Lancaster designer decorates White House for Christmas -- for second time
For the second year in a row, Julie Walters slipped on a pair of white gloves and gingerly handled priceless relics. They were, after all, national treasures.
First Lady Jackie Kennedy acquired the vermeil relics, items made of silver that are plated with gold, for social events in the White House in the early 1960s. Walters, a Lancaster, S.C., resident, and other designers used those pieces — some of them from 15th century France — in their designs as they decorated the White House for Christmas.
This year, she had it down pat.
“It’s very stressful because you have to be very careful,” Walters said. “You have to wear white gloves because the oil from our skin can tarnish them. And when you’re thinking about these things that are hundreds of years old, you want that history to be preserved.”
Walters was one of 20 volunteer interior designers chosen from thousands of applicants to help decorate President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s house in Washington, D.C. The volunteers worked for 10 days in November and December.
“It was pretty fascinating, but then it’s also stressful and nerve wracking because there are a lot of talented people in this country,” she said.
In the spring of 2019, the then 52-year-old decided to follow her dream of decorating the White House for the holiday.
Walters and a friend, Ann Ferguson, were hanging out on her front porch one day, talking about the upcoming Christmas season and how tartan plaid was making a comeback.
“And we just started talking and I told her I said, ‘you know what, it would be a lifelong dream of mine to decorate’ and she said at the same time, ‘the White House,’” Walters said. “And I said, well you know what, why can’t we do that?”
Walters wanted to step out on a limb and be a shining example for a group of women she worked tirelessly to help, she said.
Walters is the executive director at the non-profit Women’s Enrichment Center in Lancaster. The center helps women facing unplanned pregnancies by offering jobs, parenting classes, training, support with infants and housing. The goal is to keep women from having abortions and to help new mothers have a successful career.
The Women’s Enrichment Center also runs the for-profit Lotus Boutique and Designs, an interior design and clothing shop in Lancaster that funds the center’s programs.
“If I’m here pushing girls and telling them you can be anything you want to be, then I need to be a leader and an example,” Walters said.
That’s when she wrote a letter to Melania Trump, asking for the privilege of decorating the White House for Christmas. She explained what she was doing at the Women’s Enrichment Center. She prayed and waited. Then an email came, telling Walters she had the job.
Walters has an extensive background in business and interior design. She has a business degree from the University of South Carolina and took design classes at York Tech. She credits her business knowledge from her 18 years working at Founders Federal Credit Union. On the design side, she owned an interior design business and worked as a florist.
She is now enrolled in design classes at the New York Institute of Art and Design and expects to graduate in 2021.
One of Walters’ jobs was to decorate the fireplace mantle and Christmas trees in the Vermeil Room, where portraits of First Ladies adorn the walls. One of her favorite spots to decorate was the Oval Office. She and her team focused on President Trump’s Christmas tree that was decorated with wide, red velvet ribbon that boasted red and gold beading. The back of the ribbon was gold.
At President Trump’s request, Walters and her team affixed the American Eagle to the top.
The team moved on to the Vice President Mike Pence’s office where they designed his mantle and Christmas tree and the Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ office. About 50 trees adorned the White House in 2020, Walters said.
“Everything is fresh and smells wonderful,” she said.
Walters moved on to the China Room where she decorated the mantle with three stockings representing the President, First Lady and their son Barron Trump.
One of Walters’ favorite jobs was putting together ten floral arrangements that stood 8 to 10 feet tall. Each arrangement represented regions of the United States, from places such as the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, the Great Lakes and the Midwest Plains.
The floral arrangements in 2020 were artificial because the White House must maintain a certain temperature and real arrangements must be watered down. The crew must be careful not to get the vintage and antique ornaments wet, Walters said.
“These ornaments were from Dwight Eisenhower’s time period,” she said. “They were handblown red glass with gold, and hand-painted.”
Melania Trump and her designers worked with “boxes and boxes” of decorations from decades of former administrations, Walters said.
Walters’ favorite spot, however, was working in the White House floral shop, where she could “walk into a refrigeration cooler full of fresh flowers.” Watching the designers put together floral arrangements using vermeil pieces used by Jackie Kennedy was priceless for Walters.
“A lot of people would get overwhelmed about being just in the White House itself,” Walters said. “Because I love flowers and I love that when you see those fresh flowers brought upstairs and displayed in the White House, how it just makes everybody happy and they smell wonderful. To me, that was very special.”
Working with flowers is sentimental for her, she said. She was very close to her great-grandmother Hessie Arant, who was a quilter and seamstress and loved fresh flowers.
“She was one of these individuals that just didn’t matter what she touched it always seemed to just turn out beautiful,” she said. “She did not have a lot of money. So she grew flowers or she took wild flowers from out in the woods behind her house.”
In 2020, the size of the design team shrank because of Covid, Walters said.
“It was a lot more work for us, but it just proves that when you put your political beliefs beside and you work together as a team, you can accomplish anything,” she said.
Walters said decorating the “people’s house” is not political.
“It’s not republican, it’s not democrat, it is the people’s house and it belongs to the people,” she said. “The President and First Lady are temporary guests of the people’s house and that’s how you have to think about it when you’re decorating.”
Walters said the 20 volunteers did not get paid for their service.
“You’re basically bringing your gifts and talents to them because this is a way to give back to your country,” she said. “I did not serve in the military and I felt like for all the people that served our country, that I never did, that this was a way that I could give my gifts back to those people.”
On a personal level, Walters said the experience was “amazing.”
“You know, I sit back sometimes when things are quiet,” she said. “And it was a whirlwind. It was like can you believe that you were actually there? Can you believe that you did these things?”
The Monday after all of the decorating was complete, the designers were treated to a reception. Walters was not able to meet face-to-face with Melania Trump because of Covid, but the First Lady welcomed the group.
Walters received a typed thank you letter, signed by Melania Trump, she said, along with a published sketch book with pictures of the decorations throughout the house. She’s keeping the reception invitation as a keepsake.
“It was very humbling,” Walters said. “It was very humbling because when you sit and think, ‘how can someone like me from Lancaster, S.C. and decorating for the President of the United States,’ it truly tells you that you can be an example. And when you do the right thing, and you try to bless others, God always blesses you in return.”
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 12:00 PM.
