PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM 71 fun!” When friends oohed and aahed over the results, then asked for her help, Cranston Design Group was born. Jeannine describes her spirited style as, “Fun: color, patterns, preppy, traditional and a tad formal.” Having seen her work online, most clients come ready to embrace the unexpected. Instead of tepid compliments like, “That’s pretty,” her clients want to hear an excited “Wow! I wish my house was like this!” The road to that happy place means navigating clients’ feelings, ideas and expectations. Jeannine has them create a mood board depicting their likes and dreams for remodeling or refurbishing, including sight lines, space use, materials, textures and colors. They discuss to what extent clients wish to engage in the process, whether releasing the reins or working handin-hand with Jeannine. “Lots of clients want to touch and see the textures and combinations before they’re on the walls and the floor,” the designer explains. She walks them through every aspect before spending a dime on materials. “I have to have a complete vision,” she emphasizes. One of her many stunning transformations elevated a living room in Burlingame. “It had the most awkward layout I have ever seen,” Jeannine recalls with a shake of her head. It became her favorite remake—a preppy yet cozy blue parlor with cognac leather built-in benches. “We added a floor-to-ceiling built-in bar and wraparound bench seating with drawers to maximize the space.” Incorporating multiple textures, the room mixes leather, brass, mohair, wools, velvets, and a hide rug. Hitting the design sweet spot often calls for mingling the old with the new. In the locally dubbed “Hill Mateo” neighborhood, Jeannine has worked on 1920s and ‘30s homes that suffered the wall-busting push for free-flowing spaces in the 1980s. She values an open concept as well as a formal parlor. “I like to preserve the integrity of the home, with its distinctive window frames, mouldings and solid, decorative doors,” she notes. In a 1924 Georgian Colonial in San Mateo, Jeannine retained the
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