Carved of white marble in France in the Empire style, it and its partner originally were installed in the State Dining Room.

The addition of a new attic story during the Coolidge administration placed great strain on the building's structure.

The Louis XVI style mantel clock is French, c. 1780–85, and was a gift to the American nation in 1954 from President Vincent Auriol of France following completion of the Truman reconstruction of the house (1949–52).

When the Kennedy family first moved into the White House, the Red Room (along with other rooms on the State Floor of the White House) were arranged and decorated using existing items by Sister Parish, Mrs. Kennedy's long-time friend and interior decorator.

[4] The Kennedy renovation was overseen by American antiques autodidact Henry Francis du Pont and French interior designer Stéphane Boudin and his company, Maison Jansen.

[5] Kennedy also established an advisory Committee on Fine Arts made up of museum professionals as well as wealthy individuals interested in antiques.

[7] But because the involvement of a French interior decorator was considered politically unpalatable to the American people, Boudin's role in redecorating the Red Room was not mentioned and the refurbishment was for many years attributed solely to Parish.

The more elaborate of these featured cerise (pinkish-red) silk upholstery for the walls, with a broad band of gold decorative "tape" around the inside of each panel (above the dado rail, below the cornice, and along both sides).

[17] A carpet woven in Aubusson, France, was selected by Kennedy for the floor of the Red Room.

Boudin preferred a French design aesthetic,[18] which emphasized covering as much wall space as possible with paintings.

Boudin suggested straight panels of cerise silk, suspended from a gilded wood rod and rings.

Du Pont proposed a lighter treatment of white cotton voile or muslin, drawn back from the windows with tassels.

Mrs. Kennedy was concerned that du Pont's drapes would require constant pressing in order to look good, and that souvenir-hunters might snip at the tassels and fringe.

In 1971 the room was redecorated by First Lady Pat Nixon with advice from a new White House curator Clement Conger who collaborated with architect and designer Edward Vason Jones.

On the south wall of the room between two windows a large gilded bracket was installed to hold a bust of President Martin Van Buren carved by Hiram Powers.

The 2000 refurbishment of the Red Room led by First Lady Hillary Clinton with advice from the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, and White House curator Betty Monkman retained the general form of Clement Conger's 1971 design.

The color for walls and upholstery was changed to a deeper carmine red that historians considered more typical of nineteenth-century American manufactured textiles.

The most significant recent addition to the Red Room is a tall rectilinear secretary desk attributed to Charles-Honoré Lannuier.

In 1833, during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, the Red Room was host to the second Catholic ceremony in the history of the White House.

[22][23] President Ulysses S. Grant, fearing disruption of the transition of power to Rutherford B. Hayes (because of the latter's contested Election of 1876) had the new president-elect secretly sworn into office in the Red Room the evening before the inauguration.