A GRAND OEUVRE

Carleton Varney likes to tell a story about the first time he walked into the Grand Hotel on Michigan’s Mackinac Island. The 82-year-old decorator, whose personality is as colorful as his designs, had been asked to spruce up the place ahead of a hotel convention the owners were hosting. But he took one look and knew this wasn’t just a decorating job; it was a long-term commitment.

“It had been Miami Beached inside,” he says, citing swing lamps