Hervé Van der Straeten Unwinds in the Garden

By NICOLE SWENGLEY

The French artist-designer talks to The Wall Street Journal Europe about how he spends his weekend.

Hervé Van der Straeten is an artistic multitasker whose work is rooted in the hand-craft traditions of French decorative arts. Initially known for his eye-catching jewelry, his main focus now is the contemporary furniture and lighting he makes at his own bronze and cabinetmaking workshops in Paris. These sell at Galerie Van Der Straeten in the French capital while collaborations with French luxury brands have, among other designs, resulted in scent bottles for Dior, Guerlain and YSL.

Cécil Mathieu/courtesy of Galerie Van der Straeten

Hervé Van der Straeten

Next week, the award-winning designer will show his latest limited-edition furniture and lighting at the Pavilion of Art Design in London’s Berkeley Square. A dozen new, highly sculptural designs, including console tables, mirrors, chairs and chandeliers, bear all the hallmarks of his signature style: bold forms, elegant lines and the precision-crafting of contrasting materials, including bronze, lacquer, stone, anodized aluminum, wood and Plexiglass.

“I’m always challenging myself with new shapes and combinations of materials,” he says.

When he isn’t jetting between Paris, London, Berlin, Milan, New York and China, the 47-year-old designer enjoys quiet weekends at his 18th-century cottage in Burgundy with his partner, Bruno Frisoni, the artistic director of shoe brand Roger Vivier, and Alfred, his siamese cat, who travels with them.

How do you start your weekend?

We travel from Paris on Friday evenings by train or car to my house in Burgundy. It’s an 18th-century cottage with a lot of charm and is a complete contrast from my big, modern loft in Paris. Supper is the highlight of Friday evening because cooking is one of my great hobbies—I find it very relaxing. As the house is located between Sancerre and Chablis territory, we drink a very good bottle of wine and I make soup using herbs from the garden and roast a duck, which we have with a tomato and basil salad followed by garden strawberries with verbena jelly or poached pears. I like to use as much fruit and vegetables as possible from the garden.

Do you spend Saturday working in the garden then?

Exactly. Gardening is my other great passion. I bought the property as a wreck six years ago and have slowly been restoring both the house and garden. Tania Compton, a U.K.-based garden designer, helped me choose the right plants for the soil. There are several English rose varieties and lots of verbena bonariensis, which has very elegant, geometric branches and grows like crazy. As well as growing vegetables and herbs, I love clipping the box trees. I’m into structure and shape so the topiary is very precise—a bit like making something in my woodworking studio.

Is gardening an antidote to designing?

For me it’s a form of meditation because my mind is only focused on the aesthetic of the tree. Because I’m mainly indoors during the week, either at my studios or in the gallery, I like to be outside as much as possible at weekends. On Saturday morning I always go shopping in the local farmers’ market, especially if we have visitors from Paris staying with us. On Saturday evening we often have supper with friends in the neighborhood and sometimes someone will hold an informal concert at their house with a jazz singer and pianist.

What about Sundays?

During the autumn and spring, we spend Sunday mornings at a local vide-grenier [garage sale] as there are many in the neighborhood. I bought a big bunch of silver-plated cutlery for 15 centimes a piece at the last one. My cottage is furnished with old furniture bought at local vide-greniers or Drouot, the Paris auction house, where I recently picked up eight stuffed boars for a room I’m turning into a party space. Even though my own style is very contemporary, I’ve always liked historic furniture. You can learn a lot from its proportions, shape and scale.

Do you like to forget about work?

Visiting the cottage with all its old pieces gives me a total break from my own aesthetic. There’s none of my own furniture here. But I always have my sketchbook with me and enjoy working on the move. If we aren’t driving, the train back to Paris on Sunday evening is ideal for dreaming.