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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What a nice scroll through my emails this morning to see that one of our projects made it into their weekly email blast! Ya!  We just shot this fun office literally 2 weeks ago and just got the pics up on our own web site yesterday! Check them out here. I’ll be sharing some sketches and design process of it later this week.

Check out Dering Hall for more tips on storage ideas and the full post.  Have a great weekend all!

Kristina Crestin Design_Dering Hall storage

Photo by Jamie Salomon. Custom Cabinetry by Covenant LLC.

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To share a little behind the sciences of the green bath below are some working sketches when we were thinking through ideas and concepts. This sketch was showing a bit of Design Development when we were thinking about visually expanding the space by integrating a large mirror into the tile layout and filling the entire wall space outside of the shower area.  I did a design like this in my own first house and after seeing how that super tiny space was transformed I work on solutions like this all the time now!

Kristina Crestin Design_Green guest bath sketch

Below are our materials selections. The wall hung vanity was the keystone for the plumbing selections. It brought warmth and a rich tone into the room while also being super efficient. We liked it so much we used the same thing but smaller in a powder room downstairs!

Kristina Crestin Design_Green guest bath items

Below is a progress shot of the tile install. At this point you finally start to see the light at the end of the tunnel and think the space might actually be done sometime soon. Thank goodness when we walked in that day we loved the green rather than being shocked by it.

Kristina Crestin Design_Green guest bath progress image

More shots of the other baths coming soon!

Plumbing by Designer Bath,  Green accent wall tile – Promenade in Sulfer from Ann Sacks. All the other limestone surfaces from Discover Tile. Pendant lighting from Newburyport Lighting.   Architect: Walter Jacob Architects. GC: Apex Carpentry.

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I love photo shoot time. Its typically only then do I feel like a space is really done. Weirdly in the world of interiors vs decorating there isn’t an ‘ah ha’ finishing moment so much. So the shoot is when you can step back and feel pretty darn good about the way a space turned out. This is a guest bath at ‘Big P’ (the old house was a massive pink stucco one, the ‘P’ for pink stuck!)  We fell in love with the green tile early on and wanted to use it somewhere fun.  Clearly with that much fun the rest of the space needed to be toned down and clean.

Kristina Crestin Design_Green bath overall

I pulled the Duravit wall hanging sink early on as a suggestion for a couple bathrooms in the house – it gives the visual appearance of more space since it’s floating and has great storage in the massive pull out drawer. I also love the easy cleaning of the single sink/top.  Once going with a wall hung vanity – why stop there! We did a wall hung toilet as well, for the same concept of opening up the space as much as we could. In the same vein we had Apex (the GC) build a cherry frame to match the vanity, covering the whole remaining wall space with mirror to reflect as much light into the space as we could. For me it helps warm up all the clean lines too. Key for a modern space.

Kristina Crestin Design_Green bath soap detail

I love how the tile color changes in different lighting. The teak stool looks pretty killer with the green too! I love that it reminds me of a cork!

Kristina Crestin Design_Green bath shower

Lastly, and our finishing touch we got up a fun patterned roman shade to help tie the green together as well as to soften the feel of the space. Never discount the power of a roman shade!

Kristina Crestin Design_Green bath shade

Kristina Crestin Design_Green bath Ann Sacks tile detail

Plumbing by Designer Bath,  Green accent wall tile – Promenade in Sulfer from Ann Sacks. All the other limestone surfaces from Discover Tile. Pendant lighting from Newburyport Lighting.  Teak stool from Lekker.  Architect: Walter Jacob Architects. GC: Apex Carpentry. Photos by Jamie Salomon.

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I love entries when we have the time and space to be creative. Entires sometimes we can look at like powder rooms – a place to take a bit more risk and have fun with. We’ve been building this palette, exploring furniture pieces we love with vintage finds. I have to admit to being a little bit obsessed with the vintage chandelier! Its this pretty turquoise glass – so unique. We’re now going back to see what we might do with the millwork, the decorating is shaping up well, but I am thinking we need some great ceiling detail – we’ll see!

Kristina Crestin Design_entry  w vintage teal light

Finding a set of sconces that could work with the chandelier and not fight it sometimes is a challenge. Right now I am loving this set of brass sconces from the 60′s. They are so cool! They’d look great flanking the deep teal painting. I think we need them!

Kristina Crestin Design_green rug and vintage sconces

Sourcing: Console from John Pomp through Studio 534, Vintage brass sconces from Rewire, a pair of Sergio Mazza sconces from the 60′s.  Rug from Warp and Weft.

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One of our projects was profiled yesterday in the Boston Globe, in the Home Design section. This project always makes me smile, especially my gnome that I spray painted turquoise. (shocker) Thinking it should have been out today with St Patty’s and all! Had to share since it put a smile on my face.

Kristina Crestin Design_Boston Globe 2015_3_16 jpg

Professional Photography by Jamie Salomon. For the project I worked with the fabulous team of Art Dioli of Olson Lewis and Ron Dunn of Dunn Builders. What a team!

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I’ve been a little bit in love with a particular sconce from Lindsay Adelman, this knotty bubbles sconce below. Lets be honest, lust would probably be more fitting. Clearly I know the difference between a want and a need hence I don’t have one!  I just love the scale – the proportion is so large that I could see it sitting asymmetrically next to a mirror in a bathroom area, or in an entry hall, or in a Dining Room … heck just about anywhere. The image on top is ‘the’ sconce in question …. its about 16″ wide and 27″ tall, give or take. I guess this is what I mean when I say ‘statement light’!

Kristina Crestin Design_lindseyadelman

I am taken with the clear and milky glass versions but have to say I am liking the pieces with black glass accents more and more now. The black glass bubbles remind me of caviar!

Kristina Crestin Design_lindseyadelman light

The piece above in particular I was thinking would look stunning in a space we are working on now. We’re getting some pricing on a custom sized commission that could fill this long dining space we have. The client has an antique 10′ farm table that we currently have plans for 5 pendants. But one of these knotty bubbles pieces could be a real stunner!  We’re looking at doing a large black range in the kitchen which sits on one side of this dining space and the fireplace wall (which sits behind the light in this sketch) might end up a tall black mass as well – so these little black bubbles being worked in could just be stunning!

Kristina Crestin Design_knotty bubbles sketch

Lindsay Adelman’s work can be found on her web site.

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