Living: Now, a First Decorator

Flying tape measures — and tempers — at the White House

"It's unbelievable. What more can I say?" So huffed one member of Rosalynn Carter's staff last week, describing Nancy Reagan's eagerness to get 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue fixed up to her tastes. It was not just that the incoming First Lady had toured the White House with the man who is evidently to be the First Decorator, Los Angeles Interior Designer Ted Graber. At a Georgetown party, she told a Carter aide that when she and her husband leave the mansion, as her "legacy" they will move before Inauguration Day, to give their successors an early start on revamping the family quarters. Not surprisingly, and despite denials by Reagan spokesmen, Carter partisans took that as a startling hint for Jimmy and Rosalynn to consider clearing out well before Jan. 20. As it was, the new Administration seemed to be as intent on redecorating as on Cabinetmaking. Reagan aides traipsed in and out of the White House's working areas to size up office space. Tape measure in hand, Graber personally spent two days poring over the living quarters, including the Carters' bedroom. Carter people, who have been rather stung by all the press commentary on the "style" that the Reagans might restore to the capital; snickered gleefully that all the newcomers would bring was "Beverly Hills class." Few other First Families have plunged into redecoration right away. One of the first things the Kennedys intended to do was convert a bedroom to a private dining room, but they did not get around to it for months.

Says James Ketchum, White House curator in the 1960s and now curator of the Senate: "In the instances of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, there was a desire to spend some time getting to know the living quarters before deciding to make changes." The Carters have made very few alterations.

The living quarters comprise 14 rooms, 7½ baths and east and west sitting rooms on the second floor. Graber will focus on the family sitting room, the master bedroom, Nancy's dressing room and office, and a family study. He aims to use some "staggeringly beautiful" early American furniture he found in a Government warehouse. Also, he says, "there will probably be new rugs, new wallpapers and new drapes and paint. The First

Family is just like any other family moving into a new house." Having decorated the Reagans' Pacific Palisades home, he knows Nancy's style: "She's very straight forward. She knows she wants to be comfortable and at home."

The son and grandson of Los Angeles-based antique dealers, Graber, 61, got his start in decorating as a partner of the late William Haines, a favorite of West Coast movie folk known for a kind of Hollywood flamboyance. By contrast, says top New York Designer Mario Buatta, Graber's work shows "more a traditional mixture of today and yesterday; his is definitely not a movie star look."