Vermeil Room

The Vermeil Room (/ˈvɜːrməl/ VUR-məl; French: [vɛʁˈmɛj]) is located on the ground floor of the White House, the official residence of the president of the United States.

On the west wall, McKim installed a Colonial Revival mantel with paired Tuscan Doric columns and bas-relief medallions with American eagles similar to the one found in the seal of the president of the United States.

The style of wall paneling and bracketed molding installed during the Truman reconstruction were based on a Georgian period model, contemporary with the design of the White House exterior.

Biddle was the daughter of William Boyce Thompson and the wife of A. J. Drexel Biddle, Jr. At first, only displayed in the Vermeil Room in a museum-like setting, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, on the recommendation of her friend Rachel Lambert Mellon, began using the collection for the display of flowers and fruit in the rooms on the state floor.

During the Kennedy White House restoration, interior designer Stéphane Boudin proposed painting the room in a style used in 17th and 18th century England and Normandy.

This was sealed using a bar of wax dabbed in pure dry blue pigment, and finally, the surface was lightly distressed to tiny specks of white in the underlying base coat.

The White House: An Historic Guide (1964) shows an architectural cross-section of Boudin's blue Vermeil Room.

A late 19th-century English crystal chandelier was installed, and the room was furnished with two Federal-style sofas and an Empire pier table between the windows on the south wall.

An 1829 center table in the late neoclassical style by Philadelphia cabinetmaker Anthony Gabriel Quervelle was placed in the room.