Mark van den Bergh's apartment has largely been furnished through ideas he has gathered at work, writes EMMA CULLINAN.

Mark van den Bergh runs a company, Oberg, with his siblings that makes soy wax, scented candles, named Max Benjamin after their twin nephews. The company also makes frames, moisturisers, glassware and other items for the home, which Mark designs. He lives in an apartment in Booterstown, Dublin.

Why did you buy here?

The first apartment I bought was in Dundrum but I was never 100 per cent happy there even though it was a lovely place near Marley Park. I was unfamiliar with the area, it wasn’t me.

I had been to school in Ballsbridge and have a lot of friends there, and in Dalkey and Blackrock. Three years ago I saw this place being built; I liked the trees outside and the timber on the buildings (designed by O’Mahony Pike) which gave it a slight Alpine feel – and I love skiing.

Do you like living in the city?

I was brought up in Enniskerry – in the Glencree Valley which is absolutely beautiful – and would come to school on the 44 bus (and buses would break down quite often in those days).

So I like both the city and country. It’s not so much about being in the city centre as being close to friends.

I have a lads thing here every week on Tuesdays or Thursdays where we sit around and talk about how business is doing and what is going on in the world. It’s a civilised time for guys together without being in the pub – there are so many people in the pubs in town that we don’t get quality chats – and we have great chats. This is a socialising apartment – people can just pop in.

How did you choose which apartment to have in the scheme?

When I came to see the scheme this was the marketing suite. There was a table right where my dining table is, manned by the estate agents. The place was packed.

On the walls were boards with pictures of all the different blocks and each apartment had a dot on it to say it was sold. This was in the days when things sold fast, so I thought, I’m not going to get anything, then I saw one apartment with a dot just half stuck onto it and said to the agent, “what is that apartment?” and he said, “I think it is this one”, and I said, “I’ll take it”.

I liked the big, wide livingroom with the large window and deck. Immediately I could see things that I could do with it. I already owned the chandelier and could picture it above the table.

You use your creative side, designing products for your company

There is a history of entrepreneurship in our family. The trick with a business is to be creative and also have a business head. My brother Dave is operations manager. He is fantastic. I could never do what he does.

My grandfather on my dad’s side ran printing companies in Belgium. During the second World War, the Germans wrote and told him that he had to move into the basement of his house as they were going to use the rest of it: they didn’t take the house at gunpoint, they just wrote a letter.

After the war, when my father was six, his father wanted to move to a neutral country and chose Ireland. He started Shamrock Foods and was one of the first people to export tulips from Ireland, from the family home in Woodstock – which is now Druid’s Glen golf club.

My father, Hugo, is a very creative director of Oberburg Engineering which manufactures food processing machines for people like Kelloggs and McCains.

He is amazing. He has a very conceptual mind – he conceptualises all of the machines, including an industrial potato peeler, that peels tons and tons of potatoes in a drum that spins around at high speed. He also has a tomato colour sorter with electronic pegs that flick unripe ones to the side. Although it doesn’t sound glamorous it is very creative and that is where the creative side of our business comes from.

I design all our products, fragrances and the packaging. The thing about packaging is to keep it simple, elegant, timeless and classic. I don’t think we will ever have to change our Max Benjamin candle packaging.

Do you take the same approach to designing products as designing your apartment?

Well I do have bits of bling in here, with the chandelier. I got that at a trade fair. We often go to trade fairs and at the end when we are packing up people will come over and say, “I would love some scented candles”, and we say, “we would love some lights” or whatever. And we swap and buy things. I’ve got a lot of things in the apartment that way.

The chandelier is by a friend of mine who has a company in the UK called Present Time. They have a lot of funky stuff. You should see their stands at trade shows: there are clocks, crockery, chandeliers, everything really.

There is simplicity in the apartment too, with the photo frames, which I designed – it’s nice to have your own stuff.

The wallpaper, by Zoffany, has a spa feel to it, with its soft, relaxing natural finish – which I wanted in this room. We supply a lot of spas, including the Farnham Estate in Cavan, and there they have this gorgeous dark bamboo wallpaper. The guy who put it up in this room made a mess of it and there is glue seeping out. Another person put the same paper up in the bedroom and did it really well.

I see design opportunities through my work and bring that into my home. I’m lucky in that I don’t go to work and then go shopping, I pick up the ideas at work.

I like a 1950s and 1960s retro feel which can be seen in the side tables which came from another customer – I like the chrome legs and lacquer. The white dining table is from Mobilia – I love its big, round chrome leg. I got the white television stand in Ikea and put it together myself.

I got the sofas through a friend who is a furniture importer and the rugs are from Kashan in Sandyford.

I love mixing and matching old and new from different eras.

My girlfriend, Jackie, who is moving here in a couple of weeks, is a Kiwi who has been living in China for years. She has a very different taste to me. Antipodeans are hugely influenced by Asian design: Japanese, Chinese… She has furniture that she is bringing over, so that will be interesting!

You have your own candles burning here, do you like having your fragrances around you?

Yes, and I change them around a lot. After cooking I will have a citrussy fragrance to clear the air, such as grapefruit and pomelo (which looks like a grapefruit too). I first discovered it in Thailand. I ate one and thought, Jeez, that tastes amazing and smells amazing. When I came back I put it in our candles.

We choose fragrances with the help of blind testings with women. We do ask guys as well, but the more metro sexual types: many of my friends are lads who would never go and buy a candle.

You’re also an actor?

Yes, I've done a few plays and had parts in the Clinicand Fair Cityand TV commercials.

Is acting part of your creative side?

The way this apartment links with my acting is through entertaining people. I love having people for dinner or to watch a rugby match.

I also love watching loads of movies. I have a lot of books on different directors, including my latest, a Stanley Kubrick book.

Another book I have, Wisdom, quotes actors (and other people, including Garret FitzGerald who says “above all avoid cynicism”). My favourite is by Alan Arkin: “Either you are growing or decaying – there is no middle ground – if you are standing still you are decaying.”