Dreamin’…

Admittedly, our (night) dreams are few and far between at the moment.  That’s because our (day) dreams are getting the best of us and we are obsessed with getting our Dream dolled up.  We’ve been hard at work… fodder for many a future post.  For now, here are some of the projects we’ve been tackling early on:

  • Entertainment Exhibit

Our dilemma…

Lovely built-in niche for our TV and stereo in our rental home.

Lovely built-in niche for our TV and stereo in our rental home.

Without this fabulous niche, we have nowhere to put our television.  In fact, we bought the TV to fit in it.  We would love to hire a talented contractor to put a custom niche in our Dream (a popular thing to do in the Southwest), but that expense (one comma, two digits on the left) is not a priority right now.  Clearly, we needed something to store our electronics and hold up our TV… So, after endless and fruitless online searches, we found the perfect piece at one of our favorite local consignment stores, My Sister’s Attic.

Crate & Barrel media cabinet -- a steal!

Crate & Barrel media cabinet -- a steal!

The great thing… it matches two other Crate & Barrel pieces we already had (Craig’s List and charity auction steals!).  The salesperson told us it came out of a model home, so it’s barely been touched. We checked online – and realized the price was right – 50% below retail.  YES!

We can’t wait to show you how it looks in the new space!

  • Who’s the fairest?
Mirror, mirror on the wall...

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

The 44″ x 32″ beveled glass, solid wood mirror was advertised on Craig’s List as a “Pottery Barn large mirror” – with a link to an image on PB’s website. The price tag still affixed to the back is a dead give-away.

Pottery Ba-what?

Pottery Ba-what?

Clearly, unlike our media stand, this is not a true steal. However, it is a dead ringer for a PB mirror that sells for hundreds.  So, for about 85% off retail, we’re not complaining.

Stay tuned to see this hanging in our guest bathroom… painted a fabulous shade of blue, which leads me to…

  • Color me SOMETHING!

Our dream sat on the market for quite some time – prompting the owner (read: bank) to give her a bit of a face-lift.  That included fresh, white paint on all the walls.  While we’re grateful for the fresh coat that covered from what we hear – horrendous colors – we don’t want to live in a wash of boring white.

We were thrilled to hear about a free paint give-a-way online.  However, after some research, we discovered free paint = bad paint and we decided to invest in higher quality liquid love for our walls that will require less coats and last longer.  After asking how and asking now at our local Sherwin-Williams, we decided on the perfect palette:

at least it's better than white...

at least it's better than white...

Perfect?  Not so much.  Thank God for samples! We did heart the blue (Breezy) and white (Greek Villa), but the two shades of brown were not going over well in our space.  Big time bummer, because…

Cork Wedge... best paint name ever for our Dream

Cork Wedge... best paint name ever for our Dream

I loved the name of this paint color… and it is a precursor for some decorating choices.

Just because we’re getting higher quality paint, doesn’t mean we’re compromising on our “never pay full price and always pay cash” vow. We scored our paint during a 30% off sale! Also, we’ve decided to focus only on the areas where we and our visitors will spend the most time – kitchen, family room and guest bathroom. So, we bought just enough for those areas.

Stay tuned for some cork-y decorating and what paint color we did end up with.

About Michelle Fortin

Michelle Fortin is a follower of Jesus, a wife and a mom. She's also an award winning broadcast journalist and public relations professional. Michelle spent nearly a decade working in television newsrooms across the country, both behind and in front of the camera. Training future broadcast journalists in her faculty associate roles at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and at Arizona Christian University was a cherished focus of her post-TV career. Today, she maintains a roster of public relations clients focused on empowering fellow “momprenuers.” She also serves as a speaker for various women's and mom's events. Michelle received her bachelor’s degree from Biola University and Master of Mass Communication (MMC) from Arizona State University. She and her husband, two young kids and English bulldog call Scottsdale, Arizona, home.

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