The most premier design publications around the world trust her to assemble sweeping roomscapes and charming vignettes with a blended, layered effect that’s often imitated, but never quite achieved (except by her talented hand). If you regularly pick up shelter mags such asArchitectural DigestandHouse & Garden UK, or top-tier design books, you’ve enjoyed her work.

 We were thrilled to welcome Mieke to the West Palm Beach Atelier, where she styled a distinctly Casa Branca vignette and spoke to a roomful of eager design enthusiasts about her process—collaborating with world-class photographers and artists, drawing on unexpected inspirations, designing outside the box, and chasing what continues to captivate her imagination. She brought a special energy to the crowd, and spending time with her in the showroom felt like stepping into the pages of her new book,Interiors Styled by Mieke ten Have. Come back anytime, Mieke!

What is a stylist?

A sum of a lot of different things: an editor, a furniture schlepper, a mover, an art director, a florist. But at the end of the day, I think what you really are is a visual storyteller.

What is your design and styling process?

“My design process is so dependent on each project, every house is different. You want every house to tell a story—the really important thing is to figure out what the most compelling story is. Styling is a way to make your home about yourself and the things that you like outside of trends. I’m always thinking about what the house is telling me it wants to be. For me, that’s about layers. I am a big fan whether it be textiles, antiques with modern things, flowers. It’s really about finding layers of things that can speak to each other.”

What are your must haves for styling a photoshoot?

“I like flowers for the role they can play in emphasizing and deemphasizing something about a space. If there is a house that is really fussy, I like to use something that is wild and untamed, because it cuts the fussiness of the space. Obviously flowers are great instruments for bringing color into a room.”

“It is amazing to me the power of textiles to transform a space. Even with changing seasons in your own home, it is so easy to swap something out for something that feels slightly more seasonal, whether it be the weight of something or the color story of something.”

“Those are two things I think are really important, but everything is important. Objects are important, art is important, time of day is important. So those are all the things that really come into play when you take a beautiful picture when you are styling a room.”

For this particular project what was your approach to how you went about styling the vignette for Casa Branca?

"It was so nice to start with this beautiful white sofa. It’s sort of an invitation to create a dialogue around it that feels slightly more unexpected, and the second I picked it out I knew I wanted this amazing, crazy, blue concave mirror. It’s all about that juxtaposition between elements that I wanted to bring into this space. The nice thing about using white is that it is an invitation to mix so many other things with it."

What are the principle elements you rely on to create homes that feel personal and unique?

“You can’t fake uniqueness, and the best homes are always really personal and authentic. You can tell when you walk into a space whether somebody lives there or not, you can tell you the things they have acquired over the years."

"There’s no real shortcut to it. But for a photograph, it is about drawing the eye around the room with interesting objects, and varying height, and varying scale. All those things are really important."

How do you incorporate the art of the mix to keep things interesting?

"You can see it in the Casa Branca vignette—that everything feels quite different from each other, aside from the pair of chairs and the ottoman. If everything feels like it goes perfectly and everything is symmetrical, your eye sort of loses interest. Bring in unexpected elements and create contrast between different color values, pieces from different parts of the world, and items from different periods of time. That’s when things become interesting. That’s when it holds your attention and what I think is the most important part about a space. It’s telling you something and engaging you. You want to enter a space and always feel like you’re seeing something new for the first time."

What inspires you?

"So many things, which sounds sort of cliche, because anyone who is a visual person is inspired by so many things. But obviously travel, architecture, museums. I grew up in New York City and spent a lot of my childhood going to The Met and The Frick. There are so many beautiful things in the world to behold and nothing is ever really new—it's just the way we reinterpret or re-contextualize that makes something new and interesting.I love really humble things and grand things.

There’s something interesting about the tension together that is really exciting.

Nature, and landscapes, and flowers, and even the light at different times of day. So simple, and yet so inspiring."

Favorite design advice from the greats?

I find this David Hicks quote to be really true: “The most interesting rooms have something to say about the people who live in them.”