Swoon-worthy Spring Interiors With MacFarlane Van Der Heul
This week we gathered friends of VERDEN for an exclusive masterclass with design studio Macfarlane Van der Heul to discover how they approach the art of dressing a home for spring. From coaxing warmth into light-starved rooms to the underrated power of scent as a design tool, their answers were every bit as considered and inspiring as their beautiful interiors.
How do you handle a room that doesn’t receive much natural light? Can it still feel genuinely spring-like?
Absolutely! Spring is about freshness and vitality and we often think about ways to introduce those elements into rooms that lack natural light. Using crisp greens, sunny yellows and fresh pinks can immediately give a gloomy room a lift. In North facing rooms, where the light can be flat, we use whites with warm yellow undertones to create the effect of sunlight where there may be very little. Styling a room with plants and flowers, or even botanical and floral art can also make it feel more spring-like. And, of course, scent can always lift a room – we would favour something crisp and green like Herbanum or bright and citrussy like D’Orangerie.
How would you advise clients to bring a sense of nature indoors during springtime?
Whatever the time of year, we favour the use of natural materials – wood, stone, cottons and linens, but Springtime is a time to really up the ante. In April and May, we love a room styled with seasonal fragrant flowers - a posy of bluebells or a pot of Lily of the Valley. Of course, if the weather permits and you’re fortunate enough to have a garden or look out onto green space, there is no substitute for actually inviting nature into your space by throwing open the windows and doors to the fresh Springtime air.
Scent is one of the most powerful yet underused tools in interior design. How consciously do you think about fragrance when refreshing a space for spring?
Constantly! Scent has a remarkable ability to set a tone or evoke a feeling. For Spring, we’re drawn to fragrances that feel crisp and green or bright and sunny.
Are there any spring decorating clichés you actively steer clients away from?
We avoid anything too literal or too fussy — pastel overloads, or an overuse of floral prints. Restraint is key: a subtle shift to crisper, sunnier colours or adding a carefully chosen floral accessory – we love the floral embroideries by Hunt & Hope. We think a space should be evolved for the season rather than obviously redressed.
A reed diffuser offers a constant, ambient presence in a room, while a candle creates a more deliberate, ritual moment. Do you specify one over the other, and does the room type influence that choice?
Well, we love both. But we tend to think of reed diffusers for transitional and functional spaces — entryways and utility rooms. Candles, on the other hand, invite pause so we think of them for spaces where our clients linger: beside a bathtub, on a bedside table or an ottoman tray.
Is there a particular Verden fragrance you could see working well with a current project or aesthetic you are working with, and why?
One of the projects we’re working on at the moment is an incredible historic farmhouse in the Surrey Hills. It has these beautiful centuries old oak beams and is set in a wooded valley. We think Arborealist, with its woody, green scent would feel perfect there.
Sustainability is increasingly central to how both interior designers and Verden operate. How much does a brand’s values influence your decision to recommend it to clients?
We are deeply committed to sustainable sourcing for our clients. That means encouraging them to buy once by buying well – we know that a well-made sofa with classic lines can be reworked with new fabric when young parents become empty nesters, a solid wood floor can be sanded and refinished and traditional kitchen joinery can be refreshed with a lick of paint. We don’t believe in disposable interiors. Likewise, we pay careful attention to the provenance of the products we specify, the integrity of their materials and the authenticity of their stories. We do a lot of buying, so what we buy matters.
Finally, if you could give one piece of advice to someone who wants their home to feel renewed this spring, without a full redesign or a large budget, what would it be?
We would tell them to look to nature - put some sunny yellow tulips in a glass vase, frame a thrifted botanical print and introduce a natural scent that marks the new season. It’s all about small gestures – sunshine, freshness and something beautiful to breathe in.
Find Macfarlane Van de Heul:
https://www.instagram.com/macfarlanevanderheul/
