Color, pattern and detail through decorator's eyes

In a world of West Elm simplicity and Crate and Barrel conformity, legendary designer Carleton Varney really rocks a room with his pattern, color and confidence.

His latest book, "Houses in My Heart: An International Decorator's Colorful Journey" (Pointed Leaf Press, $59.85) is unlike most autobiographies, instead offering a pictorial of his life's work both in houses he has done for others and in those he calls home.

"I really enjoyed doing the book. It tells my story. It's my life," Varney said in a phone interview.

He learned his craft at the knee of the grand dame of decorating, Dorothy Draper, and is now president of Dorothy Draper & Co. Inc., one of the oldest design firms in the United States.

"I started when I was so young," recalling how he went to work with Draper while he was in his 20s. "Most people feel I grew up in the big house on the hill and have a feeling of being intimidated by me."

Maybe you get that with age," he mused, then added: "Maybe it's because I've been around so long."

Long enough to have decorated a multitude of houses, hotels, castles and flats across the globe. It was these far-flung job sites and his aversion to staying in a hotel that precipitated his personal collection of diversified domiciles.

"I never wanted to stay in a hotel, you see, and fortunately I was able to acquire these places through the course of my work," Varney said.

He says timing was everything, having acquired his homes in New York, Ireland, London, Palm Beach and others before, as he puts it, "the crazy 80s and 90s."

"So I was lucky; I didn't spend lots of money on them," he said, laughing.

He did, however, put a lot of thought into his homes, as he does with those of his clients. Varney believes rooms should reflect the personalities of those who live in them and have meaning to them.

"I like to walk into a room and having the feeling that I've been there. The things I look at have to mean something to me, where I got them, how I got them. They tell me stories," he says.

He brought that same kind of personalization to this book.

"My homes have never been photographed before this book, but I wanted people to see the diversification of each residence," he says.

As he says in the introduction, the book is an illustrated memoir depicting his favorite projects. What they share is his use of color and attention to the tiniest details.

"I honestly believe there is nothing that you do in the interior that should be overlooked. The hardware on the door, the fringe, the ties, the position of the window shade - everything is important, and everything requires a choice and there are many choices."

Is that why his houses are so different?

"I wanted the reader to see how I live environmentally because my houses are in different places, and they don't really relate to each other. I mean, my country house in Millbrook has a Greenbriar influence."

The Greenbriar resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., was one of Draper's best-known projects.

"Millbrook isn't White Sulphur Springs, but it reminded me of it with its white clapboard and green trim. It's part of my life story," he says.

Millbrook was the country home where Varney and his wife lived with three sons when they weren't in their Manhattan residence. His sons are grown and on their own now.

"The house in Ireland, Shannongrove, that came about because I did all those hotels and castles over there - Adare Manor, Dromoland and Ashford Castle. Shannongrove has many rooms, which means lots of opportunities to play with color and style. Each of the rooms has a signature," he says. "I have a Chinese bedroom, and it is filled with all the experiences I had in Asia."

He used to be an avid collector of things from his travels.

"I don't collect that much anymore because I don't need to and this is the time to get rid of it," he explains, then laughs. "But I don't because I have houses to utilize it."

What makes Varney's rooms outstanding isn't all that "stuff," however. It's what he does with the bare bones and with color. In his London flat, all the built-ins are trompe-l'oeil wood grain, and the walls are painted to look like linen.

"All the woodworking was done with a feather, and you can't tell to look at it that it is simply pine! I couldn't get that done today. I couldn't find the artisan to do it," he says.