When Boris Johnson hands over the keys to 10 Downing Street, his replacement will also inherit the flat above no.11 which once sparked a scandal over its out of control costs.
When the soon to be ex-Prime Minister entered office, he and then fiancée Carrie Symonds decided to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Tony Blair and live in the larger flat next door.
Prime Ministers receive a public grant of £30,000 to decorate their private residences, the place to rest their weary heads when not dealing with urgent matters of state.
However Carrie’s plans for a stylish and chic home - replacing the “ John Lewis nightmare ” left by Theresa May - meant their budget steadily rose way above what was available in the coffers.
Experts believe it eventually cost more than £100,000 with the resulting row becoming known as Cash for Curtains.
Carrie is said to have started the renovations in April 2020 when Boris Johnson was in hospital.
She brought in designer Lulu Lytle to create their home they would eventually share with son Wilf and daughter Romy.
Ms Lytle, co-founder of the firm Soane Britain, is popular for her colourful designs, British craftsmanship and eco-credentials.
However the designs did not come cheap.
Eye-catching patterned wallpaper is said to run to £100 per metre, which would rack up an eye-watering bill if the entire four-bedroom flat was redone.
A table lamp could set the buyer back some £1,250, while many items on the website come without a price and the details are only available on request.
The firm has done work for the Cobbler's Cove Hotel in Barbados, as well as Houghton Hall in Norfolk, the home of the Marquis of Cholmondeley.
Prince Charles also visited the firm's rattan workshop last year, which specialises in a kind of wicker weave.
Costs for the lavish improvements in no.11 spiralled..
The plush interiors are said to have included gold wall coverings as the SNP accused him of “living it up like a modern day Louis the Sixteenth”.
No10 insisted the £157,372-a-year Prime Minister paid for the revamp out of his own pocket - despite trying to set up a Trust to fund No10 repairs.
It was later reported he borrowed or took that money from a donor to the Tory party.
An official report said weeks after he left intensive care, Mr Johnson took advice suggesting a charitable Trust to fund the works on his private flat "could be made to work".
Legal advice then raised "doubts" about whether a Trust was suitable for dealing with the private residence.
That forced the publicly-funded Cabinet Office to pay initial invoices for some of the work.
It then recharged that bill to the Tory party in June 2020, believing a not-yet-existing Trust would eventually pay.
On October 19, with a Trust still "months off", Lord Brownlow decided to settle another invoice for more of the work himself directly with the supplier.
Yet Cabinet Office officials did not tell Boris Johnson this - and neither did Lord Brownlow, the report finds. The PM only realised when he read the Daily Mail in February 2021.
Mr Johnson eventually repaid the full costs himself, the report said.
It declared: "He knew nothing about such payments until immediately prior to media reports in February 2021. At that point, the Prime Minister immediately sought the necessary advice about his interests and, as a consequence, settled the full amount himself on 8 March 2021."
