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Design Dialogues: Valerie van der Werff
Step inside Valerie van der Werff’s creative suite at Hotel De L’Europe in Amsterdam, where Dutch design, vintage finds and contemporary pieces come together. The magazine maker and owner of Valerie Creative Agency shares the stories behind her space, her favourite pieces and why vintage is central to the way she creates and lives.
Magazine maker, creative director and designer Valerie van der Werff has built a career around a good eye. As the owner of Valerie Creative Agency, she works across interiors and fashion, bringing together photographers, stylists, models and other creatives to produce campaigns and editorial projects. Having previously worked on Vogue Living, she now creates Harper’s Bazaar’s biannual art and interiors issue alongside her agency work, while developing pieces of her own, from rugs to blankets.
Her suite at Hotel De L’Europe offers a glimpse into how those different parts of her practice come together. Valerie first arrived at the Amsterdam hotel during Covid, when she was searching for somewhere in the city to work. What began as an office has evolved into something harder to define: part workspace, part bedroom, part moodboard and, on occasion, part party venue (spot the disco balls).
Vintage was the starting point. A highboard Valerie fell for led to a search for a desk, chairs and other pieces, gradually shaping an interior rooted in Dutch design. Rather than recreating a particular period, she mixes vintage furniture with contemporary pieces, reflective surfaces, warm woods and a restrained use of colour. The result feels collected rather than decorated.
That instinctive mix is central to Valerie’s aesthetic. Walls are filled with photographs from her work, alongside books, magazines and images she regularly rearranges. Disco balls and mirrors sit against wood; an old telephone survives purely for its looks; and a rug of Valerie’s own design has migrated from the floor to the wall above her bed, becoming an artwork in its own right.
“Buying vintage is a very good way of decorating your home with the most beautiful materials”
Valerie van der Werff
For Valerie, the appeal of vintage goes beyond appearance. Older furniture brings materials, craftsmanship and longevity that can be difficult to replicate - pieces that have already lasted for decades and can be repaired, reworked and lived with for decades more. It’s also what gives an interior its tension: the character of something old against the clarity of something new.
The suite is perhaps the clearest expression of that approach. Personal without being precious, polished without feeling overly composed, and, as Valerie puts it, unmistakably Amsterdam.
Watch the full interview here.
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