''What was the best year of your life?''

The question that made me realise where STUDIO MIQUE truly began

‘‘What was the best year of your life?’’

Someone asked me this recently after I opened the ‘‘ask me anything’’ box on Instagram. I didn’t have to think long.

2013.

I was about to turn 22 and moved to Sweden for an Erasmus semester. I didn’t know a single person. I ended up in a student dorm with 60 people from all around the world — and every one of us was alone. Maybe that’s why it worked. No pretending, no easing into it. Just a bunch of people far from home, figuring it out together.

Our first get-together was on my 22nd birthday, in the common room — the place that would become the heart of our dorm. The heart of our home away from home.

We cooked for each other. Partied a lót. Celebrated holidays we’d never heard of. I learned more about the world in those months than in all my years of school. I felt deeply at home — and looking back now, I can see it in my eyes. That happy sparkle.

Dorm family photo, Sweden December '13

I didn’t realise it then, but that semester planted something in me. A curiosity about people that never went away. About what makes them who they are. About the places they come from and the way those places shape everything — how they eat, how they gather, how they make a space feel like theirs.

In 2019, I got the chance to travel the world. And the first thing I did was visit my friends from Sweden — but this time in their own countries.

My friend from India drove all the way from Chennai to meet us in Kerala. In Melbourne, I slept in my friend's iconic Victorian terrace house in Fitzroy. In México, I stayed with my friend's 93-year-old grandfather in a small town not far from the capital.

I saw where they grew up, how they lived, the places that shaped them. And suddenly all those late-night conversations in the dorm made sense in a way they hadn't before. Their true home — the one that made them who they are — became clear.

That journey didn’t just inspire me. It confirmed something I’d been feeling for years. That home isn’t about furniture or style. It’s about people. Connection. The things we carry with us from the places and cultures that shaped us.

And that’s what I do now. When I design an interior, I’m looking for that feeling. When I write Echoing Home, I’m chasing it. When I collaborate with makers from around the world, I’m connecting to it.

Sweden planted the seed. And writing this now, I feel so much excitement and joy to continue this journey through STUDIO MIQUE — a personal interior design studio built on craftsmanship, the connection between people, and intentional living.

There's nothing I love more than connecting with people from around the world, learning from their stories, and truly seeing them for who they are. I think that's something we all need — a deeper understanding of each other's backgrounds, connected through a language that doesn't need words: craft.

Know any makers, brands, or people from around the world you think I should connect with? I’d love to hear from you.

So again, thank you, for asking me this question. You know who you are. :-)

With love,

Miek

People from all over the world who studied with me in Sweden

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