Archive for the ‘On the Road’ Category

Waking up to a beautiful day in Spain our first trip was to Cosentino’s quarry. We drove up into the mountains to get to this vantage point. You can appreciate the vastness and think a bit more about just what it takes to get that stone slab installed in your home when you step back and look at this first step in the process.

Kristina Crestin Design_Cosentino Silestone trip A

After visiting the quarry we started with a stop at their headquarters to check out fresh new products. You’ll notice I managed to ferret out the one turquoise thing in the building – turquoise Silestone! Yippie!

Some other new finds I was excited about was Cosentino’s departure from counters to the sink and vanity market. They have shower components as well but I was taken with the sinks, so clean and streamline. The simplicity of the Armony sink pictured below left in particular is something I’d love to integrate into my design work. From a design point of view it could streamline the design process of purchasing these as one element vs. drawing out details for a local fabricator to make.

Kristina Crestin Design_Cosentino Silestone trip B

Next? Orange vests and hard hats! A real good look. Without the hard hat one could assume we had gotten ourselves into trouble in Spain and had to work off some community service!  Blame the sangria! Kidding aside we rocked the vests and headed off to get our behind the scenes tour.

Kristina Crestin Design_Cosentino Silestone trip C

We saw a bit of the stone cutting process – 24 hours to cut one block of stone into individual slabs! No wonder they cost so much money …..  After that we got to see both Silestone and Dekton.  I’m a bit taken with some of the new Dekton finishes. The fact that the material can be used on an outdoor kitchen in our New England Climate and survive blows my mind.

Kristina Crestin Design_Cosentino Silestone trip D

To check out more about Cosentino and all their offerings head to their web site here.

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One last bit to share from Palm Springs ….. the Parker Hotel. SO cool. We saw little bits of it one evening when we hit Mister Parkers for dinner (by the way – a must see – dark, moody and delicious food – feels more like a private club than a restaurant!). We didn’t have time to wander the grounds and check the place out, so a car rental later on our last day before traveling home we set the GPS for the Parker and explored!

If I get back to Palm Springs some day I think this is where I would like to stay. The grounds were sprawling and I thought cleverly designed. You never knew what you were going to stumble upon. The hedges are labyrinth like with epansive vanishing points and long corridors that almost make you wonder what your going to find around the next corner. What did we find? A lemonade bar in the middle of the property. Yup. Who would have thought? Another couple turns we found some bocce courts tucked behind another hedge. A couple swimming pools?  Yup – they have that too. We came to poke around because we heard Jonathan Adler did the redesign – reason enough to come see the unexpected – but the whole experience is what put this on the top of my list for coming back!

Kristina Crestin Design_Parker Hotel Palm Springs

Photos taken at the Parker Hotel in Palm Springs, 4200 E Palm Canyon Dr, Palm Springs, CA 92264

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After the lush beauty of the Ace Hotel we did a quick stop at the Moorten Botanical Garden. I am a sucker for succulents, ha-ha. The place was a little jewel. It made me so jealous we are in the wrong climate to have some plant varieties like this (well, maybe not the caucus …). This summer I’ve mixed in different succulents into my pots on the patio and they look so much more interesting than past years. Seeing as I don’t have a greenhouse they will most likely get tossed at the end of the season. So sad!  Anyhow, if you are visiting Palm Springs I think it’s definitely worth a quick stop to tour this place, quick if it’s 110 degrees out like when I went!

Kristina Crestin Design_Moorten Botanical Garden Palm Springs

Photos taken at Moorten Botanical Garden in Palm Springs, 1701 S Palm Canyon Dr, Palm Springs, CA 92264

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Palm Springs: Ace Hotel

July 5th, 2015

Back to sharing a few highlights of my recent Palm Springs trip….. with After a yummy breakfast at Kings Highway we wandered the grounds at the Ace Hotel. Anyone that can take a neglected hotel and a Denny’s and do something creative with it is worth a trip in my book! I was not disappointed. I almost wish I stayed here on the trip (though I think the Parker would win out …I’ll share thoughts on that next!).  There was something nice about the way the layout sprawled out and at each turn you had a long corridor like view, capped with the mountains in the background. It really was stunning. Not to mention these people know how to work a color palette – The neutral buildings with warm, rich accents of the wood carvings balanced with all the vegetation adding bursts of colors. I could build a room based on the vibe here!

Now I can’t say much about the experience as a guest, but if we went on vibe and pretty factor (and don’t we all?) I’d give this place a shot!

Kristina Crestin Design_Ace Hotel Palm Springs

Photos taken at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, 701 E. Palm Canyon Dr / Palm Springs, CA 92264

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After finishing a couple intense days at the BOLD Conference our brains needed a timeout, not to mention sunlight. Seeing as I was flying so far I booked an extra day  in Palm Springs to see the sights with some new friends.  Me being me I did a little research and looked up some ideas before car rental time. Who would want to miss seeing a cool hotel or beautiful space!

Stop one, after coffee and picking up the car of course was Kings Highway at the Ace Hotel. Both of which I wanted to see in my one night in Palm Springs last year but never got to. I love a good diner and diner food. Even better I clearly love animal heads – check out the massive elephant made of rope! I am not sure who gets the design credit for that one! I do know that Commune and Ace’s own design team Atelier Ace collaborated on the hotel and I assume the diner.
Kristina Crestin Design_Kings Highway Palm Springs

The photo above is actually the lobby of the Ace Hotel, right outside the diner and I was in LOVE with the cool rope design in the windows. How clever. Some people are just so imaginative. Now I wouldn’t want to be the one to dust the display …..

Next up – exploring the Ace Hotel … stay tuned.

Photos taken at the Kings Highway in Palm Springs, Ace Hotel, 701 E Palm Canyon Dr, Palm Springs, CA 92264

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Palm Springs Here I Come!

June 23rd, 2015

I all! Sorry I haven’t been keeping up with the blog lately. I miss it; but on the upside that means we have been super busy! We’ve been doing lots of photos shoots to get our web site updated and have a couple jobs completing in the next couple weeks. Whew. I could use a vacation! Not that it’s a vacation but I am heading to airport momentarily to jaunt off to Palm Springs. 115 degree heat and all (I am serious wilter in the heat …. uh)

I am heading to the BOLD Summit , which stands for the Business of Luxury Design. Its going to be a packed trip filled with lots of learning and hopefully good energy and ideas. I am so excited! So stay tuned …. when I am back next week I’ll get back to sharing lots of fun recent project photos with you all! Have a good week!

Kristina Crestin Design_Palm Springs

Photo borrowed from Studio DIY‘s fab blog! Love the shot they got! Can’t wait to bring home tons of my own.

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Hi hi friends! Sorry I have been missing in the blogging world, we’ve had the busiest month I’ve had since I’ve been in business … and the traveling of course doesn’t help things! Lots and lots has been going on ….  but lets start with a couple of my favorite take-a-way’s from High Point Furniture Market! My first favorite ‘find’ was also my first post-trip purchase – and for ME!  We found this vendor that does animal heads made out of laser cut cardboard. How fun!  I really wanted about one of everything, then remembered I have an entire wall of animal heads in my powder room (to check out those photos click here!), so clearly I didn’t need any more. B-U-T  …. then I realized the office didn’t have any yet – yes! Solution!

Kristina Crestin Design_Cardboard deer

We have this giant stair hall as far as height – ta-da, found a home for an animal head. We ordered the biggest deer they had when we got home, it literally is 70″ tall or so and will just fit the width of the stairs. So excited. We’re getting it assembled (and by we I mean Courtney my fabulous intern). Next up I’ll be painting it turquoise of course ….

Kristina Crestin Design_Cardboard deer assembly

Animals are from Cardboard Safari

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This weekend I clearly needed a break from moving the office and working in general. I called Mom at the last minute and we shot up to Salisbury to check out the Vintage Bazaar for the first time. A perfect summer day, wandering a vintage fair and eating really good food (food truck pulled pork and homemade whoopee pies – um ya!) – A perfect day!

Kristina Crestin Design_Vintage Bazaar handsThere was a couple fields of vendors spread out around Pettengill Farm, which happens to be a lovely flower farm, making the event that much more interesting to wander around. I’d say it definitely has that over Brimfield! Clearly not as large, but that much more edited and artisan feeling….. oh, and a much shorter drive too!

Kristina Crestin Design_Vintage BazaarThough I didn’t find anything I was actually keeping an eye out for, I did find two new vendors that I really liked for the future. One was a little handmade pottery booth, Elizabeth Benotti. A clever blend of modern meets handmade. Great graphics and forms.  She had a beautiful display of clever little hanging planters filled with succulents that was just brilliant, in hindsight I wish I bought a few!

Kristina Crestin Design_Vintage Bazaar_Elizabeth BenottiThe other thing that caught my eye was a new paint line from Cari Cucksey of Re Purpose (and as seen on HGTV). Her Chroma Color Paint just feels buttery to the touch (wish it was easier to show and tell on line!) and of course had a couple colors that just caught my eye!  Very well merchandised too, and we always know I appreciate a good display!

Kristina Crestin Design_Vintage Bazaar_CariCucksey RePurposeTo check out more about the Vintage Bazaar check out their web site or Facebook – they will be back to the farm in the fall!

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I just had a photo shoot here with Jamie Salomon for Cottages & Bungalows Magazine – a holiday shoot for next years holiday issue. In the midst of all this I have been working on updating my own first floor and  decided the photo shoot was a good excuse to try some art in my own entry. I’ve loved David’s paintings of fishermen for ages, but they all are rather vertical, and lets be honest – we have enough fish on our first floor – in all forms! I saw this lovely piece that reminded me of my many road trips in Maine, so I called David up and asked to borrow it.

Kristina Crestin Design_David Witbeck for photo shootVoila, a short road trip to Kennebunkport with Mom and the folks at Maine Art packaged it up for it’s road trip home. Now that it’s here I don’t want to let it go!

Kristina Crestin Design_David Witbeck from Maine ArtHere are some of his other pieces at Maine Art – I’d take all of them!

Kristina Crestin Design_David Witbeck from Maine Art arrayYou can see these pieces at Maine Art in downtown Kennebunkport, ME. For more of David Witbeck’s work check out his web site.

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As a final post wrapping up my take-away’s from the  KBIS (Kitchen and Bath Industry Show) I wanted to share a couple random items I liked that were not plumbing related.

On the kitchen end of the Kitchen & Bath Show spectrum I think my favorite product was Vikings wall mount oven in color wasabi. How could you not love the idea of something risky!  This one was their 27″ double electric one that comes in all their fun colors. Model #VEDO5302WS

Kristina Crestin Design_Blog Post Viking Oven WasabiAnother product I was interested in were these large acrylic wall panels from Lustrolite. The options are endless as far as applications – a kitchen backsplash or shower walls for instance but the fact that intrigued me was it is 20 times as strong as glass but half as heavy. Not bad when thinking about creative ways to use it and how to adhere it. Of course it’s nice it comes in some colors that I clearly like!

Kristina Crestin Design_Blog Post Lustrolite panels

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