Archive for May, 2013

Finally! Our sketches are coming to life. Not that long ago we shared some pics from Fred’s cabinet shop and before that our design development of the space – and now it’s finally here!

We have a soft blue/green color that will pop against a low key taupe/grey wall. When you walk into the kitchen the colors are reversed – the cabinetry color becomes the wall color. It’s a nice transition. The doors aren’t up yet – but you can see some really thoughtful details Fred wove into the custom cabinetry – air holes at the top that allow for ventilation top to bottom and even the bench seat isn’t solid intentionally so that air can flow. The backs are all cedar because, well – it makes sense! The floor will get a sea green slate large herringbone floor, and the tiles will go straight into the bottom of the cabinetry for easy shoe clean up. I can’t wait to see the lighting in the space too – it will really come together then. Stay tuned!

Blog Post 50_Kenney mudroom install jpg

Cabinet maker – Fred Rossi. Here are some photos of his work: Fred Rossi .  His email is Rossiwoodwork@gmail.com or you could reach him at 979-526-1882.

 

We’re working with my favorite lights! Well, some of my favorite as I have a little ‘lighting’ problem. (I have these in my own dining room) We have a long table, and will be longer soon when she trades in her existing for an 8′ one. Lighting that length can be a challenge – functionally as well as aesthetically. We want to disburse the light down the length of a table but visually we also want to fill the volume above the space, anchoring it.

Here I worked with Mohr & McPherson who sells these Cisco Jug Lights among other things. They worked with me to over sizing, what sizes have what sockets (and what the max wattage is of each) and what the wiring can look like. Whew. Hopefully we’ll place an order soon!

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Photo credit: Top photo I took at High Point Furniture Market in the fabulous massive  Cisco showroom, 3 turquoise jug lights pulled from Greige’s Blog, Multiple lights from Remodelista, Room vignette with a cluster of lighting from Cisco’s Blog, and the sketches I did for the client so we could review scale and wattage calculations.

I love when a piece of art speaks to you! We saw this flamingo photo on Pinterest and fell in love – now to track it down to figure out if it can be bought large. Some times our job is just allot of detective work. Not long after seeing the flamingo I saw the recycled sari rug at  Landry & Arcari and it all clicked. Not sure if this will go ahead, but I hope it does! How could you not love having that flamingo staring at you each morning ???

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Photo sourcing: Flamingo photo a client pulled from the internet somewhere (we’re trying to track down where to get it!) Chair is vintage Bertoia, table is vintage Eero Saarinen’s Tulip Dining Table and the final shot is our studio shot working with a killer rug from Landry & Arcari made from reclaimed silk sari’s!

A wonderful part of being a designer is getting the chance to see things in progress, up close and personal!  I recently had this opportunity when I needed to deliver some cabinet hardware to a local woodworker who is building some custom mudroom storage for a client of ours.  I also needed to triple check that the paint color was coming out the way we had intended before the entire project was sprayed.  So I popped over to Fred Rossi’s shop in Manchester, handed over the hardware and inhaled the lovely scent of freshly sawn wood!  (Don’t you just love the smell of freshly cut wood?  I do!!)  Now I can’t wait to see these babies installed!!

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- Stacey

 

As follow up to our Brimfield trip I am working on disbursing my ‘finds’ to my clients. This lovely pair of vintage bottles got a very safe ride buckled up and protected!  We looked at the bottles in the space and started talking socket type and shade size. I love figuring out these details! One came home with me so I can work with the lamp guy who will fit the sockets and such. It’s been riding around with me – I am getting some looks when the door is open; but as long as I don’t have a ‘baby on board’ decal I shouldn’t get too weird of looks!

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We came, we saw, we bought, we dropped. Yup, that’s pretty much it in a nutshell.

Saturday I packed up the truck with straps, cords, moving blankets and a pile of cash and met up with Stacey, another designer friend Becky and my Mom and we hit the road to Brimfield. Getting up at the crack of dawn paid off and we hit almost no traffic and scored great parking. A little mimosa mixed and we started walking.

This year we ended up going almost at the end of the show since I couldn’t free up mid week time, so it was pretty picked over. I had a massive list of items I was looking for for projects and unfortunately we didn’t find much – or what we did wasn’t a huge deal. It’s a bummer that a ‘flea market’ seems to have become something that the masses go to so the idea of a good deal is harder to find.  That all said I did manage to find a killer pair of bottles that we will be making into lamps on one project, yet another bottle for a clients bottle collection we are working on, some fish floats to accessorize a coffee table and a small globe for my growing globe collection. All was not lost. Especially since we packed a nice picnic of assorted food and sangria’s for a little mid flea market nosh sitting in the bed of the truck. Not our first rodeo!

Sooner or later I’ll share some progress photos of our bottles that will become lamps, we met on site yesterday to talk sockets and custom shades. They are going to be SO good!

Kristina Crestin Design_Brimfield Blog Post jpg

 

Clearly I am in my bliss, but it’s nice when a client mentions a palette that I personally love! I did paint my cabinets in a rental bright chartreuse at one point in my life. Hm, then my first home the cabinets were aqua. Oh dear, how did I end up with white cabinets now! Ok, getting off track. (Shiny object!)

Finding a Smeg refrigerator in chartreuse helped build this palette – it was a core choice. Some of the decorating ideas having been falling in line – a Wegner Wishbone chair and a turquoise Tolix stool were easy items to nail down and a new fixture mimicking an Egyptian design with with turquoise shades throw in for a degree of eclecticism. Now onto the actual cabinetry, counters and backsplash …

Kristina Crestin Design_Turquoise and Chartreuse Kitchen

Materials shot taken in our studio, Wishbone chair’s can be found at DWR and tolix stool check out the ladies at Sugar Scout on Etsy – they do knock off Tolix’s at a great price – and can do any color! (tell them we sent you!)

 

I was visiting a client last night, wrapping up some final art selections and I saw some of our custom colored pieces from Jill Rosenwald were done. Fun! We had this pen cup made in colors to work with the bedroom so the desk area could be coordinated.  We may get some scouting shots of the condo done soon, stay tuned for images!

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Bottom photo by Sandra Kimball

 

 

It’s Christmas! Well, not really. But it feels like it around here allot. The lighting has been shuttled and delivered to the site and slowly but surely its getting put in. I think the canning jar light below the electrician will have choice words for me as he goes to install! Just part of the job here.

We will be on site early next week when the mudroom cabinetry starts getting installed and will snap some photos. Have a good day!

Kristina Crestin Design_lighting progress

Light above is the Pottery Barn Exeter 16 Jar pendant light.

 

Good morning. Sharing some more progress on the house in Essex as it’s starting to come together now at the tail end of construction. Our lockers are made and should be installed on site next week! We worked on the kitchen and mudroom in tandem, wanting them not to match but have a connection. I’ll post shortly on the kitchen so you can see the big picture. Here we have a quartzite tumbled floor tile that we’re laying in a herringbone pattern; working on giving it an indoor/outdoor feel. The walls are going a cool grey/taupe  to provide a backdrop for a soft sea green paint color on the custom lockers. So excited!

To give the room a bit more interest we settled on these Pottery Barn canning jar lights, a 16 jar for the main space of the mudroom and a smaller 5 jar for a back door area that is smaller. The lockers themselves we have some large boat cleats as door handles (thinking they can double as a space to loop a bag over) and I am searching for some cool salvaged perforated metal for the upper and lower panels of the cabinet doors. I’ll be hitting Brimfield this weekend in hopes of getting something fun. Fred, the cabinet maker made some temporary painted flat panels for now, but I have high hopes of finding something with a nice patina on it that we can always pop in later. A couple weeks ago, when on a shopping day with the client we found this cool old screen panel that was made into a mirror for the powder room. Love that it still has copper screening in it! This past weekend my husband installed barn board (from our salvage trip up to NH a couple weeks ago) on the ceiling of the powder room that will look great with the mirror and the canning jar sconces. Will snap some photos this week to share.

Stay tuned as the cabinetry and flooring gets installed!

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Lighting images from Pottery Barn, their Exeter Pendant Lighting.

 

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