Before Sheryl Leysner designed interiors, she experienced how deeply a room could affect her mood. As a teenager undergoing knee operations, she spent time in hospitals and rehabilitation centers learning to walk again. She remembers those environments as cold, gray, and depressing. Then she entered a physiotherapy practice with a colorful interior and warm lighting. The difference stayed with her.
That experience gave her a direction. She wanted to become an interior architect and create spaces that could offer others the sense of comfort and optimism she had felt there. Today, that intention informs both her studio and Ruwe Bolster, her custom lighting and furniture label.
Her philosophy, “Designs that light you up,” describes the response she hopes to inspire: people feeling happier and more energized when they enter a space, wanting to stay, and becoming curious about the stories around them.
The decision to establish her own studio in 2011 grew out of another experience: regular visits to Barcelona. Leysner was drawn to interiors that reused vintage furniture and upcycled materials. They felt alive to her, with a character she increasingly missed in her own work.
Starting independently gave her room to change course. She could develop an approach in which existing objects and a building’s past helped determine what came next.
“I never start with a blank page,” she says. “I always study the history of the building and I make an inventory of materials that can be re-used before I start to design.”
This makes discovery part of the design process. Before deciding what to introduce, she considers what is already there and what deserves another use. She describes each building and object as having its own story and energy. Her task is to respond to that character, creating an interior that feels natural while retaining a distinct identity.
Ruwe Bolster became an important outlet for this experimentation. When Leysner launched her studio, the economic climate meant working with limited budgets. Lighting remained a priority, so she began turning ordinary objects into art lights that could give clients something distinctive within their means.
What began as a practical response also expanded her creative freedom. Under the Ruwe Bolster name, she felt able to pursue more expressive forms of upcycling and allow the materials themselves to become a visible part of the work.
OLD NEWS illustrates that approach. For a building that had once been a paper factory, Leysner and her team created large art lights from pink financial newspapers. The choice connected the installation directly to the building’s history. Paper also offered a link to the trees from which it originates, complementing an interior of warm, natural colors and abundant plants.
For Leysner, the work carries a personal message as well. Financial news becomes the material for an object she intends as a reminder of love’s importance. The installation gives visitors several ways to engage: through its appearance, its previous use, and the meaning its designer has placed within it.
Her wider portfolio includes Wonders of Work in Utrecht, CITYSIDE in Amsterdam, W70 in Rotterdam, Pharos in Hoofddorp, and Kiem in Barendrecht, alongside VIA HOTEL and ZOJAZZ STAGE in Amsterdam. Asked to choose the project that best represents her vision, she resists selecting just one.
She sees their differences as essential. Each space needs to fit its client and the people who use it. In her account, that fit is the measure of success, supported by the attention contributed by her team and the client throughout the project.
Her sensitivity to atmosphere also shapes her material and color preferences. She is wary of interiors dominated by artificial finishes, sharp corners, and black or gray, which she feels can make spaces less uplifting. Warmth and lighting are central considerations in how she wants people to experience her work.
Leysner is candid about the demands of running the business behind it. Curating and leading a team remain challenges, and she acknowledges that sales is not her strongest area. She is considering how to strengthen those capabilities, including the possibility of outsourcing client acquisition. Creative confidence, in her telling, coexists with the ongoing work of learning to lead a company.
Her next ambition is international expansion. Alongside bringing Ruwe Bolster’s art lights to more markets, she wants to travel abroad to transform interiors on location. Her proposed approach involves working with local building teams and adapting existing materials on site, allowing each place to contribute to the finished design.
A recently launched project, HEART BEAT, extends her interest in atmosphere into participatory art. Leysner describes the traveling installation as an invitation to experience love, hope, and connection through sound, touch, smell, and sight.
The thread connecting these ambitions reaches back to that physiotherapy practice. Leysner remembers how it felt to enter a room that offered warmth at a difficult time. Through her interiors and art lights, she is working to give others a reason to pause, feel welcome, and stay a little longer.
