Finding Individual Style Within the Interior Designs of Merete Vyff Slyngborg
Finding Individual Style Within the Interior Designs of Merete Vyff Slyngborg
Designing Minimalist Spaces With Personality and Artistry
Name:
Merete Vyff Slyngborg
Photography:
Courtesy of Merete Vyff Slyngborg
Words:
Marissa Stempien
Within an empty space, there’s the unlimited potential that allows for one’s creativity and personality to shine through. In a house, it’s not only representative of the people in the home, but should be filled with individual style and a balance of beauty and functionality. For artist and stylist Merete Vyff Slyngborg, her fine arts education and experience as an artist allows her to see each space from a uniquely creative perspective and design it not only with style but professional artistry in mind.
With a touch of minimalism and a paired-down color palette that allows for few pops of color, she uses her talent to create a space that feels clean and simple while still full of life and personality. Her work feels like an art installation, made for each client, enveloping you in a space that is sleek, clean, and on-trend, while still feeling full and unique. It’s designed to make you dream bigger, think in a new way, recall memories, and spark the imagination. It’s an inspirational space where she plays with the dimensions, design, and atmosphere to create a place that draws you in. Here, she discusses what makes for a beautifully designed space and how she creates her signature style.
Photography by Maja Karen for Broste
Can you tell me a bit about how you got started in interior styling? Was this something you always knew you wanted to do?
I actually came into the field by coincidence. I was educated as a fine arts artist in Denmark and Vienna. In my art practice, I always worked with interiors and space as a starting point. My main focus was to look into the history and contemporary nature of concepts such as popular tastes, trends, and what’s current. I did this by sampling other works of art, design objects, functional objects, popular culture, and interiors into a new composition and thus a new telling.
I was invited to do a solo exhibition in Copenhagen and wanted to invite an interior stylist to install the show for me, to see what this field or profession would contribute to my work, and how the show and the experience of the show would change because of this. In my artistic work, I always put a lot of emphasis on the installation and the composition of the objects. Therefore it was an interesting process for me to place these decisions in someone else's hands. This collaboration with the Danish interior stylist Pernille Vest ended up as a long term one and I worked for her for four years before starting on my own. I still work as an artist and I love to mix the two worlds, as I think my work in both professions benefits from this collab.
Your styling feels clean and minimal yet there’s always something that feels personal about it. How do you work to make sure the space feels unique and special for each client?
I have always loved to watch how people are styled and live in movies, and the field of set design has always interested me. I think I have a natural intuition on what fits a person’s style as well as the ability to place myself in an individual's head. But I also love the abstract notion of space and therefore I like to create images where it is difficult to grasp where you, as a viewer, are placed. Almost like an art installation.
Photography by Maja Karen
Photography by Maja Karen for Paper Collective
Do you bring in a lot of outside pieces to create the perfect interior or do you try to work with what is already given to you in the space?
I work mostly for different brands and the photos I do are often situated in a rented location. I love to use the space as a clean canvas to create a new environment for each client. That being said, it is always nice to have some given elements to play from—this could be the architecture or some objects already in the space. A design space always has some kind of atmosphere and, together with the objects being pictured, is almost always the starting point to play from.
You work with a lot of brands and editorials, do you feel that you have full creative control here, or do you try to work within the client’s style?
It is always a collaborative process, which is also the part I love. In my work as an artist, I always have full autonomy and I make all the decisions. In my styling work, I like that there is a client, another voice that pushes me in new directions that I, maybe, would normally not go. This could be because the aesthetic of the product calls for a certain style or because it’s fun to play around with another layer of light or color. But at the same time, I would say that there is always a part of me in every shoot I do. I think this comes from a love for the field, but also because over time, you develop a certain style just as you do as an artist. This does not mean that you cannot grow or surprise yourself but there will always be an element of you in it.
Your work feels minimalist and understated, yet none of the rooms feel empty or bare, they have lots of varying tones, textures, and pieces for the eye to gravitate toward. How do you balance these layers, giving it the feeling of minimalism while still filling up the space?
This is the part I love the most about the job, and there is a lot of work that goes into getting to the point where you are in the space with all the different props and objects. When I am finally there, then the play begins. It is a lot like installing an art exhibition. You have to try things out and also allow yourself to make mistakes and start over. This is also why it takes a long time to compose a beautiful image.
For me it has to have a balance that I cannot explain, sometimes the balance can be that everything is out of balance, but it makes sense somehow. I like different textures and materials and playing around with shapes and lines. Therefore I appreciate when the space is airy because for me it makes the different elements much more visible.
Photography by Maja Karen for Nuura
Photography by Maja Karen
What are some of your favorite spaces to work with?
I actually cannot say as I find the unimposing spaces just as interesting to work with as the grand and spectacular ones. But they need to have a sculptural or picturesque feeling about them. I once did a photoshoot in a church and it was a really special experience because of the atmosphere and the ethos from our voices when we talked. In some way, the space was not suited for a whole photo crew and called for silence, which I was quite fascinated by.
What kind of story are you hoping to tell with your space and styling?
I love to make images that can evoke imagination. People sometimes ask me why the images are manipulated and constructed and do not look more like real life. My answer is that that is the point. It is about making a story that reflects and references the life you know but still has another atmosphere that makes you think in a new way about a space or an object. This is also how I work with my objects and photos in my art practice. I am not so interested in reflecting the everyday life and the private home, but more of a space and a feeling that makes you think back to a memory or makes you dream larger.
Photography by Stine Christiansen for Kristina Dam Studio
“ I am not so interested in reflecting the everyday life and the private home, but more of a space and a feeling that makes you think back to a memory or makes you dream larger. ”
Photography by Maja Karen for Nuura
Photography by Maja Karen for Broste
