above: (left, right) A Christmas table featuring Christina’s grandmother’s china, paired with burgundy linens, woven placemats and greenery. (center) Christina Dandar at her Connecticut home. Christina’s bookshelves showcase a thoughtfully curated mix of beloved design books, antique oil paintings and collected keepsakes.
photos by Andrea Carson
SOME LOVE STORIES BEGIN WITH a glance across a crowded room. Christina Dandar’s began with a room tour.
The founder of The Potted Boxwood, the Instagram and YouTube destination for timeless, traditional interiors, has spent years taking her audience inside some of the most beautiful homes in the country. Last fall, one of those homes led her somewhere she never expected: to Connecticut, to a husband and to a Wilton Colonial she is now restoring room by room.
The Potted Boxwood began quietly. Christina was earning her master’s in elementary education at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and Instagram had just arrived on the scene. She was headed toward a classroom, but she wanted somewhere to share what had always moved her.
“Timeless, traditional interiors, beautiful architecture, antiques and homes with a sense of history and personality,” she says.
The account grew alongside her career as a third-grade teacher, eventually becoming “much more than I ever anticipated.”
Then came 2020. With the world suddenly at home, her followers wanted more than a perfectly styled vignette. “They wanted to see how the rooms connected, how a home flowed and how people really lived in and used their spaces,” she says.
That curiosity sparked Beyond the Curb, her home tour series on The Potted Boxwood’s YouTube channel. The tours take viewers through beautiful houses across the country and let the designers and homeowners tell their own stories. The series turned The Potted Boxwood into what it is today.
THE TOUR THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
Last October, Christina was filming the home of a designer whose husband happened to be best friends with Travis, the man who would become her husband. The couple made the introduction. Soon after, Travis flew to Dallas for a first date. About two weeks later, he flew her to Connecticut.
The plan was to spend a day in New York City. The plan did not survive contact with Fairfield County.
“I found Connecticut so charming that I wanted to stay and explore more of the small towns instead,” she says.
Travis showed her the Connecticut we locals know and love. Lunch at Rowayton Seafood on a dreary December day. Dinner at Hinoki in Greenwich. A stroll through Westport. Lunch at Luc’s in Ridgefield, now a couple favorite. They cut down a Christmas tree, and the season’s first real snowfall arrived right on cue.
“I remember immediately loving the quintessential New England feel of the area,” she says.
FINDING HOME IN WILTON
Anyone who has house-hunted in Fairfield County lately will appreciate what came next. The couple put offers on four houses before landing the one.
They each had a wish list. Travis loves the backcountry feel of Connecticut, so land and privacy were essential. Christina was after something else. “Good bones, character and a classic Colonial aesthetic,” she says, “as well as something we could make our own over time.”
THEY FOUND ALL OF IT IN WILTON
Now they are working slowly, room by room, and Christina’s guiding principle is one any design lover will recognize. She wants the house to feel collected, not decorated.
Her secret weapon is family. “My great-grandmother and grandmother were both collectors, borderline hoarders, of beautiful things,” she says with a laugh. “As the only grandchild, I have benefited immensely from that.”
Their antiques, art and furniture now live alongside pieces Christina has gathered herself. “I love being able to take their antiques, art, and furniture and give them a new life by mixing them with pieces I’ve collected myself,” she says.
The result is a house that holds two histories at once: the generations before her and the life she and Travis are just beginning.
“In another world, I probably would have tried to have the wedding at our house,” she admits, “but there is such a thing as trying to do too much!”
Fair enough. In roughly eight months, she met Travis, got engaged, bought a house, moved from Dallas to Connecticut, and got married.
FULL CIRCLE
“It has certainly been a whirlwind,” she says, “but there is something very full-circle about this chapter.”
A love of beautiful homes built The Potted Boxwood. A home tour introduced her to the person who brought her here. Now she gets to restore a Connecticut house of her own while still opening the doors to everyone else’s.
All things timeless, everything chic. Turns out it’s a tagline and a life plan.