With more than 132 rooms, the White House is one of the largest homes in the country.
It spans 55,000 square feet across all six of its stories.
Besides the building itself, the fence which separates the lot from those around it is 18 acres.
While the White House is where the current President and their family live, they often aren’t the only ones living in the home.
When they have guests over, you may wonder if those guests have to stay in a hotel or if there’s a room for them.
Here’s what you need to know about the White House and how many bedrooms it has.
How Many Bedrooms Are In The White House?
The White House has 16 guest bedrooms.
To ensure all their guests have the comfort of their own bathroom, it also has a staggering 35 bathrooms.
Most of the bedrooms remain empty save for when the First Family has guests visiting.
Those guests can include family and friends but also foreign dignitaries and ambassadors.
During the Obama Administration, President Obama also allowed everyday citizens to stay in one of the historic rooms for a few nights.
The guests were able to roam the halls of the White House during a specific time and received special passes and passwords that allowed them entry into certain rooms.
The effort behind this was to increase transparency between the White House and the citizens it protects.
However, the guest bedroom experience ended after the Trump administration took office.
What Bedrooms Are In The White House?
The White House has several bedrooms that are famous in history.
These bedrooms tend to receive names based on their history.
Here are two of the most famous bedrooms in the White House.
1. The Queen’s Bedroom
As its name might suggest, this bedroom has seen quite a few Queens during their visits to the White House.
The most recent Queen to visit and stay in the bedroom is Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
Besides her, both Queen Sonja of Norway and Queen Sofia of Spain have stayed in this room.
The room features a Federalist style and harkens to a New England ambiance of the 19th century.
With pink walls, white carpets, and several portraits on the wall, it certainly matches the type of bedroom one might imagine a Queen would stay in.
The bedroom also features the bed of former President Andrew Jackson.
It also has a sitting room attached to it complete with a desk and chair.
There’s also a bathroom that connects to the bedroom that has a Jacuzzi tub and shower.
This bedroom overlooks the North Lawn.
Back during the Obama Administration, this is one of the bedrooms that guests could stay in.
2. The Lincoln Bedroom
A great deal of renovation has gone into this bedroom to restore it to the style in which President Abraham Lincoln would have recognized it.
An example of this restoration is the use of window cornices and mantels.
Although the bed isn’t the same one that Lincoln slept in, it is a replica of the same bed with the same types of features that were popular during that time.
The room does have some authentic pieces from the Lincoln Administration, however.
Some of the sofas, chairs, and slipper chairs are all from his period of Presidency.
One aspect of this room that came as a later addition is a bathroom.
Originally, Lincoln didn’t have a bathroom attached to his bedroom.
During the Truman Administration, the President renovated several of the rooms.
The Lincoln Room was one of those renovation projects.
He added a bathroom that comes with a large tub and a mirrored dome ceiling light.
During the Obama Administration, this was the other room that guests could choose to stay in.
What Other Rooms Does The White House Have?
Although the White House has several bedrooms, it also has a large number of rooms that most people don’t even know about.
Here are some of the least-known rooms of the White House.
1. The Music Room
The Music Room had several purposes before it became the go-to place for Presidents to play music.
Initially, it was a simple sitting room that connected certain junctions of the house.
During President’s Ford Administration, it became a bedroom for Jack Ford.
Whenever Jack visited his father in the White House, he’d have this room to stay in.
Before Jack, the sitting room was also briefly turned into a preschool for John Kennedy, Jr.
The Solarium became a Kindergarten school for his sister, Caroline.
It was during the 1990s that the room had its final renovation.
Bill Clinton became president, and he had a hobby of playing the saxophone.
For his birthday, his wife, Hillary, wanted to give him a place where he could play and have great acoustics.
The out-of-the-way sitting room was a perfect choice.
The renovators sound-proofed it, then turned it into the ideal music room.
Bill Clinton would go on to play his saxophone in the Music Room, as it came to be called, and also filled it with various music memorabilia that he had collected.
Some memorabilia was also gifted to him by other musicians.
Since Clinton, other presidents have also added to the collection of memorabilia.
2. Workout Room
This room also underwent various renovations.
It started as the housekeeper’s suite in the 1930s.
It was mostly used as a sitting room for when the housekeeper had guests of their own.
It’d eventually become a sitting room where people could gather and rest.
During the Truman reconstruction of the room, the workers lifted the corner roof and made it wider.
This made it ideal for a bedroom it eventually became.
During Kennedy’s Administration, Jackie wanted to renovate the bedroom again.
The White House already had a guest bedroom that had a red aesthetic.
She wanted something to complement that, and so she transformed this room into a blue one.
The room would revert to a sitting room in the 1980s.
Finally, in an effort to give both the President and the staff a chance to safely work out within the White House, the Clinton Administration changed it into a workout room.
The Clintons, Bushes, and Obamas have a history of using the room to exercise.
3. The Chocolate Shop
Every home should have a chocolate shop in it, and the White House is no different.
One of the difficulties that the White House often has is feeding its occupants.
With several staff members on hand and guests frequently visiting, the kitchen struggles to cook for as many guests as it does with the small room it has to operate in.
A way to solve this problem was to introduce additional smaller kitchens that could take care of various dishes.
One such kitchen became dessert oriented.
Located in the basement, the Chocolate Shop produces all of the White House’s desserts.
It’s also responsible for the annual Easter Egg Roll.
During every holiday season, the White House also produces a large gingerbread house.
The Chocolate Shop is also responsible for this holiday treat.
4. Bowling Alley
The White House also boasts a bowling alley.
The alley was a gift to President Truman who didn’t particularly enjoy bowling himself.
However, he accepted the construction since he knew the staff would likely want to start a league.
Originally, the alley was in the current-day Situation Room.
When the White House decided it needed a mimeograph room, they moved the alley downstairs.
President Nixon and his wife both loved bowling.
They decided to move the bowling alley underground below one of the driveways.
It was also changed into a single-lane alley.
It’s remained in this location since and several Presidents, friends, and staff members have enjoyed it since.
5. Family Theater
While the White House has a modest theater in it, the space was originally a cloakroom.
Before the East Wing became part of the White House during FDR’s presidency, the room was an optimal area for staff to take the coats, purses, and other belongings from their guests as they entered the White House.
The room was large enough to hold the vast number of coats that the House obtained throughout the day.
After the construction of the East Wing, however, the area was no longer suitable.
FDR decided to turn it into a theater.
While some Presidents have used it to rehearse various speeches, like the State of the Union address, many more prefer to use it for its original purpose.
One of the perks of the job is being able to order a movie at any time.
Some Presidents have even screened movies before they were released into national theaters.
The theater has just over 40 seats.
It was President Eisenhower who furnished the room.
He also included four large armchairs for the President and their family at the front.
The room also featured a floral design, but it was eventually renovated with red paint and gold trim.
6. Map Room
The Map Room was originally a billiard room where Presidents and their guests could play a few rounds of pool.
In some cases, this was also the room where President would receive special doctor visits.
During World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt used this room to track enemy and ally movements throughout the war.
The White House didn’t have a Situation Room at the time, so he turned the billiard room into a map room.
He had several maps that covered various states of the war.
They were even separated by the different theaters of war.
After the war was over, the staff removed most of the maps.
They did, however, leave one.
This was the final map of the war tracking German troops that FDR used just before his death.
After the war, the room fell out of use.
It became a private meeting place where either the President or First Lady could speak privately to a friend, guest, or staff member.
It still retains its name, however, and the last map of World War II still hangs on the wall.
7. The China Room
One of the oldest rooms in the White House is The China Room.
It almost acts as a museum as much as it does a room to display one’s china collection.
Before 1902, the room had served as the bedroom of a fireman that President Van Buren hired.
The fireman was responsible for lighting and stoking the large furnace that is in present-day’s Diplomatic Reception Room.
An extensive remodel in 1902 resulted in this room’s transformation into a cloak room.
Eventually, in 1917, Woodrow Wilson’s wife would go on to officially transform the room into a museum showcasing the various collections of china from presidency to presidency.
It became a tradition among presidents to leave behind a china collection of their own.
Before 1917, it was a habit for the Presidents to sell the presidential auction every year to fund the purchase of new china the next year.
After 1917, at least some part of the china collection has remained.
This harkens back to the very first president, George Washington, whose collection starts at the right of the fireplace.
This room also has two chairs that Washington used during his presidency.
8. Vermeil Room
Another room with a lot of history behind it, and in it, is the Vermeil Room.
Named for its golden silver tones, the room is primarily responsible for showcasing various pieces of silverware and furniture.
Before then, it was a place where the First Lady and her female guests would sit and socialize.
President Hoover would turn the room into a Social Bureau where all their guests could gather before joining either the First Lady or the President in their separate rooms.
This room is also the first choice for many First Ladies when they have their portraits painted.
You can spot the gold-green or gold-silver backgrounds of the room in the background of their portraits.
Conclusion
The White House has so many rooms spanning its six stories.
Some of those rooms are bedrooms whereas many others are bathrooms.
There are also special rooms hidden within the home that serves social, entertaining, or practical purposes for the President, their family, and the various staff members who live there.
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