Room of the Week: Carleton Varney

I can't think of a more prolific, talented, multi-faceted designer than Carleton Varney.  Mr. Varney bought the oldest design firm in America, Dorothy Draper, and still uses the company stationery.  I saw some of this beautiful letterhead, when working on Boca Grande, for Mrs. LaBrecque.  It has a bright coral red-pink color script on crisp white stock.  I loved it!  I saw how he had his own paint colours mixed, not using any old fan deck...
Mr. Varney has written books, fathered three sons, and I used to see his elegant wife, Suzanne, in New York, at the D and D, when I would shop the Carleton V showroom.  The showroom was always so clean, bright, and happy.  There was always a maid in a uniform there.  It was kind of like a modern throwback to the era of pre-design-center decorating, before the internet took over our business.  Before every housewife was watching HGTV.
CV has a column in the Palm Beach Daily News - it's always fun to read.  He designed a restaurant in Palm Beach Gardens called Hibiscus.  He is best known for large hotel projects, including the aristocratic Greenbrier and Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island.  
Here, I found on the CV site, a beautiful bedroom, which I chose for today's post.  How luxurious and beautiful it is!  I love the palette, and the sense of floating high above the city.

I like the way he does everything in a big, grand way.  He also gives beautiful, evocative speeches, and I have heard him speak twice here in Naples.  We had his line for Kindel Furniture showcased in our Norris showroom years ago, it was totally elegant, featuring bright, clean colours, such as an emerald green satin slipper chair, and a fabulous chinoiserie secretary, which we offered for $28,000.00 and sold quite a few of.  Enjoy this post, enjoy the Labor day weekend, and enjoy your life!  DF *****