Museum Rijswijk

Interior designer Sylvia van der Net designed the interior of the eighteenth century Rijswijk Museum’s brand new wing. Her understated design allows the artwork to shine.

Old & new

Designet’s owner and creative director Sylvia van der Net’s main purpose was to make the new addition ‘work’ with the stately 1790 mansion that is the Rijswijk Museum. “Although the exterior of the new wing offers a sharp contrast with the original building, the interior had to breathe a similar atmosphere”, says Van der Net. “The mansion has oak wood flooring, so wood was a natural choice to achieve this continuity.”

Engineered for stability

The heavily acclimatised interior of the galleries places high demands on the wood flooring. “The humidity in the rooms is very low”, says Van der Net. “So I had to make sure that the flooring was absolutely stable. The museum had a bad experience with shrinking oak flooring in an earlier annex, so I made my choice for this beautiful, engineered flooring.”

Serving the art

Designing the interior to any museum is a peculiar job. Van der Net says: “You don’t have a lot of furniture to work with in a museum and everything you do design is meant to serve the art. Every interior feature has to lead the eye to what’s on the walls. It’s counterintuitive for most interior designers, but making the artwork shine is a reward in itself.”