Bob and Courtney have nothin' on me.

Slowly but surely, Bravo has become my new favorite channel. I'll fully admit that I watch all (yes, all) of the Real Housewives. I'm actually looking forward to the new one: Real Housewives of D.C. And then there's Bethenny's Getting Married? and Flippping Out. Goodness, I know I'm crazy, but I so love those shows! I can sit and watch Jeff Lewis for hours and I have no idea why.

Then this spring there was the new show Nine by Design. It follows designers/flippers Bob and Courtney Novogratz and their seven (holy crap, seven!) children. I love design shows, I love design blogs, I love design magazines and books. So it's really no surprise that I would like this show too.

:: amazon.com ::

But Bob and Courtney have nothin' on me. I mean, sure, they design and remodel multi-million dollars homes in NYC and have their own beautiful design book and fantastic show on Bravo, but still. They really aren't doing anything different than I am.

Why are you laughing?

It's like this. In one episode Courtney talked about how they loved to pair things that cost $100 with things that cost $100,000.

Courtney, dear, I've been doing that for years.

Ok, maybe for me it's more like pairing something that cost $10 with something that cost $100, but the principle is still the same. Here are a few example for you:

:: my lovely and fantastic dining room ::

• Blue table: Cheap. Garage sale find, can't remember how much it was, but it was at a garage sale and used to be brick red until I spray painted it this fun blue.


• Rug: Cheap. From Wall's Bargain Center in Oklahoma City. Cheap for a nice, heavy rug.


• White modern hutch: Cheap-ish. IKEA (so you know it wasn't super expensive).


• Dining table: Cheap-ish. A farm table that the Golfer bought at an antique store that was going out of business.


• Chairs: Expensive. Pottery Barn (so those are one of the more expensive items in the room).


• Light fixture: Expensive. I bought this from Stray Dog Designs after seeing it in one of the magazines that I like (I think it was Domino.) Let's just say it wasn't cheap.


• Mirror: Cheap. Hobby Lobby for under $100 and then spray painted it a glossy chocolate brown.


• Art: Expensive. Was from my grandparents' home and it originally came from an artist here in CA.

:: My guest bedroom. You should have seen the painter when I showed him the color for this room. He thought I had lost my mind. ::

• Bed: Cheap. My mom bought this for me at a local antique store after I graduated from college. It used to be a creamy white until I spray painted it this glossy black. Yes, I like to spray paint things.
• Beside Table: Cheap-ish. I found this at Pottery Barn. It was a floor sample so it was sold at a discounted price.
• Lamp: Cheap. Target. Gotta love that place.
• Black frame: Cheap. IKEA. For the inside I used an old Life magazine that I had that was all about Princess Diana. I might regret cutting it up one day, but I don't think so because I love the "art" that I created.
• Tweet pillow: Cheap from Etsy.
• Bedding and Curtains (that you can't see): Expensive. All came from Pottery Barn. Not crazy expensive, but still.

:: our living room ::

And this is my favorite thing to tell people. Seeing that painting? The huge one? Yeah, I bought that at a garage sale for 15 bucks! An art student was having a sale and was getting rid of some of his "not so great" work. I bought it without the Golfer seeing it. I thought I might be taking a risk, but for $15 I thought it was a risk worth taking. And of course he loved it, which made me kick myself for not buying every piece the guy had! Now it is one of our most prized possessions.

Mostly because it makes for such a great story.