Oval Office

The appearance of the Oval Office from 2001 to 2010 used for the presidencies of George W. Bush and early in Barack Obama's term, before Obama redecorated it in 2010.

The Oval Office is the official office of the president of the United States since the West Wing was incorporated to the White House in 1909. The office was first used by President Taft and has since been used by every president ever since.

Almost every President of the United States redecorates the furnishings of the Oval Office, but usually, at the start of their administration, retain the furnishings used by their predecessors. The retired furnishings are very often moved to White House storage facilities for incoming presidents to choose from, or in other rooms in the White House.

The flooring in the current Oval Office has had four different revisions: the first (the cork flooring) being built in 1934 when the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the West Wing (which President Richard Nixon removed in 1969), the second (the linoleum flooring) from the 1969 Nixon renovations, the third, in a cross-parquet pattern, installed by President Ronald Reagan in 1982, and the fourth, the current, which has the same cross-parquet pattern as Reagan's, installed by President George W. Bush in 2005.

Oval Office Media

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  President Joe Biden on the night of his inauguration, 2021

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  President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the Oval Office, 2021

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  President's House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. George Washington's bow window (not depicted) is echoed in the shape of the Oval Office.

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  Theodore Roosevelt Executive Office and Cabinet Room, c. 1904

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  Taft Oval Office, completed 1909. Nearly identical in size to the modern office, it was damaged by fire in 1929 and demolished in 1933.

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  Location of the Oval Office in the West Wing

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  Franklin D. Roosevelt in the newly completed Modern Oval Office, December 31, 1934

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  Plaster ceiling medallion installed in 1934 includes elements of the seal of the president of the United States.

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  Caroline Kennedy and Kerry Kennedy beneath the Resolute desk in 1963. Note the Truman carpet.

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  President Harry Truman receiving a marble bust of Simon Bolivar from a Venezuelan delegation, December 27, 1946