Mayor Bill de Blasio’s family is refurnishing historic Gracie Mansion — with $65,000 worth of fancy, free furniture from West Elm.
New York’s first family reached out to furniture giant to redesign the museum-like residence into new age digs for a family of four.
The store gladly took them up on their offer — and crowed about the deal on its blog on Wednesday, noting that it donated all of the furniture to the Gracie Conservancy and provided their “lead” home stylist to “partner” with First Lady Chirlane McCray.
The decor is straight out of a design catalog with floor poufs, a blue “Retro Tillary 8-Piece Sectional” that retails for up to $3,000 that’s covered with a hodge podge of accents including a faux fur pillow, two white Lacquer Coffee Table that go for $699 each, modern glass vases, black and white family photos (including a baby picture of the mayor’s 19-year-old daughter Chiara in the bath) in randomly assorted metal picture frames and large globe lanterns hung from the ceiling.
Although the furniture is technically being donated to the Gracie Mansion conservancy to be used by future mayoral families, West Elm has been catering to the family’s height and unique style.
“The First Family’s move represents many of the same challenges all families are faced with – and some that are uniquely special (for one, as is well documented, the entire family is VERY tall),” said West Elm Creative director Vanessa Holden.
“The family’s private rooms needed some thoughtful and purposeful consideration to make the residence comfortable for a modern family,” west elm creative director, Vanessa Holden.
The furniture that is being removed from Gracie Mansion will be returned to the museums that loaned it to the city, according to the mayor’s office. Other pieces will go into museum quality storage.
Some items, like the Kast — the oldest piece of furniture in the house– will be moved to the first floor for viewing by visitors.
The mayoral press office gleefully tweeted about the deal on Wednesday and Chirlane is quoted on the blog saying, “Gracie Mansion will always be the People’s House, but Bill, Chiara, Dante, and I are excited to call it home.
“With assistance from West Elm, we are honoring and preserving one of the nation’s great historic residences, while turning Gracie into a modern living space that fits our family. We’ve moved to a new borough, but we brought some Brooklyn flavor with us.”