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All Smiles
This is the face you make when your master bathroom finally has a door. Yup, you read that right: before Christina turned up, these poor fellows had an open-plan WC.
Lauren is a contributing writer to HGTV.com. A former magazine research chief and lifelong maximalist, she's covered everything from design history and lifestyle trends to health and space travel for two decades. She packs an extra carry-on bag for books and decor, and she once won a purse for freehanding an embroidered portrait of David Bowie.
Ready for a first look at Christina Anstead’s new design adventures? We’ve got 20 of ‘em.
This is the face you make when your master bathroom finally has a door. Yup, you read that right: before Christina turned up, these poor fellows had an open-plan WC.
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Christina’s clients called her in to dig a beautiful master suite out from under ‘50s-era cabinetry that swallowed their view and dominated the bedroom. Storage is well and good, but the wrong storage made the space feel like a morgue.
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Good morning, sunshine! Christina pared back those hulking built-ins and replaced them with elegant floating shelves in a pale, velvety grey. She also turned a broken-window disaster into a golden opportunity by swapping in an exterior door, granting much-needed access to a beautiful backyard.
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Though it’s smaller than the dated countertop it replaces, this handsome piece delivers ample storage and plenty of prep space for a couple. Floor-level open shelving, in turn, makes the most of the vanity’s footprint without making it feel heavy.
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Behold the heartbreak of interrupted renovation: Christina’s clients managed to install beautiful flooring that, alas, made their creepy old cabinets (what is that finish?) look even worse. She swooped in to send them to the great lumberyard in the sky and finish the job in style.
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Gleaming white cabinetry and appliances from this century make the kitchen the showstopper Christina knew it could be. Its crowning glory is, of course, that glamorous contrasting hex tile.
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Sure, Christina’s juggling a new show, new design clients, traditional flips and a big move down south to Orange County, but breaking for coffee with Ant is what gives her the energy to get through the rest of her day.
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Christina delivered the tone-on-tone brightness her clients love by giving the hearth’s tired red bricks a modern and monochromatic whitewashing. Who says a dramatic living room makeover needs to cost a fortune?
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Costa Mesa homeowners Jesse and Missy go way back with Christina: they own a flooring company and have collaborated with her on design projects. Any guesses as to how specific their thoughts about their own new master bedroom’s floor are?
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Christina just happened to have a soaring wall’s worth of upcycled bricks left over from another project, and those materials added much-needed grit to this cool couple’s Costa Mesa home. Sometimes the best things in life are (nearly) free.
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Rustic chic meets industrial sleek in this fabricated steel barn door, an apt compromise between one homeowner’s fondness for country-casual accessories and her husband’s interest in all things clean and contemporary.
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A white shiplap feature wall was a bit too cutesy for Christina’s style-conscious clients — but with a layer of gleaming black paint, it suited them perfectly. She doubled down on the room’s bold geometry by installing the herringbone oak floor of their dreams.
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This haphazard, cracked master bath is a tragic time capsule from the nineties. Christina’s client spends quality time in the tub, and it’s high time she had a proper place to relax.
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A sculptural freestanding tub delivers the bold lines and generous soaking space Christina’s clients dreamed of seeing. Matte black fixtures and contrasting tile in the shower pan give the master bath a masculine edge.
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While this master bedroom’s furnishings are cozy enough, they don’t have much to do with one another — and they have nothing in common with the master bath Christina’s renovating along with them.
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Painting the beams to match the rest of the master bedroom ceiling gave it a sense of elegant geometry that carries throughout the suite. The matte black canopy bed, in turn, echoes the industrial fixtures Christina used in the tub and vanities.
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Christina hadn’t budgeted for bifold doors in this first floor space, but how could she deny her clients the airy style they craved? This two-part treatment rang in at less than half of what a single panel would have cost.
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A range smack in the middle of the kitchen island is anything but kid-friendly, and Christina’s homeowners found themselves fighting over a slim splice of space at its corner. This family needed room to grow (and make a proper dinner).
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This massive and ultra-durable quartz countertop is the perfect place to get cooking with little ones, and graphic geometric tiles complement grey flat-panel cabinets and high-tech floor tiles.
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Speaking of those hello-gorgeous porcelain tiles, expect to see them again: Christina confessed that this is her all-time favorite floor. Looks like Christina on the Coast might have its very first signature move.