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ART + DECORATION 55 STRAIGHT UP WITH A SPLASH OF COLOR ANNE LEE PHILLIPS WHILES AWAY THE AFTERNOON WITH CARLETON VARNEY W hat's the very first room you r e m e m b e r ? Did it have wood floors? A park view? That room is the beginning of your taste, according to decorator Carleton Varney, and it's at the core of what he dubs your "decorating DNA." "The thing is, taste is like a fog. You can see the fog roll in over the sea, but you can't touch it. Everyone has a certain taste that is part of them," Varney said during a recent visit to Texas to celebrate the launch of Dorothy Draper Fabrics & Wallcoverings at showrooms in Dallas and Houston. Varney joined Dorothy Draper & Company — the namesake firm of the doyenne of preppy American decorating — in 1960, and bought the firm four years later. Over the course of his 58-year career, he has decorated the storied Greenbrier in West Virginia, The Breakers in Palm Beach, and The Stoneleigh in Dallas, as well as homes for celebrities and dignitaries, from Joan Crawford to President Jimmy Carter. He's also written more than 30 books and was recently nominated by President Donald Trump to serve on the National Council for the Arts. Varney dished about decorating in the style of Mrs. D. — how to get that Draper touch — over Draper-era ambrosia salad and popovers served with a potent Dorothy Rhododendron cocktail (white rum, .75 ounces Triple Sec, juice of half a lime, and 1 ounce grenadine). Draper could notoriously mix 16 prints in a room and make it work because, according to Varney, she had an epic sense of imagination and fantasy but also understood scale and geographic context. "Dressing a room is like dressing yourself," Varney said. Dorothy Draper & Company, arguably the first official interior design business, has been in the fabric business since 1925, and the fabrics are still made primarily in America, with multi-screens for each fabric. "You know, color in design doesn't cost extra," said Brinsley Matthews, the firm's executive vice president and director of design, who was also in town for the luncheon. And color has been at the forefront of Dorothy Draper & Company even when everyone else was decorating with beige. Varney recalls, "When I went to Draper in the early '60s, when Mrs. D. was still popping around, she would come to all the decorators' desks and say, 'Show me nothing that looks like gravy.'" That emphasis on color remains the most essential part of the firm's ethos. "Certain colors relate to light factor. The light in London is not the light in Palm Beach. Certain colors work environmentally. I like to work with happy colors that work in those towns. You have to understand the geographic and architectural influences to make a room really sing." Joan Crawford, an early client of Varney's, was a notorious method actress. "She literally became the person she was playing," he said. "So when you were working with her, you'd often wonder who she was today. I remember showing her sketches, and she said, 'No, I only want it to be me.'" He had given her the designs he thought fitting of a movie star. Soon he honed in on her decorating DNA — being a neat freak with plastic covers on the furniture and towels under fresh flowers — and continued to design many more apartments for her. "Now, after all these years, I can walk through a private home, and know who the person is," he said." For Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, simplicity was at their core. "I loved the Carters. Their DNA was who they were: They loved the simplicity of country living. I did their house in Plains and their log cabin in Ellijay. Jimmy made all of the furniture for it — and he could make better furniture than the Shakers." Dorothy Draper Fabrics & Wallcoverings at EC Dicken, Dallas Design Center, Suite 260, dorothydraperfw.com. "IN THE EARLY '60S, WHEN MRS. D. WAS STILL POPPING AROUND THE OFFICE, SHE WOULD COME TO ALL THE DECORATORS' DESKS AND SAY, 'SHOW ME NOTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE GRAVY.'" — Carleton Varney MIKE WYATT / IMAGE PROVIDED COURTESY OF DOROTHY DRAPER & COMPANY, INC. Carleton Varney in the Victorian Writing Room at The Greenbrier IMAGE PROVIDED COURTESY OF DOROTHY DRAPER & COMPANY, INC. The Geranium Lobby at The Grand Hotel