Pattie Menzies put in kerosene heaters and carpets.
The Gortons erected a security wall and put in a swimming pool.
Hazel Hawke had the piano restored and set up a heritage fund.
And now Lucy Turnbull has put her own stamp on The Lodge with a collection of fine artworks and furniture.
The Turnbulls moved into the official prime ministerial residence in Canberra last weekend.
The Lodge has been the subject of a $9 million fitout, dogged by cost and timetable blowouts.
One of the most challenging parts of the project was removing 1920s-era electrical wiring, some only covered in cloth, which ran inside steel conduits throughout the building.
The project dragged on so long Tony and Margie Abbott didn't get a chance to move in.
But now, minus lead paint and asbestos, the 90-year-old heritage-listed home is fit for Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull.
While she had virtually no involvement in the refit, Mrs Turnbull worked with the National Gallery of Australia to decorate the house with paintings and sculpture.
Enid Lyons' sofa has been restored and reinstalled in the same spot in The Lodge's morning room as it was in the 1930s when her husband Joseph was prime minister.
A few metres away is an 1880 cedar secretaire desk used by one of the most significant figures in 19th century Australian politics, Sir Henry Parkes.
One of the standout pieces is an enormous painting entitled Yam awely, by indigenous artist Emily Kam Kngwarray, which dominates the dining room.
Also adorning the ground floor rooms of the house are works by Margaret Preston, Arthur Streeton, Rosalie Gascoigne, Russell Drysdale and Arthur Boyd.
"I was very keen ... for the art to express Australia through its whole history," Mrs Turnbull said during a tour of her new home.
"I was keen for it to express lots of different thoughts and strains and aspirations and different ways of showing what a great country we are and what a great visual art tradition we have."
The prime minister has two paintings in his study - a 1943 Melbourne street scene by Danila Vassilieff entitled Smith Street and Sidney Nolan's painting from the same year, Kiata, depicting the Mallee landscape.
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