Mayoral mansion dresses down for new occupant

[NEW YORK] Mayor Bill de Blasio never looked comfortable amid the formal interiors and ornate staterooms of Gracie Mansion, the museum-like residence where he and his family moved this week. Century-old chandeliers and antique cabinets are not exactly in keeping with the populist de Blasio image.

So to smooth their transition into grander confines, the de Blasios turned to a decorator that better reflected their unpretentious style: West Elm.

A popular Brooklyn-based purveyor of on-trend home pieces, West Elm said on Wednesday that it had donated US$65,000 worth of furniture so New York's first family could reimagine the mansion's upstairs residential quarters.