Shutter bug

I'm in the process of making some changes to my guest room. I love my guest room, and there are several things I didn't want to change. In particular I like the fact that some of the decor is French. I don't want to go overboard with Francophilia, but little bits and pieces make me happy. The colors, though, were asking for a little updating. The room has been decorated with red and gold for awhile now, and I've been wanting to add some green and blue to the mix. Finding inexpensive accessories that include the right color of blue, though, has been a bit of a challenge.

Then last week I saw a wonderful post about shutters at Good-bye House, Hello Home. Leslie inspired me to think about using shutters in my guest room. What I really wanted was a pair of shutters from a French cottage. Old shutters. Blue shutters. I could just see the cottage with its old blue shutters in my mind's eye.

I followed Leslie's advice and went to my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Sure enough, I found some shutters for $3.00. Here's a snapshot of one section:

As you can see, the shutters were not blue or old. But that's okay, because I have experience with making things look old and blue. Remember my little table?

I had three colors of blue spray paint on hand, and after several coats, I had this:

Then after some sanding. . .

. . . and some wipe-on staining. . .

Je suis dans l'amour.

As I stood surveying my handiwork, my 17-year-old son walked up. "Where'd you get those?" he queried. "Those shutters look like they survived the Nazi occupation."

Touche'.

Now to find the perfect postcards to tuck in the slats. What do you think?

Update: Click here to see the guest room all finished!

**I'm joining Sarah's Before and After Party, Debbie's Before and After Party and Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest. Check out all the fun projects! And I'm linking to Weekend Bloggy Reading at Amanda's. There are always some fun links there--check it out!