Picnic benches, duck egg blue & celebrating

As we are celebrating Jonah's Baptism this weekend, I knew we were going to have lots of family visiting and I wanted to be able to create a nice garden space for us all to sit in the sunshine and enjoy the celebrations together. 

In the end, I felt it would be most practical to buy two standard picnic benches and work a little Annie Sloan magic on them. Over the past year I have experimented with several of the beautiful shades of chalk paint Annie Sloan has created but I wanted to try something new and fresh for these benches. I also wanted a shade that I wouldn't become tired of and that would look appropriate in a typical country garden. 

I decided to go for Duck Egg blue. Whilst this shade has more of a green tint to it, it is really beautiful and fresh. The colour looks lovely against vibrant grass and I knew it was one that I would certainly reuse on other projects.

After a coat of Duck Egg blue chalk paint, I varnished over the top with a matt finish varnish to protect the benches from the elements. Although the varnish was a matt finish, it did leave a slight sheen but I felt this was actually quite charming against the duck egg blue.

As we are celebrating Jonah's Baptism on Sunday, I thought it would be nice to add a personal touch to the decorating, so I pinned up his lettered bunting by meri meri. The white cotton bunting is from Party Pieces- just another little touch to bring the scene together.

I have been looking forward to this weekend for a long time now and with some other surprises in store for the family, I think it will be such a nice opportunity to enjoy ourselves!

Look out for next week's post where I will capture some of the celebrations for you!

Love Bunty

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