By PENELOPE GREEN


Ever since Mary Todd Lincoln overshot the White House decorating budget by $6,700 (a third of her $20,000 appropriation), infuriating her husband and delighting a press corps that had already turned against her, the redecoration of the president’s house has been a public relations minefield. Some new administrations tiptoe through it unscathed; others are less nimble.

“In presidential decor,”said William Seale, a White House historian,“one must remember the public eye is fixed on everything you do.”

Barack Obama’s transition team has not responded to inquiries about his interior design plans, so one can only speculate about how the Obamas will make their stylistic mark on the White House.

Perhaps, as the comedian Andy Borowitz suggested on the phone recently, they will follow the template the presidentelect has laid out for his cabinet appointments.“That whole team-of-rivals approach,”Mr.Borowitz said,“so instead of one decorator there will be eight: four Republicans and four Democrats, none of whom can stand each other, and he’ll make them each do a room.”

While Congress budgets $100,000 in household transition costs for every new administration, if the Obamas spend more than that - and most first families do - they will have to cover the expense of decorating their private quarters with private donations. In addition, they can’t change the public rooms without the approval of a committee of preservationists.

They would also be wise to remember that appearances do matter: Jimmy Carter’s earth-toned Oval Office read as both homespun and dreary (never mind that his predecessor, Gerald Ford, had chosen the decor and Mr.Carter was saving money by not redecorating), and the cost of Nancy Reagan’s china ($210,399) was seen as extravagant (though the china was a private donation and considered a necessity - before then, state dinners were served on a mix of patterns because there wasn’t enough of one set to go around). The Kennedy White House was too French; the Clintons’, too Arkansas. In recent history, only the preppy Bushes (both 41 and 43) have escaped decorating derision.

Washington observers like Arianna Huffington predict no decorating pitfalls for the presidentelect and his family, just another“teachable moment”for the rest of us.

“There have been a lot of these with the Obamas,”Ms.Huffington said,“like learning to get along with your mother-in-law and not holding grudges.”She imagines organic cotton curtains and nontoxic cleaning supplies.

For his part, Mr.Borowitz wondered if Michelle Obama might take“that victory dress and upholster a couch with it.”

“By repurposing it,”he said,“she could show how thrifty she was.”

“Money is important,”he continued.“ I’m sure there are some other people who have lost their presidents’jobs in other countries who are putting their things on Craigslist. If Hugo Chavez gets defeated, maybe they could have his stuff.”