture in the Blue Room. And those are
   just some of the home improvement projects the first lady has overseen
   to keep the well-trod public rooms at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. looking
   their museum-quality best.

   Some of the projects were long overdue.

   Sunlight streaming into the Red Room had left some of the wall fabric
   "so faded it was almost pink," said Stewart McLaurin, president of the
   White House Historical Association, which helps finance upkeep of some
   rooms in the 132-room mansion. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy founded
   the private, nonprofit organization in 1961.

   "Those rooms should always look their very best and it was just very
   faded and really, really needed to be done," McLaurin said.

   Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife, Jenny, and
   guests for Friday's three-course state dinner in their honor should
   have an opportunity to check out the spiffed-up public rooms.

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