How Danish studio Tableau became fashion’s first call for immersive interiors

Perhaps you’ve experienced a Tableau space; the vibrant use of colour, the sumptuous materials and, of course, the flowers. Founded by creative director Julius Værnes Iversen in 2018, the Copenhagen-based multidisciplinary studio has, over time, become the go-to for immersive scenography and installations among fashion and design clients in Scandinavia and beyond.

Taking a “minimalistic approach”, Værnes Iversen hones in on just two or three colours and as many materials, building out whole worlds that instantly grip the viewer, creating an immersive fantasy. “It’s the same principle if it’s a small scale photoshoot or a large scale interior project,” he says. “A very minimalistic approach with an attractive colour can make a space or a flower decoration or an object become more interesting. We try to make something that's significant but not overwhelming.”

For Værnes Iversen, it started with flowers. “My father was a florist, so it all originates back to that,” he says. Værnes Iversen worked in his father’s flower shop more or less from the time he was 12, even keeping his job part-time while he pursued a degree in law (he eventually dropped out because it was “too boring”). It was then that he began working with flowers in a more significant way. “I started seeing floristry as a design element, instead of being a mere decorative piece,” he says. “I had the urge to make flowers as part of the design industry, rather than something you have on the table.”

For Værnes Iversen, flowers are as much a building block material as wood or metal – an approach evident in his large-scale floral designs, which reveal thoughtful construction and an architectural approach. His first major commission was for Dansk magazine, for which he created an otherworldly floral installation that appeared on the cover. His signature bloom, however, isn’t a flower at all but a plant: asparagus. “When you see these very artificial coloured installations that we’ve made, they’re quite often made of asparagus which has been preserved. You basically put it through the same machine that colours a car.” Værnes Iversen balances shocking use of colour with plenty of natural green foliage, mimicking the nature for which Scandinavia is famous.

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Today, Tableau is much more than flowers. Occupying a second-floor gallery space in central Copenhagen, the studio puts on exhibitions, collaborating with like-minded designers and artists to populate its space with both functional and decorative objects. Then there are the Tableau-designed spaces – both permanent commissions, like the pistachio-hued Connie-Connie cafe at the Copenhagen Contemporary art centre, and ephemeral collaborations, like the Vogue Scandinavia and Nina Ricci private dinner held at the gallery (Tableau was responsible for the minimal black-and-white tablescape). Værnes Iversen met his current collaborators at a rave in Copenhagen. Four months later they were collaborating with major magazines (including Vogue Paris and Vogue Ukraine) and design houses (more recently, Tableau collaborated with Hermès on an elaborate display for their shop-in-shop at NK in Stockholm).

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The Tableau experiences merges the natural with the industrial – a marriage of the flowers through which Værnes Iversen first made his mark with forward-thinking design. The scope of what Tableau does has expanded, but the ethos remains the same. “We want to create an experience for the visitor,” says Værnes Iversen. “It’s a matter of evoking a feeling.”

Visit Tableau at their flower shop and concept store at Store Strandstræde 20 or their gallery at Vimmelskaftet 41a, 2nd floor.