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Summer is flying by! Before it slips away, I created a bulletin board for coastal decor inspiration with a French Country twist. France has miles and miles of coastline from the far north Normandy region down to the southern Riviera making French Country Coastal an authentic phrase for French decor ... and for style of living. 

La Mer (the sea) offers sights, sounds, and feelings with countless images to conjure fun-filled hours of a day, a week, or a whole summer. Cool blue and white color schemes echo water, skies, sea creatures, and coastal architecture. 

Only recently, I saw a blend of simple coastal decor and traditional French Country decor that makes a perfect pairing.

Bulletin Board Inspiration No. 7 | Conservatories

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The latest bulletin board displays a collection of conservatories that inspired my home's sunspace. Dream rooms are different for different people, and one of my dream rooms has always been a conservatory.  

Conservatories can be formal, rustic, large, small, attached, free-standing, garden rooms, or grand salons. Budgets, gardening zones, and personal styles are the major factors in the ultimate design for each person's dream conservatory. 

Bulletin Board Inspiration No. 6 | Navy and White Rabbits

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The latest bulletin board inspiration features a gorgeous, fluffy white rabbit in navy and white. Rabbits are symbols of spring, and a clipping of a white rabbit on a navy bulletin board is a beautiful reminder of Easter.   

Bulletin boards often include a collection of clippings without a planned layout, but in my series of bulletin boards, I share suggestions and design principles for creating boards with a theme. Part of each post in the bulletin board inspiration series is how-to information for my boards to help you create your own boards. 

Bulletin boards are an easy, economical way to decorate for each season and/or holiday in the year. As I was creating this latest bulletin board inspiration for Spring and Easter, I began to wonder how rabbits came to be symbols of Easter and why Easter bunnies deliver eggs for Easter egg hunts. 

Bulletin Board Inspiration No. 5 | French Country Bedroom

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Worn out sheets and quilts inspired the Bulletin Board Inspiration No. 5 with its collage of French Country bedrooms, furniture, and linens. Once again the bulletin board is a functional board for organizing thoughts for a new household project: adding French style with new bed linens.  

New sheets and pillowcases for the master bedroom are high on the to-buy list this fall. Repeated washings created holes in the embroidered top sheet, and a coordinating missing pillowcase has not turned up after weeks of searching. 

Bulletin Board Inspiration No. 4 | French Finesse Bathroom

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While the Bulletin Board Inspiration Series has previously focused on clippings to display in a beautiful artistic style, the July Bulletin Board Inspiration is a design project board for a French Finesse Bathroom.

One of the basic functions of design boards is to display materials and products in home projects. Today, project boards, commonly called MOOD BOARDS, are created and shared electronically by designers, bloggers, architects, and national brand companies. However, a good old-fashioned bulletin board is a perfect place to display a tactile MOOD BOARD. 

After more than thirty years, our upstairs bathroom needs a drastic renovation. This summer, we are renovating the upstairs bathroom to make it more ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) compliant, to replace worn out fixtures and plumbing, and to add more French Country style with the new upgrades. 

Bulletin Board Inspiration No. 3 | French Country Lavender

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Bulletin board inspiration can come from anywhere, including French Country lavender plants from Trader Joe's. 

While a lavender post was planned for this year's new series of Bulletin Board Inspiration posts, the plan was for July when lavender fields are in full bloom in France. But, finding beautiful lavender plants this past week inspired the May bulletin board and offers a bit of a tutorial on how to create bulletin boards for viewing, not just for personal inspiration. 

With each new bulletin board are a few suggestions, or tutorial, on how to elevate a collection of bulletin board clippings from unplanned haphazard pinnings to layouts designed for inspiration to house guests as well as to the bulletin board's creator.  

Bulletin Board Inspiration No. 2 | Moody Blue Flowers

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No wonder Bulletin Board Inspiration No. 2 has moody blue flowers. Blue flowers have been my favorites for years which means my collected clippings include dozens of articles about blue flowers. 

If you are new to the blog, you may have missed the previous articles in this series of bulletin board inspiration on a rejuvenated old bulletin board painted ink blue. Links to the previous posts are at the end. 

Recommended varieties with botanical names, how to prepare beds, information about bulbs and seeds, and show-stopping photographs of gardens and flower arrangements are all part of my magazine clippings of blue flowers. The bulletin board inspiration for April is only a small part of my clipped collection of blue flowers.

Bulletin Board Inspiration No. 1 | Baskets, Eggs, Wreaths

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Creating a bulletin board filled with photographs of spring baskets, bird eggs, and wreaths is an inexpensive way to enjoy photographs from magazines, brochures, catalogs, flyers, maps . . .  Plus, seeing collected clippings on a board gives ideas for creating similar arrangements around the house. Take a look at the latest bulletin board arrangement in my house for March, and read my suggestions for creating your own bulletin board arrangements. 

Last fall I rejuvenated an old ordinary bulletin board by painting the cork board ink blue and by applying a gold gel stain to the narrow wooden frame. When I shared the finished look in a post, I promised readers a new series of Bulletin Board Inspiration. Today is the first of several bulletin board inspiration posts, with tutorials included for how I lay out my bulletin boards. The board I created and photographed last November will debut this November. 

Inked Blue Bulletin Board Debut

Today is the debut of my inked blue bulletin board. Just in time to create collages for holiday inspiration.  

For the past year, dark inked blue and gold have become a favorite color combination for my home. Navy blue has always been a favorite paired with white or red or both, but recently I started plans to update an old wood-framed bulletin board with  a blue cork board and gold wood frame. 

Read about why and how I transformed an old inexpensive bulletin board into a freshly painted blue cork board with gold wood frame and get ideas for your own bulletin board.