Archive for December, 2014

Holiday Decorating: My House

December 26th, 2014

Greetings! I hope you all had Merry Christmas! I meant to share this with you all before Christmas but I got a not so pleasant head cold and that combined with all the rain led to not so stellar photo shoot days!

This year with taking on some holiday decorating for my clients I didn’t have much time left over to be inventive and come up with all new decorating ideas since I had little time to execute, but I changed it up a bit and brought a new color highlight in this year – a bright sparkly raspberry.

It started actually with some great glass ornaments I already have but then I found glittery paper in the same color – done! I used the paper to piece in a long centerpiece down the middle of my dining table to add the pop of color; layering on things I already owned on top of it. (yes, it’s a shocker I know, I own turquoise glazed dishes ….)

Kristina Crestin Design_Holiday decor table setting

This year I put my statement piece over the island where I set up a champagne bar – easy access for everyone and added the festive fun touch to the kitchen this year instead.

Kristina Crestin Design_Holiday decor champagne

Backing up to our island where our bar area is typically set up we kept our drink station, with my husbands prized moose glasses coming out the day after Thanksgiving of course.

Kristina Crestin Design_Holiday decor moose glasses

In our Living Room we don’t have that many surfaces and we cut down on the amount of greens since we keep them out so long and they get so crispy. Instead I love surrounding my house with paperwhite bulbs which feel just as Christmasy (is that a real word??) to me as green roping. I started forcing a couple hundred bulbs a few weeks ago and they are the perfect height right now, bringing shots of bright green into all my spaces.

Kristina Crestin Design_Holiday decor Living

Kristina Crestin Design_Holiday decor mink stockings

Hope you had a great holiday ! Enjoy the nice long weekend!

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A big yay! It was fun to see my holiday decor come out recently in Cottages and Bungalows but it was even more exciting to see my favorite blog share it! Just yesterday Erin did a post that made my day! I just needed to share. Check out her post over at the House of Turquoise Blog.

Kristina Crestin Design_House of Turquoise blogPhotos by Jamie Salomon.

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There is nothing better than loads of holiday greens filling a house around the holidays, I love the feel, the smell and the smile it puts on my face. This week we teamed with Centerville Farms, which I called my ‘green team’ to deck out our project ‘Big P’. We divided and conquered, coming up with our plan early in November, getting Gretchen involved to plot out all the greens and we took design lead on the colors and details.

Kristina Crestin Design_Big P holiday decor A

They supplied 77 YARDS of mixed greens that looped up and around the foyer, up to the 3rd floor and a staircase all the way to the basement – you are just surrounded with greens!

Kristina Crestin Design_Big P holiday decor B

We started with a mixed green roping and added some details from there to dress it up. Starting with branches of feathery sparkles that came in large lengths that we had to cut apart into smaller pieces & stuffed into the greens for the light to catch & sparkle at night. I also found some small little mercury glass acorns that were the perfect size for wiring into the greens at points for a bit more detail. Wish I had found more, I fell in love with them!

Kristina Crestin Design_Big P holiday decor C

In the kitchen we wanted to of course make feel festive as well, but with day to day life and lots of entertaining putting greens or decorations on the surfaces just wasn’t an option. So we decided to deck out the top of the super long vent hood with greens and add a few wreaths at the end of the space.

Kristina Crestin Design_Big P holiday decor kitchen

We used the same concept of keeping greenery up and out of the way in the Lounge and Living Room – you get the festive feel but you don’t take up space!

Kristina Crestin Design_Big P holiday decor LR LoungeThe exterior we determined for this first year to go simple and classy with lots of greens, then decide next year if we wanted to go bigger. These massive window boxes take tons of greens, but Gretchen and Megan did a fantastic job of making them look balanced but natural at the same time!

Kristina Crestin Design_Big P holiday decor exterior

Below is our piles of sparkly bits that were being hand cut into smaller sparkles and some of our ornament collection we had been gathering for the last month to mix silvers, soft brass and platinum tones in all different shapes and textures.

Kristina Crestin Design_Big P holiday decor ornaments

And finally …. all our little elves that made it happen!  It’s amazing how it takes a team (or 2!) to pull things like this together! Thank goodness we had such a plan in place!

Kristina Crestin Design_Big P holiday decor prep

Our ‘green team’ was Gretchen from Centerville Farms and all her lovely elves. Architecture by Walter Jacob Architects. GC is Apex Carpentry. Hanging entry lighting is a custom Mizu from Terzani through Casa Design in Boston.

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Finally! All the pieces have 2 coats of turquoise and we figured out how to reassemble it (thank goodness …) and it’s time to go up! We’ve been working on getting frames in our stair hall and making the space more personable – so what better than a 70″ tall cardboard deer!  Now getting it actually up on the wall is another thing to tackle …..

Kristina Crestin Design_Cardboard deer being installed

I think the entire staff was in the stair hall helping, he’s heavier than he looks!

Kristina Crestin Design_Cardboard deer being installed C

Success! He’s up! I LOVE that he just fits in the massive volume of the space, and this stair hall is tall ! Finished photos next …. and most importantly – what to do with him for the holidays? Massive garland? ornaments hanging from his horns????  Oh the options!

Kristina Crestin Design_Cardboard deer being installed B

Animals are from Cardboard Safari, art hanging by Sarah Johnson, SJ Collaborative and the custom turquoise spray paint is from Waters & Brown.

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