section_path: Modern Oval Office: 1934–present/Decoration
section_name: Decoration
paragraph_text: Decoration
  
  The basic Oval Office furnishings have been a desk in front of the three windows at the south end, a pair of chairs in front of the fireplace at the north end, a pair of sofas, and assorted tables and chairs. The Neoclassical mantel was made for the Taft Oval Office in 1909 and salvaged after the 1929 West Wing fire. A tradition of displaying potted Swedish ivy (Plectranthus verticillatus) atop the mantel goes back to the mid 20th century, and the most recent plants were rooted from the original plant. The plant was removed from the Oval Office during the start of Donald Trump's second presidency in 2025 and replaced with a collection of gold objects.
  
  A Federal longcase clock, made in Boston by John and Thomas Seymour c. 1795–1805 – commonly known as the Oval Office grandfather clock – was purchased by the White House Historical Association in 1972, and has stood next to the Oval Office's northeast door since 1975.
  
  President Harry S. Truman replaced the Oval Office's 23-year-old dark green carpet in 1947. He had revised the seal of the president of the United States after World War II, and his blue-gray carpet incorporated the 1945 revised seal, represented monochromatically through varying depths of its cut pile. The Truman carpet remained in the office through the Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy administrations. Jacqueline Kennedy 's redecoration of the Oval Office began on November 21, 1963, while she and President Kennedy were away on a trip to Texas. The following day, November 22, a red carpet was installed, just as the Kennedys were making their way through Dallas, where the president was assassinated. Lyndon B. Johnson had the red carpet removed and the Truman carpet reinstalled, and used the latter for his administration. Since Johnson, most administrations have created their own oval carpet, working with an interior designer and the curator of the White House.