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While the first family of the United States was on vacation at Martha's Vineyard, the historic Oval Office -- the seat of power -- in White House has been renovated and remodelled.
The fresh additions to the office include new reupholstered furniture, new paint, wallpaper and rug with historical quotes, including those from Martin Luther King Jr.
'The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, But it Bends Towards Justice,' reads one of them.
Text: PTI
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Oval Office walls were covered with handmade striped wallpaper produced in Amagansett, New York.
The trim around the Office was re-painted with American-made Benjamin Moore paint custom-mixed by Donald Kaufman Color.
The new rug is donated by a Michigan-based business and paid for by the non-profit White House Historical Association through a contribution from the Presidential Inaugural Committee.
This fund is being used to pay for the design costs of numerous rooms at the White House including Oval Office, Yellow Oval Room, Center Hall and West Sitting Hall.
In fact, the new wheat, cream and blue coloured oval-shaped rug is made of 25 per cent recycled wool.
The rug has the Presidential seal in the centre and historical quotes which hold meaning to President Obama, around the border.
Besides Martin Luther King, the other quotes selected by Obama are Franklin D Roosevelt's "The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself," Abraham Lincoln's "Government of the People, By the People, For the People," and John F Kennedy's "No Problem of Human Destiny is Beyond Human Beings."
Besides, "The Welfare of Each of Us is Dependent Fundamentally Upon the Welfare of All of Us" by Theodore Roosevelt also features on the rug.
The existing furniture in the Oval Office will remain the property of the White House and will be placed in a storage facility.
According to the White House the two mahogany armchairs in front of the fireplace, previously used by President George W Bush, were reupholstered with a caramel-coloured leather.
The White House said both the two previous presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush engaged in "a comparable level of redesign" with funds from their Presidential Inaugural Committees to the White House Historical Association.
The expenditure was "in line with the amount spent by Presidents Clinton and George W Gush on the redesigns of their Oval Office," the White House said.