Creating a Bedroom with Hydrangeas, Chalk Paint and Cape Cod in mind

When I first started to redesign the guest bedroom in our home in Massachusetts, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.  I know I love Cottage Chic and Cape Cod, and of course Cape Cod Hydrangeas are near and dear to my heart.  So, it was Hydrangea blue to start.

In the beginning I was gathering lots of ideas from magazines and Pinterest.  I got busy and created a Pinterest Board called Hydrangea Bedroom.

Now to help you get in that Cape Cod mood, here is one of my favorite old songs, Old Cape Cod.

I started by using a Hydrangea Blue paint on the walls.  The carpet is a deeper blue color and has a wonderful design that compliments the design in the white duvet.

 I decided that I wanted the room to feel as though I was in Cape Cod all year round.  So, the artwork helped to create that feeling.

I wanted a bookcase for the room, but I something with a small footprint.  I bought this lovely potting table at Signature Finishes from Melody Cornacchioli. 

 This piece is the perfect accessory and it gives me that Cape Cod feeling.

This desk is very old and the chair came out so nice, that now I am hooked on painting furniture with chalk paint.

When I discovered the world of chalk paint I got lost in everything Annie Sloan.

Here is the finished room so far.  I have another side of the room which I will share on another post.  And how I'll be adding a bit of Christmas later on in the season.

My duvet cover is my Cape Cod Hydrangea nosegay design.    The pillows are all different Cape Cod Hydrangea designs available on my shop, Frenchscript on Etsy or on Society6.  Now I feel like I am on the Cape every time I enter this room.

Most of my designs began with this original watercolor that I created for one of my favorite customers.

Lost in the world of Painted Furniture again to learn all the many embellishments

I was at Signature Finishes in North Grafton, MA last evening taking another class with the owner, Maureen Bane.  

This time we were learning all about the many different kind of furniture embellishments and finishes.  There was just the three of us taking the class with Maureen, so we had lots of one-on-one time.‪

Here's a bit of music for you to enjoy.  We were listening to a nice soundtrack while we worked.  There were some songs by James Taylor.  I found one of my favorites to share with you, THE SECRET OF LIFE.
We learned all about decoupage, stains, and crackling medium.

What fun we had adding appliqué to these pots.

One of the things that I loved learning about was how to properly apply  appliqués.  Signature Finishes has so many to choose from.

Maureen stepped us thru the process and then we painted the finished pot with Annie Sloan chalk paint.

We then used a wonderful dimensional paint using stencils to emboss wooden samples.

We also had an opportunity to do some decoupage.

Maureen showed us how to apply the wonderful papers that we could choose from, and add layers of Annie Sloan decoupage paste.

We had so many wonderful papers to choose from to create our boards.

It was so much fun using the different waxes and some great dark stain at the end to finish our wooden plaques.

So here we all are with our finished pieces.  It was a great night and I can't wait to use the techniques that I learned.

You can check out Maureen's other workshops at Signature Finishes.