Dining Room & Foyer Interior Design - Lexington, MA

It's been a busy year so far and I haven't done much blog posting but I'm hoping to start updating more often. I certainly have plenty to post about but instead of dumping everything into one huge post I'll break it up for you and show you some projects I've been working on over the past few months.

 

Here's one that I'm currently in the process of ordering all the furniture and materials for. So far, we have been working on the foyer and dining room for Jen who recently moved into this brand new house in Lexington, MA. The first steps for this project included adding new moldings and architectural detail to the walls of the foyer and dining room. We also decided to stain the existing stair treds a dark ebony to match the existing stair railing which was already stained dark.

Here's what the foyer looked like when I first arrived at the house.

And this is what the stairs looked like before

And here is the after shot of the newly stained stairs and new applied wall paneling. We ran the paneling around the entire foyer and also up the staircase. Both these changes made such a huge difference in the feel of the space. Before, the foyer lacked character but now even before the addition of furniture the space has a lot more style and presence.

 

Here's a look at what will be going into the foyer for furnishings. We've already ordered a custom wool/sisal herringbone stair runner and custom fit area rug for the entire space and once that is installed these furniture pieces will be making an appearance. (Ignore the drapery rods, those are being used in the dining room).

 

 

.....And speaking of the dining room here's what the space looked liked when I arrived. This room already had the paneling on the lower half of the wall but we still felt the room lacked in detail. Also, since this is a fairly large dining room there were some seriously large expanses of empty wall and we were going to need a lot of art if we were going to fill all that empty space. So, instead of spending a fortune on art installations we decided to box out the walls with molding to break up the wall space and also give the walls more depth and interest.

 

 Here's the space before

 

 

And here's what the space looked like after the addition of the molding. We painted the moldings to match the existing wall color so the room wouldn't feel too busy. Again, this made a huge difference in the feel of the space. (Ignore the furniture, this will almost all be leaving!)

 

Here's a look at some of the furniture pieces that will be coming into this space. We also have some really beautiful and fun fabrics that we are using for custom draperies and custom slipcovers for the white chairs which will flank the two ends of the dining table. I'll keep those a surprise for now :)

We're hoping to have this project mostly complete by mid May and then I will share the Afters!

 

 

christina marie

 

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Completed Playroom Design in Lexington, MA

Just checking in to share a few shots of the girl's playroom that I recently completed and photographed. No professional shots yet but here are the shots I took over the weekend

First though, a reminder of where this room started out!

 

And here's the space after!

So much brighter and clutter free with lots of storage for these two twin girl's!

One of my favorite parts of the room is this fun craft corner. The girl's can dry and display their art on the wire hanger above.

This sofa is the same one in the Before picture above! We had it recovered and now it's the perfect spot to sit and watch tv or read.

I loved working with these girl's and their parents and I know they'll enjoy this room for years!

xoxo,

christina marie

 

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Custom Cushions in Lexington, MA

In my last post I mentioned that I was having custom cushions made for a new construction home in Meriam Hill in Lexington, MA. I installed the finished cushions today and they look great. This builder pays close attention to detail and having the cushions custom made to fit the built-ins in the house really adds to the overall finish.

Here's the before picture of the built-ins.

The fabric options. Did anyone guess which fabric we chose??

And here's the finished look with the cushions installed. We went with a really subtly patterned cream/taupe fabric which blends nicely with the woodwork and will give the new homeowner the flexibility to decorate as they would like to. And, in case you were wondering, its the fabric sample farthest to the left! :) Hard to see it in all the bright natural light, I know.

I like how the curves in the pattern help to break up all the straight lines of the woodwork and add a slightly feminine feel.

There are two other areas in the house I had the same cushions made for. I couldn't photograph them yet because they are still wrapped in plastic while the construction crews finish up work in the rest of the house. I'll be back on Wednesday to take more pictures and I'll share those later as well as a little tour of the house.

 

christina marie

P.S. This house is going on the market next week so if you'd like to buy it just let me know ;)

 

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Happenings Lately

 What a whirlwind it's been since Christmas! Between holidays, work, and moving it sure has been busy! Now, that I'm back to a more normal routine I thought I'd share a random post of what's been going on at CMI. Basically I just went through my pictures and here's what I found. (Don't you love how you can look back through your camera roll and basically see a record of your life!)

Before Christmas I met with a builder in Lexington, MA who is currently working on finishing this house. He needed some custom cushions made to fit three different window seats. I brought over a bunch of options and we made our selection. Any guesses which one we went with? :) ...... Maybe I will wait until the cushions are ready to show which fabric we chose...

Here's another shot of the same house. This is going to be the family room right off the kitchen. I'm hoping to do some furniture staging at this house as well. The architecture and moldings in this house are gorgeous!

I noticed a few different blog posts and Pinterest pins about making your own Vanilla extract and I decided to give it a go and give them away as gifts. It takes 6-8 weeks for the extract to darken and be ready for use. Here's the recipe I used. They even have free labels you can print (which I did).

Here they are all wrapped and ready for Christmas. I added a handmade ceramic ornament by my friend who makes beautiful pottery to each one.

For Christmas dinner we went to my sister-in-laws and I made this Buche De Noel cake for dessert. It's the first time I ever made one and I was really happy with how it came out! My father's family is from Lebanon and we always have them there so I wanted to give it a try.  Basically it's a rolled chocolate cake with mousse filling and ganache icing. IT. WAS. SO. GOOD!

When I was taking the holly branches off the cake before I cut it one of my little nephews asked me if "there was any wood"! Too cute..... he was fooled!

The day after Christmas I started an install for the girl's playroom I blogged about here. I'm finishing up a few final details and then I will have the big reveal next week!

The girl's couldn't decide between the two knob options I showed them...... so we used both!

I broke out the sewing machine for this project and sewed all of the striped pillows for the room plus these blue toile window treatments. 

Lots more new and exciting projects are getting under way this year as well! Thanks to everyone who follows CMI and I'm looking forward to sharing more of our projects with you this year!

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xoxoxo

christina marie

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact us about our design services.

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Have a question for us? Send us an email cmarie@christinamarieinteriors.com