Bill and Hilary Clinton may have left the White House almost 20 years ago, but unlike other presidential couples, they chose to buy a home in the US capital even after the end of the term.

As rarely as ever, Hilary opened the doors of their neo-Georgian home for Architectural Digest.

Pictures from the magazine show abundant greenhouses with plants and flowers of considerable size. In the interview accompanying the photos, the former secretary of state tells of the day he saw home, in 2000, Bill Clinton's final year as president.

"It was an emotional reaction," she said. ?When I was elected to the Senate in 2000, I knew we needed a home to live in Washington. So I started looking. And I felt this house a lot, it was emotional. ?

Known simply as Whitehaven, the residence is located on Whitehaven Street, a three-kilometer-long road from the White House. At the time, the couple spent $ 2.85 million on 510 square meters of space, located near an area known as "Embassy Road," resembling the embassy block in Tirana.

"I went up to the third floor and saw the trees in the back garden of the British Embassy - I felt like I was in London or New York," Clinton continued. "Gardens were the most wonderful thing that caught my eye."

Bill and Hillary Clinton officially reside in Chappaqua, New York, but the Washington DC home served as a "warm haven" away from senate life.

Substantial renovations

After buying the red brick home, built in 1951, the Clintonites began renovations. From 2003 to 2006, she worked with architect Rosemarie Howe to design the home.

"We wanted to bring more light in and create more room to sit and relax," Howe told Architetural Digest. "We also wanted to open the house and the interiors facing this fantastic backyard garden."