Legendary designer Carleton Varney opens Dec Center’s fall market
If it’s impractical, uncomfortable or drab, you can bet it won’t be in any room created by Carleton Varney.
The legendary designer, now president/owner of the company founded by another legend, the late Dorothy Draper, will open the Decorative Center of Houston’s Fall Market at 10 a.m. Wednesday. (Full disclosure, I’ll be interviewing Varney in a Q&A session for the audience in the ground-floor gallery, followed by a reception and book signing in the Ken Kehoe showroom, Suite 2016.)
Varney is the author of several books, including “Decorating on the Waterfront” (2017) and “In the Pink: Dorothy Draper — America’s Most Fabulous Decorator” (2012).
In our session, I’ll ask Varney about his design style — vibrant colors and bold contrasts — his career and, of course, his work with Draper, the savvy marketer who was an early-20th-century trailblazer in designer branding. Varney and Draper are featured in the new coffee-table book “Inspired Design: The 100 Most Important Interior Designers of the Past 100 Years” by Jennifer Boles.
The Dec Center is filled with interior design firms and home furnishing showrooms, some of which are open to the public and some of which cater to trade only. On Fall Market day — themed “The Shift in Design” — all events are open to the public. Anyone planning to attend is asked to register in advance.
In the afternoon keynote at 12:30 p.m., also in the groundfloor gallery, Jennifer Cope and Rhonda Reinhart of Modern Luxury Interiors Texas will talk with design trendsetters Jamie Beckwith, Ellen Blakeley and Allison Eden about where the industry is going and shifts in style.
Other events include a 9 a.m. breakfast and display of new designs by Nate Berkus and The Novogratz in The Shade Store showroom (Suite 1070) and a talk at 11:15 a.m. by Houston interior designer Laura Umansky about social media’s influence on the client experience (Madeval showroom, Suite 109). Also, Elizabeth Mitchell of SkLo will talk about lighting at 11:30 a.m. in the Cantoni Trade showroom (Suite 101), and Houston interior designers Marie Flanigan, Lucinda Loya and Courtnay Tartt Elias will talk about transforming closets into living spaces at 1:40 p.m. in the Ornare showroom (Suite 209).
Interior designers can earn education credits in sessions on lighting control at 11:30 a.m. in the Dedon showroom (Suite 131) and residential motorized shading solutions at 1:40 p.m. in the Crestron showroom (Suite 119).