A Hotel Designer Who Splashed Bright Colors Into Hospitality's Drab
Skift Take
Carleton Varney leaves behind a legacy that gave hotel operators the freedom to break from bland playbooks on design, and that challenged them — Dare to be bold.
Carleton Varney, a renowned interior decorator whose love of audacious colors defied convention in the all-too-often cookie cutter world of hotel interiors, died earlier this month in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was 85, and his death came after a long illness.
He worked not only in revamping such landmark hotels as The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, the Grand Hotel on Michigan's Mackinac Island and The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, but he also lent his flair for color to cruise ships and homes across the globe. His work extended to the
