It's impossible to resist the comparison to Jackie Kennedy.

As Lucy Turnbull guides a small media gaggle through The Lodge to see the personal touch she's put on the prime minister's official residence, one is inevitably reminded of Kennedy's famous White House tour.

It was Valentine's Day 1962 when JFK's glamorous young wife showed a CBS news crew the results of her $2 million White House makeover.

The resulting film – A Tour of the White House with Mrs John F. Kennedy – was a prime-time television sensation, bringing in 80 million viewers and deepening the Camelot mystique. It even earned the simpering star an honorary Emmy Award.

A Tour of The Lodge by Mrs Malcolm B. Turnbull may not have quite the same impact. Nonetheless,  it offered a rare insight into both The Lodge and the formidable wife of Australia's Prime Minister.

Mr and Mrs Turnbull spent their first night in the old Georgian revival-style home last weekend after a lengthy $9.4 million renovation nightmare that ensured Tony Abbott was never able to take up residence.

Jackie Kennedy in the White House. Photo: UPI

Mrs Turnbull played an important hands-on role in the final stages of the project.

"The building work was pretty much 100 per cent done," she told journalists during the 20-minute tour of the building's ground floor rooms.

"But there hadn't been decisions taken about soft furnishings and art so I came in at that time. I was very keen for the soft furnishings to reflect the quality and significance of the house – the curtains and the sofas – but also possibly even more importantly for the art to express Australia through its whole history."

Lucy Turnbull begins the tour of the Lodge. Photo: Andrew Meares

It's clear she takes great pride in her art selections.

In the Morning Room – so named because the east-facing room gets the morning sun – she has Arthur Streeton's 1924 landscape Magnetic Island and three paintings by acclaimed Adelaide artist Margaret Preston.

"It's always been one of my favourite rooms in this building because it's got beautiful proportions," she says. "It feels quite soft and feminine."

One of Lucy Turnbull's favourite rooms in the Lodge. Photo: Andrew Meares

Deeper into the ground floor is the formal Drawing Room, where the Turnbulls can entertain small groups of guests before and after meals.

It features six significant works: a Blue Mountains landscape by Penleigh Boyd – uncle of Arthur Boyd – whose promising art career was cut short when he was killed in a car crash in 1923; a piece called Kalumpiwarra by important Indigenous artist Rover Thomas; two striking works by New Zealand-born Australian sculptor Rosalie Gascoigne; and two portraits by Russell Drysdale.

"Not many houses are lucky enough to have two Drysdales in the one room," Mrs Turnbull says.

The drawing room of the Lodge. Photo: Andrew Meares

In the dining room she was faced with a decision: "Do you put very traditional paintings in here or do you try to shake it up?"

She went for the latter option, choosing three Indigenous paintings including Emily Kngwarray's imposing Yam awely, a huge colourful canvas that dominates the room's southern wall. The room also features works by Indigenous women Barbara Moore and Paddy Bedford and a work by Arthur Boyd.

The dining room at the Lodge. Photo: Andrew Meares

"It's a wonderful public house which is occupied by the prime minister of the day but a very historically important and significant building for the people of Australia. So it's wonderful to be able to show you a little bit of The Lodge, which is now occupied by the Prime Minister again after a long hiatus."