The appartement du roi or King's Apartment[1] is the suite of rooms in the Palace of Versailles that served as the living quarters of Louis XIV.

Owing largely to the discomfort of the grand appartement du roi and to the construction of the Hall of Mirrors, Louis XIV began to remodel these rooms for his use shortly after the death of Maria Theresa in 1684.

Initially, the appartement du roi consisted of a suite of eight rooms that issued from the Queen's Staircase (escalier de la reine).

On Mondays, a table, dressed with a gold-fringed velvet rug, would be placed in this room, at which Louis XIV would personally accept petitions presented to him by his subjects.

Mirrors, "The Fainting of Ester" and "Judith with the head of Holofernes" by Veronese[13] hung as pendants, and gilt furniture all contributed to making this one of the most sumptuous rooms in the appartement du roi.

[18] When the chambre de Louis XIV was established in 1701, the archways to the Hall of Mirrors were sealed off, and the room became the ideological as well as physical focal point of the palace.

On 6 October 1789, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the Dauphin appeared on the balcony before the mob that forced the royal family to move from Versailles to the Tuileries Palace in Paris.

The over-door paintings included The Portrait of Francisco de Moncada and a Self-portrait by Anthony van Dyck, Saint John the Baptist by Caravaggio, and Mary Magdalene by Guido Reni.

The original alcove and bed hangings were restored in 1736; and, in 1785, Louis XVI ordered the brocade burned from which he obtained over 60 kilograms of gold.

Owing to lack of archival information when the project was undertaken, it was decided to use the pattern for hangings of the tenture d'hiver for the queen's bedroom.

Initially called cabinet du roi from 1684, with the remodeling of the apartment that occurred in 1701, this room received a new decor that featured walls paneled with mirrors.

In addition to the velvet covered council table, there were three armchairs and 12 folding stools and a daybed, which Louis XIV used in 1686 as a necessity while suffering from an anal fistula and the surgery that removed it.

In addition to the collection of gems, there were works by Nicolas Poussin and Giovanni Lanfranco on the walls as well as Harpsichord with a painted case.

The panels were sculpted with symbols appropriate to governance: trophies of peace and war, attributes of the army, navy, justice, and the insignia of the monarchy.