Historic Grand Hotel suite gets a refresh in honor of its designer

Apr 02, 2023

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Carleton Varney's Carleton V Ltd. textile company revived its Terroir pattern and issued it in a new shade of blue to redecorate the Carleton Varney Suite at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Mich. The pattern was used in the wallpaper and the fabric for the bedding.

A popular cane wallpaper pattern was issued in a new color, Sunshine Yellow, for the second bedroom in the suite.

The late Carleton Varney was president and owner of Dorothy Draper & Co. He died at the age of 85 after an extended illness last year.

Dorothy Draper & Co interior designer Rudy Saunders and Sebastian Varney, son of legendary designer Carleton Varney, sit in the newly decorated Carleton Varney Suite at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. Sebastian Varney has taken over as president of the company after the death of his father.

The suite's parlor has red carpet in tribute to the red socks that Varney wore every day. Those socks were a tribute to his friend, the late actor Van Johnson.

The parlor has floral draperies with 12 colors, with plenty more bold colors in the furnishings and carpet.

The dining area in the suite's parlor.

The suite's foyer is a tribute to Varney's days as the decorator for President Jimmy and first lady Rosalynn Carter. Photos show him with the Carters and on the presidential yacht, the Sequoia.

A portrait of the late Carleton Varney hangs in the suite's foyer.

The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Mich., gets a little spruced up every year, and this year's new features include a fully-refreshed, two-bedroom suite devoted to Carleton Varney, the interior designer who reinvented the hotel's look with bold color and pattern back in the 1970s.

Built in 1887 by three railroad companies, the hotel is known for the mix of colors and patterns in guest rooms and in public spaces, all brought in by Varney in 1976. Varney, whose Dorothy Draper & Co. interior design firm remained the hotel's interior designer for most of years that followed, died last year at the age of 85.

Dorothy Draper was one of the first people to establish interior decorating as a profession in America, and the Draper firm will celebrate its 100-year anniversary in 2025. Varney — known by many as "Mr. Color" — first went to work for Draper as a draftsman, and became the company president in 1966. He bought the firm in 1969.

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It was the idea of current hotel owner KSL Capital Partners to refresh the Varney Suite, and design director Rudy Saunders, said that they wanted to stay true to the room's history and the different eras of Varney's career. In doing so, they could dip into the entire archive of patterns and colors to redecorate the suite.

"This suite was a team effort and we had fun working on it. As different choices would come up in every single room, we would think 'What would Mr. Varney do?'" Saunders said of the project. "Some of the colors and patterns are so specific to Dorothy Draper, but this suite is so him."

For example, in the more glamorous main bedroom, they revived their "Terroir" pattern but made it in blue for the wallpaper and bedding.The bed has Terroir draping lined with green fabric as a canopy, with a gold crown sitting atop it all. Green canister lamps finished with a gold Greek key design and black lampshades sit on wooden night tables, a reminder of Varney's childhood in Massachusetts.

Many years ago, Varney had used the Terroir pattern in another color at his family farm in New York.

For the second bedroom, an oversized cane wallpaper pattern that was one of Varney's favorites was custom made in bright yellow, and paired with a print on a yellow background for the canopy and bedding in a coral and white oversized gingham pattern. They kept the furniture that was already there and painted it white.

In the large parlor that as seating and dining areas, Saunders and his team used a multitude of colors, including two shades of green on a sofa, settee and chairs, bright yellow ottomans and blue gingham on dining chairs. They also used a red carpet, a nod to the red socks Varney wore every day in tribute to his friend, the late actor Van Johnson. A drapery pattern called "Growing Wild" and featuring an overscaled bouquet of tulips with 12 different colors is usually made on linen for residential clients, but was made on cotton chintz for the suite's abundant draperies, Saunders said.

The suite's foyer is devoted to the time when Varney was the interior designer to President Jimmy and first lady Rosalynn Carter. Photos of him with the Carters and on the presidential yacht, the Sequoia, are hung alongside a Venetian glass mirror.

Hotel historian Bob Tagatz gives tours of the hotel, full of stories that go back decades, and he has plenty to say about Varney's impact on the hotel.

"If you sign up with Dorothy Draper, we do everything, everything you see coming and going.’ That's when Mr. Musser knew it was going to be really expensive," Tagatz said of the hotel's earlier owner, Dan Musser Jr., hiring Varney and the Draper firm many years ago. "You know, Carleton Varney is the only decorator who can outspend an unlimited budget."

The Musser family, who owned the hotel for more than 85 years, sold it to KSL Capital Partners in 2019. Though KSL switched to a different design firm for about a year, they renewed their agreement with Dorothy Draper & Co. before Varney died.

The Grand Hotel began its life in the late 1800s as a summer retreat for wealthy Americans who traveled there by steamboat and eventually drew a regular crowd of Midwesterners who could drive to Mackinaw, Mich., and take a ferry across Lake Huron to the island, which didn't allow cars. Anything delivered to hotels, businesses and summer homes on the island is still delivered by horse-drawn carriages or people on bicycles.

Fans of the 1980 movie "Somewhere in Time" know the hotel as the setting of the film that starred Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve as lovers who traveled across time to find one another.

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