Obama wrongly attributes quotes on his new Oval Office rug to Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln

The quotations attributed to Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King in the wheat-coloured carpet in fact came from reformist and abolitionist Theodore Parker.

Laid-back elegance' to Oval Office redo

Congressional opponents, stubborn diplomats or wary heads of state, beware: The new Oval Office sofas look so comfy, you just might be lulled into a few reckless compromises.

NYT: Designers, pundits rate Oval Office redo

NYT: Ho-hum Oval Office? Arianna Huffington, Ann Coulter and top designers react to the makeover unveiled this week. New York Times - Huffington Post - Politics - Ann Coulter - People

Churchill out, Martin Luther King in as President Obama revamps Oval Office

While the president and his family were away on vacation in Martha's Vineyard, workers installed new wallpaper, a new rug, new chairs, lamps and a coffee table.

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The Audacity of Taupe

THE Oval Office has been tweaked, in a makeover orchestrated by the California decorator Michael Smith. In response, television audiences and the blogosphere seemed to produce a collective yawn: too brown, too dowdy, too ho hum, they pronounced as one.