News

Palm Beach resident Carleton Varney, the internationally known interior designer whose “Your Family Decorator” column appeared for more than 40 years in the Palm Beach Daily News, died Thursday, July 14, 2022, at a hospital in Palm Beach Gardens. He was 85.

 Darrell Hofheinz

Palm Beach Daily News

The head of Dorothy Draper & Co. looks to watermelon colors of red, pink, green and cream for the decor of a room that nods to summer!

An influential design pioneer, Draper was the mentor of decorator Carleton Varney, who delves deep into her professional and personal life in his new deluxe edition of “The Draper Touch.”

The late actress Betty White lived a full and long life, and fans worldwide. Her home is the picture of happiness, with its stonework, white clapboard, and canary-yellow shutters and front door.

The head of Dorothy Draper & Co. offers ideas to make a Palm Beach home a Palm Beach home.

The head of Dorothy Draper & Co. offers a living room decorating scheme in lavender, amethyst, white and gray.

The head of Dorothy Draper & Co. is already thinking about summer, from pincord suits to outdoor dining accessories.

Each year I receive emails from talented artists who want to introduce their work to me and my staff. Some offer sculptures and some present watercolors, while others send fabric and wallpaper designs. 

In the same way, I often look at samples of new furniture, and sometimes I end up using the pieces in projects or introducing them to others. 

Who else in Palm Beach has noticed what seems to be far more traffic than usual this season? It seems like everyone wants to either live on the island or visit it. 

And that means it may take me a little longer in the car to visit some of my favorite destinations, but the following stops are worth the red lights, the traffic tie-ups and the bridge crossings. 

I recently headed to Broward County to see a movie at a multi-screen theater in Pompano Beach (which is not a bad drive from Palm Beach). The movie was “House of Gucci” starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver, and I would recommend it. 

Some of my friends had told me they expected the film and its stars to be nominated for Oscars, so it came as a surprise when they were not. 

As much as I love color — and there's a lot to love- the charms of white should not go unsung. 

I like white indoors on crown moldings, chair rails and wainscoting. I love clean-and-crisp white sheets. And I love white wicker, whether in a sunroom or on a porch or loggia.

I have known Palm Beacher Regine Traulsen, who is married to former Town Councilman William Diamond, for many years. We met on an American Airlines jet way back in the 1970s. 

The importance of layering is my decorating advice of the day. 

It’s a concept that most of us understand when we get dressed for a night on the town. Color, I think, is a key to successful layering.

I recall many decorating adventures in Palm Beach in which my fearless love of color played a big role. 

In the 1980s, The Brazilian Court had been sold and my team of decorators and I were called in to redo the boutique hotel at the corner of Australian and Hibiscus avenues. 

I recently spent a month working on my recovery from a case of pneumonia at Good Samaritan Medical Center on the Flagler Drive waterfront in West Palm Beach.  I’m happy to report I’m now at home in Palm Beach and feeling so much better. 

So here I am again, talking about color.

Those who love color as much as I do are not sitting around talking about walls of beige, gray or white. They’re thinking about happy colors, and I believe that’s just what we need right now.

This year is the 126th anniversary of the founding of The Breakers. Some years ago, my staff and I served as decorators for the property.

Then as now, the resort was privately owned by the Kenan family. The Kenans are descendants, of course, of Mary Lily Kenan, widow of hotel-and-railroad magnate Henry M. Flagler, who in the 1890s began transforming Palm Beach into America’s premier winter resort. 

The former Biltmore Hotel — today the Palm Beach Biltmore condominium — has long been an iconic part of life on the island. 

So many of the Biltmore’s apartments are showplaces, decorated by wonderful Palm Beach professionals.   

January is garnet month. I know that well, for January is my birth month and garnet is my birthstone. 

Most of us think of garnets as having a deep red or grape-purple red color, although there are varieties that shimmer in greens and even orange. I am definitely on team red when it comes to garnets. 

Often when the New Year dawns, I write about resolutions, about things I plan to change in my life. 

Such changes needn’t be earthshaking. Small choices, I’ve found, can add up to a more pleasant and satisfying life.

Now that many of us have rocked around the Christmas tree, we can keep rocking — and relaxing — in our rocking chairs.

Decorating trends may come and go, but the rocking chair — on porches, family rooms and, of course, nurseries — is here to stay. 

Christmas is just around the corner and I am working on my gift list. 

Last year, I gave friends and family picture frames, which are always welcome as presents, I think. But this year, most of my gifts will be soft, cuddly bathrobes. 

Last week I wrote about embracing simplicity in Christmas decorations. This week, however, is for you maximalists. 

If there is any time of year suited for decorating, it is now.  

When I take a drive, I’m always fascinated by the paint colors people choose to enhance the facades of their homes.  

A classic color scheme for the American home is white with dark green window shutters, although in Palm Beach, blue shutters are just as common. 

Fall arrives with Mother Nature’s brilliant falling-leaf colors — or at least it does up north. 

I have just returned to Palm Beach and sunshine after a trip to Rhinebeck, New York, for apple picking, pumpkin gathering and corn husking. We enjoyed apple-cider evenings around the fireplace at the Beekman Arms and Delamater Inn, the oldest inn in America, which was founded in 1766.  

The late Jane Powell, a musical icon of classic Hollywood, has taken her place among the stars who have left us. 

Miss Powell, 92, who died on Sept. 16 left behind a number of films for us to enjoy. They are in the MGM library of Turner Classic Movies, and I have enjoyed watching them over the years. In fact, she had a long relationship with TCM, sometimes appearing with the late host Robert Osborne and others to introduce and celebrate films on the network.

Sectional sofas are certainly retaining their comfortable position as a staple of today’s decorating world.

If you look at the design preferences of the minimalist set, it’s not unusual to see a sectional sofa placed in the middle of a room — a good fit with additional seating provided by the right-angle left or right wing.

It’s finally here — the season for pumpkin pie. Forget key lime, which I love during the warmer months, but I’m ready for that warm-orange hue on my dessert plate.

These fall days signal the start of pumpkin gathering — although in South Florida, we don’t head to a chilly field for our jack-o-lanterns-to-be but to the store or area pumpkin patches. And we get ready for Halloween, we already have our eyes on Thanksgiving, with its welcoming colors of corn yellow, pumpkin orange and cranberry red.

Halloween also is the time for sweet treats. I’m in the mood for some cotton candy, perhaps because it reminds me of all those fall festivals in New England.

This year marks the 66th anniversary of the publication of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s classic, "Gift from the Sea." I have just reread it and was so impressed by its sentiments that I have decided to give copies to my close friends.

The book invites us all on a journey of tranquility and an acceptance of a new life of calm.

Fifty years ago, the very popular and talented John Denver released what would become his signature song, “Take Me Home, Country Roads," which, in 2014, became West Virginia’s official state song.

The late singer-songwriter wrote of the Shenandoah River, which flows near the state’s eastern border near the Shannondale Springs Wildlife Management Area and Harpers Ferry National Park before emptying into the Potomac.

Hard to believe that Wednesday marked the start of autumn. The new social season is nearly upon those of us who are lucky enough to spend time in Palm Beach. 

In most years, that milestone would mean gearing up for dinner parties at home, restaurant meals with friends and casual cocktail get-togethers without a care in the world.

Pablo Picasso was once quoted as saying: “When Henri Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is.” 

One of the 20th century’s greats, Marc Chagall has long been among my favorite artists. Anyone who is a lover of bright color will know that Chagall was a master. 

In our modern world, we reach out for so many things, don’t we? We reach out for companionship, for comfort, for knowledge and for inspiration. 

In the design realm, we constantly reach out to the wider world to review ongoing decorating trends and try to predict what might be stylish tomorrow. Will our floors be bare: no rugs or Turkish carpets, no wall-to-wall carpeting? Will sisal matting underfoot be a go-to? 

I was a lucky boy, growing up in the Northeast. My parents were both gardeners, and I enjoyed helping them plant cosmos in pinks, whites and deep cerise. And thanks to that training, I know a weed seedling from a snapdragon seedling.

Our gardens were filled with perennials, and when summertime approached our annuals — marigolds, nasturtiums and others — were all in place, ready to fill the garden with color and with plants for cutting.

Over the years, my staff and I have executed many interesting decorating projects, from designing hotels and houses to even a teepee, a supermarket and a bowling alley. 

And that’s not to mention our design for the interiors of a fleet of taxi cabs, which received kudos from Time Magazine  in their article  “Drab Cab Goes Fab” back in the spring of 1974. Those Checker cabs looked sparkling, with seats covered in a green-and-white checked upholstery and flooring of bright red. 

But never have I decorated the interior of a decommissioned bus.   

Labor Day may be on the not-so-far horizon, but it’s still beach time all over the world, from St. Tropez  to Nantucket, from the Hamptons to St. Croix, from Palm Beach to Key West. 

That means it’s also beach umbrella time. If you have seen the smart and chic beach umbrellas, you know that color, color and more color is the byword. It wasn’t always this way. 

As it has done with so much of our lives, the coronavirus pandemic has put a damper on the travels to which many of us are accustomed. 

I hope we'll soon be taking trips safely again.

Whatever happened to the armoire, that lovely piece of furniture designed for days gone by when rooms were not equipped with closets?

I love armoires in the French style — some with carved details and others with molding designs decorating each of the doors. By the 1980s, armoires had made the transition from their original purpose for storing clothing to being used as home-entertainment cabinets.

Decorating and design have been my work for some 63 years, so I guess it is safe to say that I am not a newcomer to the creative block. 

And I’ve learned during my career to respect the past while always keeping an eye on the future.

So how many islands have you been to? Perhaps you have visited the Hawaiian islands? Or those in the beautiful Baltic? Or destinations in the Mediterranean — Mallorca, perhaps, or Ibiza or Santorini? 

Floridians have probably taken a trip to the Caribbean. The Bahamas is just off the coast, and other islands are readily accessible. Have you visited St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, Aruba or Barbados? 

The new summer color is peach. 

If you happen to be vacationing along the shores of Georgia, you are certain to come across on a roadside stand, farmers market or shop selling fresh peaches, along with peach cider, peach pie and peach jam, which all offer a delicious taste of summer.