PM Chooses Scottish Leather Chairs

At Prime Minister Gillard's office, fine orange Scottish leather is being featured in the form of leather chairs, following two years of 'trials and approvals'. Leather furnishings have previously been featured at the office of the Prime Minister. Green leather Chesterfield chairs were the choice of former Prime Minister, John Howard, and his wife Janette. Their choice of chairs did not appeal to all in the Parliament House bureaucracy but the chairs nonetheless remained in the office for nine years.

Those fixated on heritage saw the choice of the green Chesterfields as a desecration of the orange coloured fabric furnishings originally in place and designed to complement the wood of a single Huon pine featured in the walls. When the Howard Government fell in 2007, the original furniture was brought out of storage and placed in the office of the new PM, Kevin Rudd. Leffler Leather, of West Melbourne, provided a media release stating that 'burnt orange and grey leathers made by Muirhead Fine Scottish Leather in Glasgow' had been used for the overhaul of Julia Gillard's office.

Source: Brisbane Times