At Work With Muller Van Severen

Muller Van Severen has mushroomed from a make-do moment at home into a commercially successful design studio. Benjamin Dane meets the founders where it all began—at the bottom of their garden.

There are only a few dozen steps between the blue front door of Fien Muller and Hannes Van Severen’s home and the entrance of their acclaimed studio, Muller Van Severen. Across a courtyard, overlooking the garden, an old orangery has been transformed into a two-story office and atelier for the designers and their two assistants. 

It was architect Élise Van Thuyne who helped the couple renovate the studio, which is located just outside of Ghent, Belgium, when they moved into the house back in 2008, adding bright, red-framed floor-to-ceiling windows to let in more light. The interior was split...