White House Gets New Carpet

The bare wood floors in the White House Blue Room were covered by the long-awaited oval custom carpet that was missing when the newly renovated room was unveiled Feb. 17.

The primarily sapphire blue-and-gold wool needlepoint weave rug by Stark Carpet with a center medallion of classical motifs replaced a badly worn 19th-century Chinese carpet that had been in the room since 1975.

The new $50,500 carpet, measuring 23.6 feet by 33.1 feet, was paid for by the White House Endowment Fund, a non-profit organization.