Archive for October, 2013

Though I know the big win last night was the Red Sox, I also took home 2 awards last night at the Prism Awards, a Biannual awards given by the Builders and Remodelers Association of Greater Boston!

If I thought I was going to win I would have brought my staff and hubby! I had Mom at my side for the evening which was lovely and my friends Susan & Steve Howell of Howell Custom Building Group also won a couple awards – congrats to them too!  I took home silver awards for Kitchen Design and Best Creative Use of Space categories; both my Camp project which also took the Grand Prize at Designer Bath‘s ‘Designers Shine’ awards this year. The little project they could! (or not so little). The best part of the evening though was after texting the homeowner a photo of my win her reply was ‘Your own World Series! You Rock! Congrats, I am so proud of you’. OK, that made my year and it’s why I love what I do, we work so hard to understand what a client is looking for and help make their dreams come true. Sharing this win with them and their happiness for us is what keeps me going. Wow, I didn’t mean for that to sound so sappy! But it’s so true. Have a good day all!

Kristina Crestin Design_Prism Awards

Pics: Mom & I and Jason & I (from Designer Bath)

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I spy! Just opened the new House Beautiful and saw a product roundup with a mirror I just used on the Brookline job. Love when that happens! The client loved the Grant Mirror from Schoolhouse Electric and bought a white and orange one – and we ended up using the orange one (see progress pics below) I wish they came a little larger, but either way it’s still a fun pop of color!

Kristina Crestin Design House BeautifulProgress photos of the bathroom below. We didn’t fully renovate this space like the other bathrooms, but went for a (supposed to be quick) facelift – keeping the plumbing and even lighting locations (though changing the sconce for a new Schoolhouse Electric one) and swapping out the finishes and color – who doesn’t love a good turquoise tile!. We’re on the hunt now for a fun vintage poster for a pop of orange art on the other wall – not providing so easy to find …..

Kristina Crestin Design_ Brookline Johns bath JPG

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Now that I am back to the office and sorting through my almost 2000 photos taken I wanted to share some of my favorite take aways. To start – a favorite rug from each of the 3 mid range rug vendors we went to see. This is always something I target at High Point as we have great high end rug resources locally, but finding the range of fun, colorful mid cost rugs is a moving target. Three of my favorites to follow:

1. Chandra: This was our very first stop one we got to town, and having not been to the show in 2 years I was pretty impressed by the new showroom, pretty cool. I zero’d in on the flatweaves and found a new selection, great patterns and even (wait for it) ones that were blue-green! I hesitate to use the word seafoam since it conjures the 80′s to me when I hear that word, but I was a pretty happy girl. Samples ordered on the spot. Photos below of the showroom, my favorite rug and my traveling cohorts, Stacey and I; then my designer BFF Keith of Equilibrium Design and his take-long Catharine.

Kristina Crestin Design_high point rugs_chandra

2. Jaipur: We were yet again assaulted by an array of fun and colorful flat weaves as we walked in. Since this was a target of the trip I was in heaven. Though they had many bold and fun choices to get excited about (there are plenty of turquoise and chartreuse samples that I will be ordering, I promise!) my favorite was a more muted combo of grey and flax in a varying width chevron. I just fell in love with the color combo!

Kristina Crestin Design__high point _Jaipur

3. Surya: This showroom was an assault on the senses, in size and volume. Having many rugs I’ve used before and knowing they had a lot of new colors I specifically wanted to see I was pretty excited about dedicating some time to methodically go through the showroom. Though there were many new colorful rugs that were right up my alley my 2 favorites (I couldn’t pick just one as they were so different) turned out to be neutral. The first was another flatweave that was sophisticated, a great layering of colors. The other pieced hide rugs in a random running bond that created an ombre effect. Totally cool, I think I want one for myself!

Kristina Crestin Design_High Point blog post_surya

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It’s amazing all the facets of our job. Back from High Point (and yes I’ll be working on blog posts to share all my goodies!) and I’ve had this lovely fiddle fig tree in my entry for days as I couldn’t fit it in the Mini the last couple days when I have been out and about. Thank goodness for understanding husbands. It just fits in the truck and will get there safely, after a few stops to pick up vintage maps, pillows and light switches. Oh I love delegating!  Can’t wait to see it in the space, I’ll get Stacey to share some pics soon as she is wrapping up a fun Family Room decorating job.

Kristina Crestin Blog Post_Fiddle Fig A jpg

Sharing some pics of the lovely fiddle fig tree as I’ve had images of this tree and been on the hunt and haven’t been able to find any around here! So excited to finally track one down, though Stacey beat me to getting it for her project when I wanted a couple for one of mine  - darn!

Kristina Crestin Blog Post_Fiddle Fig B jpgPhoto credits of inspiration images from top: Marion House Book Blog, Habitually Chic Blog, p-l-a-i-d blog via Lonny Magazine , Hi Sugarplum blog, Elle Decor image with interior design by Peter Dunham, Kelly Maria’s Blog, though she doesn’t credit where the photo on the right came from, Elle Decor

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Yesterday (was it really only yesterday??) was the Wenham Kitchen Tour and I was lucky enough to have a client happy to have her kitchen on the tour to benefit the Wenham Museam. I’ve both been on the tour before as well as had another kitchen I worked on on the tour, it’s nice to be on both sides; but yesterday was great.  I teamed with Art Dioli of Olson Lewis on the project so 1: I had the extra manpower of his Marketing Guru Teri and another Designer Kelly along to join my Mom (my ‘girl friday’) and I in prepping the house for the tour and 2 : I had help all day question answering. Boy did we get traffic & questions! I left a bit early to head to the airport for a trip with Stacey to High Point Furniture Market – stay tuned for photos and updates! It might be when we get back, we’ve shopped till we dropped for full day 1 and we’re exhausted, and then perhaps a bit beyond. Follow on Facebook or Instagram if you want more up to date pics of the good, the bad and the truly hideous!

Oh, two other things – a big THANK YOU to our friends at Chive for dropping some of the most amazing goodies I’ve ever had by the tour. They were delicious! Two,  for those of you are good at the game ‘I spy’ – YES those are the bottles that were strapped in the back of my Mini this past spring that I got at Brimfield! The client wired them up this week and made them into lamps – IN LOVE!

Blog Post Wenham Kitchen tour JPGPics: Top, Deb Bennet (Mom) and I right before the tour kicks off, Kristin from Wenham Museum, Bottom photo Teri from Olson Lewis, Me Lindsay from Chive & Kelly from Olson Lewis.

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It’s music to our ears when I client uses words like ‘risk’ and ‘color’, even more fun when they combine the two! I’ve had this image of pink, orange and yellow glass lighting for awhile, but not having a project to pitch it to. We’re working through mixing materials and elements for a kitchen eating space, not so large but has an opportunity to have a punch – whether it be the lighting or the art. We’re loving this image we’ve had pinned forever ago of Erin Ashley‘s art, it’s been the inspiration for the space!

Kristina Crestin Design_red orange yellow breakfast area jpg

Dining Table is the Duette by Altura Furniture. Lamps are a pair of Mid Century Orange Glass by Blenko found on 1stdibs.com . Chairs are Kartel Louis Ghost Chairs. Console Oly Jean Buffet. Art from Erin Ashley.

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I’ve mentioned it before, but from time to time its like Christmas around here when packages show up. We missed the FedEx man and were surprised by this massive pile of boxes yesterday. So exciting – it’s all our silver leaf frames from West Elm for our gallery wall in ‘Big P’s’ Family Bath (we’re calling it that to differentiate from a more formal powder room on the 1st floor) We’re going to have a full wall crammed with frames to the ceiling with family photos. I am so excited! We’re giving the client her ‘homework’ of photo sizes that we need and then we’ll get them popped in and hung. The job site is still looking like a job site – but it’s quickly coming together as we approach move in – stay tuned! Oh, and please notice our lovely stickers we had made for marking client boxes and things, I am SO in love with them – the turquoise of course helps you notice where the labels are in a stack – or so that’s what I told myself when ordering them in turquoise rather than grey!

Kristina Crestin Design_Family Bath frames JPG

Photos taken on our porch & quick study/sketch I did to show the client our idea of a more haphazard mix of sizes for the back wall.

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Last we shared the newly fabricated banquette for the Brookline project. Check out some progress on the job site. A majority of the first floor was flagstone and some tumbled slate tiles in the kitchen – not the clients cup of tea. So since we had the timeline this summer they decided to pull it all out and replace it with wood and while at it add radiant heat. Next week we should have the banquette on site and the cushions should be done in a few weeks – can’t wait. Props to Stacey as getting our set of drawings for this out the door quickly; we had a tight timeline and she worked out the CAD drawings and some sketchup studies to make this design come together; I don’t know what I would do without her!

Kristina Crestin Design_X Brookline banquette progress B JPGGC:  The Holland Companies

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I love seeing progress. We just had a team meeting at Furniture Design Services Inc who is making our kitchen banquette among other things for this project. We managed to coordinate a time between fabrication being completed and prior to finishing when we could dash over and have the client and I consult about the seat cushion. The banquette is gorgeous, they did a killer job on it – next week we get to see it installed! Check out our turquoise ostrich pleather for the cushion – it is going to be so fun!

Kristina Crestin Design _X Brookline banquette A JPG

Banquette fabricated by Furniture Design Services Inc, out cushion will be done by Miles River Sewing. Gorgeous ostrich pleather is Kravet.

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We’re at the point on this project where all the painting is done and some of the cabinetry is being installed. We took a bookcase out when we redid the floors and came up with a new fireplace paneling design that included a new bookcase in the same location as the old one. As part of this design I used intentional asymmetrical heights of shelves and those shelves wrap around the back of the bookcase in a short projection – creating a horizontal ribbing on that back, which happens to be our front entry! The sketch below shows how the end of the bookcase looks as well as my elevation sketch which is a study in lamp sizing. The cabinetry just went in (I haven’t seen it yet), our console which we’re getting in a custom turquoise lacquer is on order and now we’re working on accessories. So far I am thinking a massive 48″ square mirror and some amber glass lamps that are nice and oversized. Can’t wait to see it come together!

Kristina Crestin Design _X Brookline entry console JPG

Lamps from Mitchell Gold, the Deano amber table lamp, 48″ mirror from Restoration Hardware.

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