Michael S. Smith Furnishes the Obamas' Working Rooms at the Chicago Presidential Center

The newest address on Chicago's South Side now has its interiors on the record. Michael S. Smith, among the most sought-after decorators in the country, has completed the private offices of Barack and Michelle Obama inside the presidential center rising there. Elle Decor was given the first walk-through of the rooms. These are not public galleries but the working quarters of the former president and first lady, the spaces where the two will actually sit, read and receive. Smith's brief, as Elle Decor describes it, was to make rooms that feel at once settled and forward-looking, suited to a couple with a long second act ahead of them. For readers who follow how the best American houses are finished, the pairing of this designer with this client on this site is the news.

With reporting from Elle Decor.