By Tali Jaffe-Minor
A garden-party table setting created by Mieke ten Have for designer Mary Taylor McGee at a home in Palm Beach. Photo by James McDonald, courtesy of Vendome Press.
“Interiors Styled by Mieke ten Have,” available now at Books & Books, Bal Harbour Shops.
Mieke ten Have began her fascination with interiors as a young girl engrossed in the stories that came to life when she entered a room—be it maximalist, minimalist, or even in disrepair. After years of honing her eye as a magazine editor and later an interiors stylist, weaving her own prose into the spaces of revered design talent, ten Have brings to life an accumulation of storytelling in her first book, “Interiors Styled by Mieke ten Have,” out now. Here, we preview the title, and ask the expert to share some of her favorite home accessories to bring any space to life.
“What would you like from this room?” I was at most ten years old when my grandmother asked me this question. We were standing in her Federal-style dining room, which is the first room I ever fell in love with. What I wanted to say was, “Everything,” but I replied, “The curtains.” She laughed. I still return to her house, especially her dining room, in my dreams. The walls were covered in Zuber’s Vues de l’Amérique du Nord panoramic paper, the curtains were canary-yellow damask, and every surface—demilune table, sideboard, scrolled-shell-topped corner cupboard—was filled with objects. The jasperware, export ware, Steuben, American glass, bronze candelabras, and Meissen were arranged like talismans at a shrine to the decorative. She was a fabulous hoarder. The panoramic wallpaper had a surrealist quality that prompted me to imagine a world beyond the confines of the walls that held it; I was curious about it all, and it seemed to reveal something new every time I walked in the door. I often think of the question she asked me, as it is revealing; I couldn’t specify one thing, because in truth, what I really wanted was the entire feeling the room conveyed. It was the sum of its curious parts that held my imagination. Thus, my fascination with interior worlds started when I was a little girl, captivated by and inquisitive about the emotions certain places stirred up in me.
A section of the living room in a formal house designed by Ferguson & Shamamian, with interiors by Tino Zervudachi. Photo by Thomas Loof, courtesy of Vendome Press.
As a stylist, a career I came to frankly inadvertently, I marvel at the good fortune I have had to work with some of the most talented design luminaries. This book is an homage to the designers and photographers I am lucky enough to collaborate with to create these beautiful pictures. I think the term stylist is a nebulous and often confusing one. What I’d rather tell people is that I am a storyteller of sorts, always seeking to conjure emotion in rooms using objects, flowers, colors, and patterns as my tools. To that end, I devote the first part of the book, “4 Principles,” to the fundamentals that underpin my styling work: “Color Theory,” “Pattern Play,” “Wild and Tame,” and “Flowers for Living.” Illustrated with photographs of rooms that I have styled in collaboration with some of the world’s leading interior designers, the first part shows you how to think about using these principles in your own home. Unsurprisingly, these elements often overlap and intersect, so in the second part, “4 Seasons,” I demonstrate how I apply these interwoven styling principles in my home in the country—the Barn—over the course of a year.
In ten Have’s mudroom, the mint-green walls match the windows; the ceiling is wallpapered in an archival geometric pattern from Brunschwig & Fils. Photo by Frank Frances, courtesy of Vendome Press.
Though the Barn is the home I share with my husband and two children, it is also still a working barn, albeit no longer for livestock or wheat; it is my laboratory and canvas. In it, I bring to bear all my experiences and interests: collecting and arranging, pattern laying and layering, exploring color concepts, and indulging in the ever-changing landscape around me, the bounty of which I bring into my home year-round. The evolution of the Barn is a bit like a rambling, ever-changing love story with many chapters still to come. I wrote this book to explain my way of seeing, and what I personally delight in, for that’s what interiors are all about, I think. So, what would you like from your rooms? These are the spaces in which you live your life, after all. I hope this book helps you consider this simple but wonderful question.
Below, ten Have shares some of her favorite home accessories and accoutrements, available at Bal Harbour Shops. Photo by Frank Frances.
