News
America's Summer Place
Posted on November 30 2016
It is almost summer time and America’s “Summer Place” – the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan – will open for its 126th season. Each year, our office designs new suites and rooms for the summer arrivals who travel by boat across the Straits of Mackinac to take in the...
American emblems, colors in the spotlight
Posted on November 30 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Each Fourth of July, I’m reminded how much I truly love America. I welcome the chance to join the rest of the nation in celebrating our independence, now and for generations to come. I am a great believer in waving our flag...
Design trend favors white, but brown furniture still classic
Posted on November 30 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Here’s a question for you. Is brown furniture out? On the design and decorating road these days, you’ll very often hear vendors and decorators say that it is, indeed. If you are going by auction house reports, you’ll have to agree there...
Beautiful colors don’t go out of season
Posted on November 30 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News I recently spent some of my springtime in Ireland at my home on the Shannon River. I enjoyed mild, cool days with sunny skies. The fields were dotted with daffodils, with tulips popping up as the daffodils faded. And now summer is...
Who doesn’t love an orchid?
Posted on November 30 2016
Jeff LangloisIn the loggia of the 2015 American Red Cross Designers’ Show House in Lake Worth, decorator Todd Hase made a dramatic floral statement with pot after pot of blue orchids. Daily News File Photo By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Palm Beach is all about orchids –...
Need color ideas? Look to nature
Posted on November 30 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Have you gotten a glimpse yet of the Royal Poinciana trees blooming in Bradley Parkand other parts of Palm Beach? Seeing their brilliant orange blossoms each summer gives me a lift, especially when the vista includes vivid green grass and a bright...
These gifts will make any bride and groom happy
Posted on November 30 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News It’s nearly June — and that means it’s bride time. Time for the white gowns, the bridesmaids dresses, the invitations, the guest lists, the flowers, the table settings, the decisions about what the mothers of the brides — and the grooms —...
Black can add glamorous backdrop to your rooms
Posted on November 30 2016
If you know my nickname is “Mr. Color,” this might surprise you: I think a room with black walls can be beautiful as well as dramatic and cozy. For many years, I have embraced a look of comfortable glamour, whether we’re asked to created traditional or contemporary designs. And black-walled...
Revive drapery, vintage fabric to beautify rooms
Posted on November 30 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News We’re in a world of recycling, and what an imaginative world it is. While I don’t recommend sinking your old bathtubs into the ground and turning them into fish ponds for your garden, I do recommend reusing or recycling whenever you can....
Trellis can give rooms Asian-inspired style
Posted on November 30 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Way back when, in the 1970s, Chinese trellis-patterned wallcovering was a favorite of designers and decorators. I recall a wonderful room, where a wallcovering with a bright mandarin-style orange trellis on a white background added glamour to a dining room in New...
Current designs often draw best of classic elements
Posted on November 07 2016
Special to the Daily News Good decorating is all about details, and I’m a believer that rooms created for the future should reflect the best of our past. Designs of today that incorporate classic elements from the past are almost always the most successful, in my view. When I...
Horse-drawn carriages an inspiration when decorating
Posted on November 07 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Have you ever realized how the horse and buggy have been immortalized in America and, particularly, on the American decorating scene? When I visit the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island or Harbor Springs Point in Upper Michigan — or even the...
Traveling in style on the Orient Express
Posted on November 07 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Plane travel these days can be a less-than-pleasant experience. So if you want to get from London to Venice with a pass-through stop in Paris and a morning get-off-the-train-for-a-walk stop in Innsbruck, Austria, and if you have time on your side,...
Castle Leslie offers Irish hospitality
Posted on November 07 2016
By CARLETON VARNEY Special to the Daily News Last week, I told you about my visit to Ireland’s delightful Castle Glenveagh, which I had last visited in the 1970s. Ireland offers so much to see and enjoy. Recently, for instance, I visited for the first time Castle Leslie, a...
Trip reveals Ireland’s County Donegal still vibrant with color
Posted on November 07 2016
By CARLETON VARNEY Special to the Daily News For several years, I had been dreaming about returning to County Donegal in Ireland, a green, heavenly place that I visited years ago in the mid-1970s. I wanted to see if my memories of the mountains, sea and landscapes were accurate....
Wake up Palm Beach to new season, fresh style
Posted on November 07 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News It’s wake-up time again in Palm Beach. Season 2010-11 is practically upon us, and just last weekend, I was reading my Shiny Sheet to discover events planned for the coming months. Those of you who are not on island this week...
‘Jeannie’ inspires magical color plan
Posted on November 07 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Word is out that Barbara Eden’s autobiography is to be published next spring, and the title, I’m told, is Jeannie Out of the Bottle. The ever-glamorous Eden, with her businessman husband, Jon Eicholtz, was on hand in early July for the...
Perfume your home with scents with sensibility
Posted on November 07 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Scents make sense, on the skin and in the home. Have you ever enjoyed an evening in the tropics when the air is perfumed by the aroma of dama de noche? The beautiful white flower grows on a large tree in...
‘Eay Pray Love’ spotlights distinctive blues of Italy, India, Bali
Posted on November 07 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Rarely do I recommend seeing a film, unless it is one from the Golden Age of Hollywood, when there were truly glamorous movie stars, trained in the studio system, who charmingly stayed out of politics and concentrated on perfecting their craft....
Patience a must-have in this wait-wait-wait business
Posted on November 04 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News It is summertime, when the living is easy provided you let it be easy. And decorating is easy, too if you just let yourself enjoy it. After all, the fun is actually in the doing. That said, patience is a welcome virtue...
Hudson River Valley in nuptial spotlight
Posted on November 04 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Seems there is a lot of interest in Saturday’s wedding of former first child Chelsea Clinton. Although I’m in the dark about details of the gown, the wedding dinner and the guest list, I do know a lot about the village in...
Debbie Reynolds’ star still shines
Posted on November 04 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Now, here’s a news flash for you: Debbie Reynolds pops out of cakes albeit cardboard cakes as she recently proved at Jim Nabor’s birthday party in Texas. The actor and singer best known for his role as Gomer Pyle turned 80...
Greenbrier’s Casino Club opens amid glamour
Posted on November 04 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News The famed Greenbrier resort at White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., has undergone a reinvention that included the July 2 opening of its new 120,000-square-foot Casino Club with five restaurants for which my firm provided the interior design. Guests at the opening included...
July Fourth inspires bright decorating ideas
Posted on November 04 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News It’s time again to celebrate the red, white and blue, and Uncle Sam will be leading the Independence Day parades in cities and towns all over the country. The marching bands will be out, along with the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts,...
Paige Rense and ‘Architectural Digest’ made a perfect pair
Posted on November 04 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Perhaps you saw the recent big news in the home-and-garden world: Paige Rense is retiring from the helm of Architectural Digest. As editor-in-chief, Paige has done a super job over the last few decades — supervising the style of Architectural Digest, which...
Musing on hotel linens, crystal and china
Posted on November 04 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Here are a few observations on this and that, but I’ll leave it to you to decide whether I’m on the money. ■ Anyone who visits a luxury chain hotel these days enters a room where the bed is covered with...
Give Dad comfort for Father’s Day
Posted on November 04 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Every day should be Father’s Day, even if we celebrate this special occasion just once a year. May is for moms, but June is for dads and, of course, for their bridal daughters, who are so often given away, so-to-speak, by...
Don’t shut the door on armoires just yet
Posted on November 04 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Are armoires out? The beautiful French armoire that once upon a day held a lady’s dressing gown or a gentleman’s smoking jacket or simply daywear and nightwear was replaced long ago by the room closet, with its real door, hanging bar,...
Carmen Miranda’s exotic style still inspires
Posted on November 04 2016
Image: c/o Alchetron By CARLETON VARNEY Special to the Daily News As I noted here a few weeks ago, my recent visit to Rio de Janiero reminded me of the considerable charms of Carmen Miranda, a woman definitely worth a few more words. For those not old enough to...
Summertime in Palm Beach brings perks
Posted on November 03 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News How delighted I am that summertime is here, or just about here. I think that if the winter season had been sunnier and warmer, I would not welcome the hot weather so much. For those of you who will, perhaps, complain...
Battenburg, other laces add beauty, comfort to bedrooms
Posted on November 03 2016
By CARLETON VARNEY Special to the Daily News What a wonderful world the world of lace. Lace has been around since the 16th century and should be considered a personal adornment, just as one would think of gold or silver jewelry. In fact, the French designer Loulou de la...
Magical colors of Rio de Janeiro inspire decorating themes
Posted on November 03 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News You might remember Flying Down to Rio, a movie starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. And a memorable movie it was, for good reasons for the dancing, for the two great stars and for the location, Rio de Janeiro. Ah, Rio, where...
Fulfilling decorating dreams still takes some time
Posted on November 03 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News We live in a world of comfort-seekers, a fact amply revealed in upscale coffee shops around the world that offer lounge chairs, coffee tables and sofas. That’s a far cry from what these establishments used to be — cafeterias and quick-stop...
Bandanas come off necks and into room designs
Posted on November 03 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News The bandana has hit the decorating stage and in many different forms. When I was a younger man, the bandana mostly represented the world of the cowboy think of the Cisco Kid, John Wayne, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. The first...
Designer’s distress: Sometimes color is just not enough
Posted on November 03 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Recently, a young interior designer related to me, quite sadly, a comment she had received from one of her clients at the tail end of a major decorating project: ”I’ve spent all this money,” the client moaned, “and all I got...
Shop, rest and eat your way through London’s Mayfair neighborhood
Posted on November 03 2016
By CARLETON VARNEY Special to the Daily News I recently got back from a visit to London, where I spent time in Mayfair, perhaps the most charming of all the city’s wonderful neighborhoods. I enjoy walking on Grosvenor Square, where our American embassy holds presence, with its bronze statue...
St. Tropez resonates with French charm
Posted on November 03 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News On the French Riviera, St. Tropez is bustling these days, busily anticipating that the summer season will bring lots of folk to the hotels, cafes and shops of this Mediterranean village. The sidewalk artists are painting away, even some artists from...
Musings from Monaco about designing princess’ room
Posted on November 03 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Monaco is readying its cafe-and-casino style for the coming summer season, and I’m here at the Metropole Hotel, visiting the casinos and chatting with the proprietors and personnel about just about everything regarding the gaming life. As regular readers might remember,...
Spring colors bloom for room makeovers
Posted on November 03 2016
By Carleton Varney Special to the Daily News Recently, while shopping for unusual candle holders for a restaurant project, I passed along 27th Street on Manhattan’s West side. The day was a sunny one, and all the wholesale flower dealers were busy bringing into their shops branches of forsythia,...
Give your home gym the spa treatment
Posted on November 03 2016
By Carleton Varney Judging from the number of advertisements I’ve encountered, invitations to grand openings I’ve received and new beauty products I’ve seen of late, I think there must be more spas being conceived, built, decorated and promoted than there are golf facilities today. If every town in America...
Avedon exhibit captures glam era
Posted on November 03 2016
By Carleton Varney Oh, what a super exhibition it is! I’m talking about the Richard Avedon exhibit at the Norton Museum, which should not be missed. Beautifully presented, “Avedon Fashion 1944-2000” features much of the iconic photographer’s early work. It includes photographs of model Carmen, who is still beautiful today,...
Academy Awards spotlight famous Oscar sculpture each year
Posted on November 03 2016
By Carleton Varney Sunday is Oscar time again, and Oscar Night comes just once a year — sort of like Christmas, Easter and Valentine's Day. For the past few years, Oscar has arrived between Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, so between the red and the green, we find the...
Westminster Dog Show musings from Best-in-Show Sadie's decorator
Posted on November 03 2016
By CARLETON VARNEY Special to the Daily News A belated hello from Westminster — and I don't mean the cathedral! I mean the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in Madison Square Garden, and my trip to New York a couple of Tuesdays ago wasn't easy. The plan was to leave...
Washington Resonated Style During Inaugural Festivities
Posted on November 03 2016
Editor's Note: Carleton Varney filed this column from Washington, D.C., last week when he was there for the presidential inauguration. It's Obama City, this Washington D.C., home of the White House, the Smithsonian, the Lincoln Memorial and so many other national treasures. I am here with tens of thousands...
