Yellow Room

In 2020, the closure of the estate for several months and limited reopening of the Mansion provided an unexpected opportunity for Mount Vernon’s preservation and curatorial staff to advance the refurbishment of the second-floor bedroom known to the Washingtons as the Yellow Room. 

Fragments of the original bed and its hangings, Washington’s probate inventory, purchase records, and even the name of the room provided curators with clues to the room’s 1799 appearance. George and Martha Washington’s references to this as the “Yellow Room” indicated the color of upholstery defining the space. The high values assigned in George Washington’s probate inventory identified the bed and furnishings as the finest from any of the home’s bedrooms, heading the list of guest accommodations. Additional evidence revealed that the room’s contents came together during Mansion renovations of 1797, following the Washingtons’ second retirement. 

A reproduction bedstead draped with yellow damask takes center stage in the room, crowned with a damask-covered, carved cornice. This impressive display is a painstaking re-creation of the most valuable bed ensemble owned by the Washingtons, originally acquired by George Washington from London in 1758, as he was expanding the Mansion and making a bid to establish himself as a member of the ruling gentry class in colonial Virginia. The surviving shipping invoice describes in detail the bed and the accompanying suite of furniture, which included window curtains, Gothic-back mahogany chairs, and a bureau dressing table. Portions of the original bedstead’s carved mahogany footposts survive, as well as small fragments of the yellow silk and wool damask, which suggested the brilliance and quality of the original upholstery. These documents and artifacts guided the re-creation by expert craftspeople, Harrison Higgins of Richmond and Natalie Larson of Williamsburg, Virginia.

The resplendent yellow damask drapery is set off by a stately neoclassical striped wallpaper, a reproduction of the fashionable grisaille (gray-scale designs) on yellow paper late 18th–century households occasionally paired with yellow damask suites. Period, carved Gothic-back chairs and a sinuous serpentine dressing table represent other elements of the 1758 suite, while a period basin stand and a reproduction Persian-style carpet stand as furnishings acquired by the Washingtons in 1774 from the neighboring Fairfax family mansion, Belvoir. Reproductions of four landscape prints, purchased by the Washingtons in the 1790s, complete the elegant arrangement, a testimony to the 40-year evolution of Mount Vernon’s interiors and the hospitality the Washingtons offered their most esteemed guests.

The refurbishment of the Yellow Room was supported by the Connoisseur Society; The Brown Foundation, Inc.; Jim and Jo Carol Porter; the George L. Shields Foundation, Inc.; Russell B. Adams, Jr.; and hundreds of donors from across the country.

Learn more about this project, including a blog and a timeline of the room's changes.

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