Clintons Add Some Color to White House : Renovation: Bolder tones, historic objects spruce up family quarters. $396,000 in private donations cover the work.

Almost any family sets out to spiff up their new home when they move, and you can count Bill and Hillary Clinton in that crowd.

The Clintons have announced renovations to the private quarters of the White House that include a revamped private study, a new family kitchen and a touched-up solarium, master bedroom and family room.

As with the Oval Office renovations announced earlier, the Clintons have chosen stronger colors and retrieved a variety of historic objects from storage.

Associate Curator Betty Monkman says the new look “reflects their taste” in the bolder look and the personalized work space for the President.

The results are very Clintonian:

* In keeping with the Clintons’ desire to maintain a normal family life for daughter Chelsea, gone is the butler’s pantry to make way for an “everyday kitchen for family meals.” An expandable breakfast table and chairs have replaced a large wooden island.

* True to the voracious reading habits of the new President, the private study in the historic Treaty Room now includes inlaid walnut bookcases. Such personal objects as photographs and memorabilia are on display.

* Displaying the Clintons’ penchant for bold colors, the light, peachy decor of the Lincoln sitting room has given way to a stronger Victorian look featuring burgundy and gold. In the Treaty Room, pale green has given way to vinyl wallpaper simulating red leather.

* In the most personal quarters, new drapes, upholstery and wallpaper have been added to the third-floor solarium, master bedroom and family room.

The renovations--costing $396,000 from private donations--largely make do with what was already on hand: 73 pieces of furniture and furnishings have been re-covered, 23 pieces conserved, 74 items retrieved from storage, two floors repaired and re-covered. Twenty-eight windows got new curtains; 19 worn carpets were replaced; 11 chandeliers were conserved.

Design consultant Kaki Hockersmith poked through storage facilities at the White House and in Maryland to find promising items, which the Clintons then tried out before deciding which ones should stay, said Neel Lattimore, a spokesman for the First Lady’s office.

He called it a very “hands-on” renovation effort for the Clintons.

“The goal of the President and First Lady was to bring as many artifacts as possible out of storage,” he said. “They take a real interest in showing people around.”

The new items include an 1861 program from the Lincoln Inaugural Ball on display in the entry to the Lincoln sitting room and the addition of the walnut table used at the Israel-PLO peace treaty signing ceremony to the Treaty Room.

The study, Lattimore said, is a mix of the formal and the personal for Clinton.

“It has to be as comfortable for him when he can’t sleep at night as when a visiting head of state is there,” he said.

Lattimore said that the new kitchen speaks to the Clintons’ desire for a normal family life and that the family eats “as many meals there as possible.”

“If you were to walk into that kitchen, you could be walking into any kitchen in America,” he said.

Of course, none of that should be taken as a sign that the White House cooking staff is out of a job. They still do the cooking on a day-to-day basis.