The Chintz Room was one of the finest of the six primary bedchambers at Mount Vernon.
Located on the second floor in the southwest corner, it overlooked the front entrance to the mansion, the bowling green, and the vista to the west. Architecturally, a closet and a boldly-carved mantel with dramatic curves and spirals set this room apart from the others. The room’s furnishings were inspired by the decorative arts of Asia, communicating the western fascination with the perceived luxury and splendor of eastern cultures.
After several years of research, work, and collaboration with colleagues and craftsmen throughout the country, the restoration and refurnishing of the Chintz Room, formerly known as the Nelly Custis Room, is complete.
Today, as we seek to better represent Mount Vernon as George Washington designed it, we are returning to the “Chintz Room” as the formal name.
The 1800 inventory conveniently names the five prints that were hung in the Chintz Room. While none of the originals survive, the curators were able to identify and reproduce these for display here.
Few of the original furnishings that were used in the Chintz Room survive. Curatorial staff chose period furniture and some reproductions to represent what was in the room in 1799 based on the probate inventory and other documentary evidence.
In the course of the Washingtons’ forty years of residency at Mount Vernon, the Chintz Room housed a wide variety of occupants. Nelly Custis Lewis’s possible occupation of the room would have been a brief, but important, episode in the long history of its use.
Explore the Chintz Room in this 360 degree interactive panoramic.
See the evolution of the Chintz Room from the late 19th century through the present.
The space that would become the Chintz Room began in 1734 with the construction of a one-story frame house for Augustine Washington. That house survives today as the core of the Mansion, although its plan is not completely understood.
There is a popular myth that says closets were rare in the 18th century because they were taxed as rooms. This is just that: a myth (and a persistent one at that). So why are closets so rare in old houses?
