Christine Blau 
Interior designer Sheila Bridges has been tapped to style the formal home for Kamala D. Harris and Doug Emhoff, the vice president’s office can verify. The project, a yearlong renovation that was completed at the stop of 2022, was a reimagining of an 1893 Victorian dwelling that sits on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory.
As the designer guiding Monthly bill Clinton’s Harlem workplace and the previous dwelling of a condition Supreme Courtroom justice, Bridges, an ELLE DECOR A-Lister, is used to earning a mark on American design. With an remarkable customer Rolodex that incorporates tunes mogul Andre Harrell and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, the Harlem-centered designer is known for her witty classicism and lush layout eye that concurrently honors and reimagines historical past.
The residence of the vice president on the grounds of the United States Naval Observatory on Thursday, March 23, 2017, in Washington, D.C.
Harris and her spouse moved into the residence in Northwest Washington, D.C., in April 2021 next the completion of renovations. The Queen Anne–style dwelling functions 33 rooms, a large veranda, a pool, and a sunroom—all areas that have been inhabited by seven former vice presidents who have just about every added enhancements. Dan and Marilyn Quayle additional a heated pool for the duration of the George H.W. Bush administration the Cheneys upgraded an upstairs galley kitchen area during George W. Bush’s tenure the Bidens, when serving under President Barack Obama, produced an apple-green sunroom and Mike and Karen Pence put in a basketball court docket and a beehive. Now Bridges has supplied the 128-yr-old dwelling its most current makeover.
The transient was to make a room that felt cozy nonetheless was amenable to internet hosting occasions this kind of as Diwali celebrations, armed forces relatives receptions, and Latino small-business-operator gatherings, claimed the Washington Post’s Jura Koncius, who broke the tale earlier nowadays. Building the key flooring, which is typically employed for formal receptions and dinners, Bridges chosen furnishings generally made by American designers and producers. She opted for a mostly neutral palette, but not with out lively colour moments all through: A perky pink wallpaper-lined library functions as an extension of the crape myrtle tree blossoms just over and above. “It’s vital to have a dialogue amongst the landscape, architecture, and inside,” she instructed the Washington Put up.
It stays to be noticed if Bridge’s signature Harlem Toile—which she created 17 several years in the past, a remix of the classic pattern with lively scenes of African American life—will make a cameo in the household, be it by means of her most recent Shade Retail outlet collaboration or her decorative Wedgwood fantastic china selection or some thing totally new.
Bridges labored with furnishings that was in storage from the home’s official furnishings collection, as perfectly as pieces that have been by now in the residence or owned by the family. Although previous people have had a refurbishing funds that came from the Vice President’s Home Basis, all project prices ended up provided by the family’s non-public resources, the Washington Put up verified.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory for a doing work breakfast, in Washington, D.C., on July 15, 2021.
Bridges is fast developing herself as a single of the most important decorators working in The usa these days. She starred in a groundbreaking early-2000s Tv set clearly show Sheila Bridges: Designer Dwelling and introduced merchandise lines in household furniture, tableware, and window shades. She was anointed “America’s Greatest Interior Designer” by CNN and Time magazine and is a recurring ELLE DECOR A-Listing denizen. She also authored two books, Furnishing Ahead — A Useful Information to Furnishing for a Lifetime and The Bald Mermaid: A Memoir, the latter a sassy go through that chronicles her working experience with alopecia. But accolades apart, her get the job done speaks for itself: Her vibrant, layered houses in Harlem Hudson, New York and Reykjavik, Iceland, had grow to be her calling card lengthy in advance of she experienced garnered an outstanding portfolio of distinguished purchasers who wished that Bridges-je-ne-sais-quoi.
Assistant Electronic Editor
Rachel Silva, the Assistant Digital Editor at ELLE DECOR, addresses style, architecture, tendencies, and anything to do with haute couture. She has formerly composed for Time, The Wall Avenue Journal, and Citywire.
