A little nugget awaited me in my Architectural Digest newsletter from this weekend: A tour of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s DC home!
The home, located off Massachusetts Avenue behind the British Embassy, is as you’d expect: tasteful and refined, with Oriental rugs and thoughtful knick-knacks a plenty, with landscapes grounds and pool where HRC swims laps. Yet, just like the Clintons, there are some delightful doses of wackiness sprinkled throughout. Here are five things we learned from the article, which ran Thursday:
1. The Clintons are connoisseurs of Pierce Brosnan’s art
Yes, that Pierce Brosnan, the Pierce Brosnan of shaken-not-stirred martinis and Mamma Mia vocal warbling. This delightful piece of information is buried deep within the slides of the home, where a corner of the Clinton’s dining room is pictured with said painting. “We actually have two piece of his work,” Clinton is quoted as telling Architectural Digest, which is amazing because that might make the Clintons the foremost collectors of Brosnan art in the world.
Last year, Brosnan auctioned his painting of Bob Dylan for over $1 million, so there’s no telling how much this one is worth. (Plus, if you hang a painting above a Chihuly statue, it’s not gonna be a velvet Elvis, you know?)
2. The Clintons do not f*ck around with raccoons
Hillary and Bill have issues with raccoons infiltrating their backyard koi pond and eating the fish, according to the article, which is maybe their fault for being bougie enough to have a koi pond.
“We figured out a way to scare them with lights and sound,” Hillary told AD, which gives us just a small enough amount of information as to be totally fascinating. What does she mean by light and sound? Did Bill goofily wave a flashlight around while Hillary screamed and bashed rocks together? Or were the lights and sound more of the electronic variety, making this essentially into a koi pond-side rave for raccoons?
3. The Clintons freaking love Benjamin Moore paint
I counted three references to the Clintons using Benjamin Moore paint in their home, which any suburban dweller can find in their neighborhood big-box hardware store. Dynastic politicians, they’re just like us!
4. The Clintons want you to know everything is fine. Just fine, okay???
Anyone who’s had access to TV in the last 20 years knows that the Clintons haven’t always had the most…harmonious of marriages. But, lest you think otherwise, HRC is not here to make petty asides about Bill. Nope. No way. Don’t you even think about it.
“We’ve had it for many years. Someone who looked at it remarked and laughed: If you look at the cloud or smoke in the back, it looks like a comic profile of my husband,” Clinton tells Architectural Digest of a painting in their home. “But that’s not why I bought it.” Uh-huh. Whatever you say, Hilly.
5. The Clintons have a wild side
Or as wild as two power suit-wearing septuagenarians can be. Case in point: The coral backspace in the kitchen, about which the Clinton’s interior designer Rosemarie Howe tells Architectural Digest, “The wonderful tiler allowed me to just be insane.” Coral tile! My, insane you are, Rosemarie!
Oh, and also these velvet tiger-print armchairs, which, yes, are also the same fabric you’d probably find covering the seats in a 1970s porn star’s stretch limo. Rawr! Definitely Bill’s pick.
Mimi Montgomery joined Washingtonian in 2018. She’s written for The Washington Post, Garden & Gun, Outside Magazine, Washington City Paper, DCist, and PoPVille. Originally from North Carolina, she now lives in Del Ray.
