An Interior Designer Shares Her Creative Perspective On The Art Of Mixing
Designing interior cocktails with Tineke Triggs
Tineke Triggs’ interiors are never the same twice. She cultivates a melting pot of ideas to meet each client’s specific needs. “All my projects are the self-expression of the client,” says Triggs. | Photo Philip Harvey
Design Mixology, featuring the interiors of Tineke Triggs, showcases an astonishing breadth of work. Each project is more beautiful than the last, and every last one is unique. The secret is in the book’s title, which comes from one of the designer’s friends. “She said I’m a design mixologist,” recalls Triggs. “Constantly mixing and matching things to design the perfect cocktail.” The result is a rich tapestry of aesthetics, artfully combined into a new dream home on every page.
Triggs herself is many things. She’s a first-generation American born in Northern California to immigrants from Holland and Scotland. Dyslexic, she found refuge in art early on and discovered a talent for math in high school. She put herself through college and later pursued careers in finance and tech, which taught her to manage teams, timelines and budgets like few others. She found her way to design through remodeling a house with a friend, and by flipping condos and small apartments with her husband in the early 2000s. “I got hooked on the construction side of design,” says Triggs. “So I took a leap of faith and planned a business model to do design from a construction perspective.”
The clients for this Martis Camp home were open to playful colors, so Triggs incorporated reds in this living space to balance the rich natural greens outside. | R. Brad Knipstein
Fast-forward about 20 years, and the pages of Design Mixology showcase her firm’s success. The book includes two projects in Martis Camp, Tahoe. The mountain homes had a common challenge: Honor the Tahoe look without becoming dark and wood-heavy. For the first home the answer was in minimal, modern elements. “We lightened up the cabinetry and mixed in some cooler tones like stone inlay materials,” says Triggs. “We brought in wood that has a warm temperature to balance it out. We didn’t do a wood kitchen, we did a soft, almost beige tone cabinetry called iron mountain.”
For the second Martis Camp project, a family wanted more playful spaces. “We went outside the box with the color palette, which was really fun,” says Triggs, referring to all the red they used. “In Tahoe, you have so much green that if you did everything green inside, it can become drab and dingy. But if you bring in a color that’s deep like red, then it pops more and balances the space.” Every element of Triggs’ process mixes together to fit the clients’ needs, from financial management of the project to the design itself. It’s all specifically designed for the homeowner, and no homeowner is exactly alike. “It’s about the clients. I think about who they are, how they live, where are they from and where do they want to go,” says Triggs. “It’s like someone commissioned me for an art piece. There’s a blank canvas and I ask, ‘How do I tell the story of who these people are?’”
Triggs used lighter wood accents to keep this home bright while honoring the classic Tahoe aesthetic. The homeowners’ colorful, modern art collection fit perfectly. | Photo Philip Harvey
In a guest room, Triggs innovated twin beds that convert into one king, against a long wooden headboard. | Photo Philip Harvey
In this home, the dining room, living room and kitchen share one bright open space.| R. Brad Knipstein
Cabinetry in soft tones makes for a light, modern atmosphere, while cowhide counter chairs tie the kitchen to its Western, Tahoe aesthetic. | Photo Philip Harvey
A bright, airy dining alcove, matches these homeowners’ willingness to play with color and texture. | Photo R. Brad Knipstein
“I’m not just one style or one look or one place,” says Triggs. “I’m all of those things. And so are we, so are people. We’re diverse as a culture, and my clients are diverse.” | Photo Philip Harvey
