I love when you make plans with a client – and it comes to fruition! A patio area is coming together as we are STILL waiting on more furniture to come in. At the last meeting we had a grouping of these cool wall planters from West Elm and I blocked out with blue tape on the siding where to install them and picked out the plants with the client. This trip they were up and looking great! I want about 30 of them for my own house now….
Our spread is finally out! Last summer we shot with Kyle Hoepner of New England Home Magazine for this article – so long ago we almost forgot it was coming out! Check it out in the most recent issue on news stands or here. We collaborated with Art Dioli of Olson Lewis to bring this project to fruition and Ron Dunn, a builder I miss seeing regularly!
Hm, amazing how easy it is to take cues from words and images, starting with the 73′ Jag below. Rather than just layering vintage furniture we’re looking at layering in some textures like the sparkly (oh dear, probably not the best descriptive work to use when talking about manly space!) stacked split face stone tile for around a focal point fireplace wall paired with the existing walnut floor. Loving the idea of a white leather Eames chair too – super comfy and masculine. Other ideas rattling around that we’re developing … we’ll see where it goes!
Photo sourcing: Vintage car image from Airows which took it from a Bonhams Auction site, Materials shot from our studio, Sconce from Urban Electric Co, Eames chair with black leather and walnut, Stacked split face stone from the Tile Source.
Rainy morning + office time = Happy designer! Thrilled for a rainy morning in office this morning. It’s been a hectic week and I never got around to sharing our guest blog post for New England Home Magazine Blog! We’ve been circling around some stair runner ideas for one of our projects that could coordinate with our Angela Adams ‘Spike’ rug that you see from the front entry. The rug is so fun and the colors are amazing – but pairing a runner with it now is proving to be difficult! So we’re pursuing a custom striped runner with Landry & Arcari. Check out the post over at New England Home Magazine Blog.
Full post pulled from New England Home Magazine Blog where the images are our studio shots with exception of the overall image of Angela Adams ’Spike’ rug, pulled from their web site. Bottom right is one of our first passes at designing a custom stair runner. I am sure it will have many more renditions!
Progress photos! It was like a little gift in my email box. Christina sent some pictures as she was nearing completion of how the work was shaping up so I could weigh in if I had an opinion. It was super helpful too that she took a photo with my color chips I mailed to her just so I can be sure that the tones were on the right path. So excited for it to be here and then in the clients home! Check out more of Christina Bakers work if you love it too!
Photos from Christina Baker
I’ve been working on pretty extensive renovation over the last year, persevering with decisions and ideas and this powder room we have been focussing on in spurts. We made the wallpaper selection and got the fun mirror what seems like forever ago but hadn’t finished the rest. I’ve been thinking about how to add a fun pop of color with art. I just discovered the client loved the color salmon – which never came up in other conversations – perfect! A way to bring it in. Except now finding art with a really great salmon tone in it is tough. In comes the idea of a commission!
We worked with Christina Baker, whose work you might have seen here a couple times before. I am slightly obsessed with her work and colors. She’s super easy to work with so we approached her about a custom size piece. Not only could she do it, but she could fit it in and the price was great – sold! Photos below of the space as we were starting to think about colors we wanted to mail her to give her some direction.
Last image is one of the pieces of Christina Baker‘s that we liked that got us started. Architecture by Olson Lewis, GC was Carl Anderson and cabinetry by David McWilliams.
Awhile ago we shared some images of the photo shoot at our house for Beantown Mom Magazine with Daniel of Eleven Media. It’s finally out! Check out the spread below or head over to this link for a digital copy. I am still twitching with the idea of my college sofa still being in my house and furthermore being photographed. But I’ve come to peace with the fact that sooner or later it will get replaced, and then I can always shoot the house again! Also I got a couple fantastic shots with Cooper, so it was totally worthwhile. These ladies wrote a really nice article about me too, so all around happy to be interviewed! Check out some of my favorite local sources for vintage and architectural salvage, which was the starting point of how this interview evolved with a ‘Mom’ magazine anyhow. Read below for contact for some shared sources.
Salt March Antiques: Rowley, MA; Old House Parts: Kennebunk, Maine ; Restoration Resources: Bostons South End , Andrew Spindler: Essex, MA; Indigo Blue Trading Company: Beverly, MA
Hey all … away for a couple days on a mini vacation and staring at my email in box now, scary. Rather than deal with that I’ll share some initial design development!
Clients come to us all the time with the most random images for inspiration … and this one I love. A cherry red vespa! We were working on compiling some initial ideas for a textural cool kitchen eating area and the Vespa image busted in as an idea worth considering from a color standpoint. The red Navy chairs I found are just too fun. Not sure if they will end up the right red, but it’s a good start. Rather than going red tile or walls for a large splash I was thinking that this repetitious item could be the color ‘pop’ with a more earthy muted backdrop. We’re looking at this geometric slate for one accent wall. I can see it coming together …
Photo credits: Vespa image the client found on line and I can’t track down the source, materials shot from our studio, vintage light from Avant Garden on 1stdibs, table is the Doable table from Hive Modern, and the slate 3-d tile is from the Tile Source.
There are certain points in a project when you really enjoy a site visit. Recently we had the cabinet hardware placement meeting and we hadn’t been out to the site in a few days. It was the big reveal! The cabinets had been painted that pretty sea green in the meantime. Seeing it done for the first time, especially with the quartzite herringbone floor was delightful. Moroccan tile should be going in as we speak – and it’s going all the way to the ceiling! Ya! Check back for updates.
Cabinetry by David McWilliams – 978.314.2766; Painting by Steve Stasiak – 978-317-2022; GC: Kettle Cove Builders – 978.778.4104, Plumbing: Goodall Plumbing & Heating Inc – 978-778.4104; Electrical: Manchester Electric - 978.526.1194.
Custom work can he exciting, but daunting at the same time. For the stone cottage kitchen we knew we wanted something that didn’t look perfect and new and we wanted some pattern and color; but not too much. Starting with what samples the moroccan tile vendor did have and a color tile board we played around with 4 or 5 custom tile strike off’s in our colors. Most of them were bad – thank goodness for strike offs before an order!
One was the diamond in the rough though, and from there we were able to make the key below to be 100% clear what we were ordering. A majority of the tiles were the same pattern repeat, but we wanted to add a few asymmetrical pops of darker colors, so the tile to the bottom left is where we decided if we colored one corner slightly darker; 4 tiles together in the pattern would make a nice little dot of color. The drawings below were our working drawings of figuring out pattern repeat and then in turn where we wanted this little darker ‘pop’ to be. Poor Ralph, the tile guy. He’s going to kill me! Nothing straightforward here!
Moroccan tiles from Discover Tile.
Hi, I am Kristina; owner of Kristina Crestin Design and self proclaimed vintage bottle addict. I love most things aqua, obsessing over good lighting and meandering through salvage stores on the weekend. In a week we see and learn so many things that we hope to share here with you - a great local artisan, a sneak peak of a job in progress or design schemes as they evolve. Enjoy!
