The Studio
A small commercial design practice in Independence, Ohio.
Aastha Interiors was founded in 2011 by Donna Kruse after fourteen years inside larger Cleveland architecture firms. The studio is built on three convictions: that commercial design is a service business first; that good interiors outlast their decade; and that the room tells the client who you are before you say a word.
Donna Kruse · Founder & Principal Designer
Donna Kruse
Donna grew up in Parma, studied interior architecture at Kent State, and spent the first decade of her career inside two larger Cleveland practices working primarily on workplace and hospitality projects.
She started Aastha Interiors in 2011 with a clear brief for herself: stay small enough to be on every project personally, and never let the studio's headcount get ahead of its appetite for the work.
Fifteen years later that has been the rule. The studio is three people. Every client meets Donna at the first call. Every project has her name on the drawings.
Outside the studio, Donna serves on the Cleveland Restoration Society's design advisory committee and teaches a guest seminar each spring at Kent State on the business of running a small design practice.
— Donna Kruse
Values
How we work.
Stay small.
We don't grow the studio for its own sake. Every project goes through Donna.
Specify honestly.
Real wood, real brass, real stone. Dishonest materials betray the client by year three.
Budget transparently.
Line-item budgets at week two, before concept design, with a confidence score on every number.
Work locally.
Almost every trade we use is within forty miles of the studio. That's not nostalgia — it's how schedules survive.
The Team
Three people. One studio.
Donna Kruse
Founder & Principal Designer
BFA Interior Architecture, Kent State University · NCIDQ · ASID Allied
Marcus Whitfield
Senior Associate, Workplace & Healthcare
MArch, University of Cincinnati · LEED AP · WELL AP. Joined the studio in 2016.
Priya Sharma
Associate, Hospitality & Retail
BFA Interior Design, Cleveland Institute of Art. Joined the studio in 2020.
Credentials & Affiliations
Trained. Licensed. Active.
Timeline
2011 → today
Begin a project
Tell us about the space — we'll tell you what's possible.
Most engagements start with a discovery call and a walk of your existing space. We respond to every inquiry within two business days.