Shabby Chic Room Ideas
With the release of her book "Shabby Chic" in 1996, Rachel Ashwell launched a new design style. While decorating trends come and go, shabby chic endures because it's as much about lifestyle as look. Shabby-chic style encourages relaxed elegance and livable luxury. For instance, you can indulge your love for antique finery without banishing pets and children from the upholstery. Does this Spark an idea?
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Color Palette
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Shabby-chic decor uses pale, ethereal color schemes. Soft white dominates the shabby-chic palette. Use it for your largest areas and pieces, and accent the white with buttercream yellow, celadon green, seashell pink, pale blue-green and light gray.
Fabrics, Soft Goods and Upholstery
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Most shabby-chic rooms contain yards and yards of white linen or cotton, usually as bed coverings or washable slipcovers for deep, comfy sofas and lounge chairs. Pile them with plump throw pillows made from worn velvet, faded cotton solids and florals, patterned bark cloth or crisp linen. Bed coverings, slipcovers and pillows can feature dressmaker details such as ruffles, shirred welts, exaggerated box pleats and deep flanges. Pillows can sport vintage millinery touches such as velvet flowers and ribbon.
Plush isn't the only type of shabby-chic upholstery, though. Curvy, leggy French chairs and settees suit shabby-chic style. Whether they're gilded or brightened with white paint, keep the look relaxed with the same types of fabrics you used in the rest of the room. Use silk for curtain panels or dress your windows with soft sheers or vintage, floral-bark cloth draperies.
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Wood Furniture
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Shabby-chic wood furniture spans numerous antique styles and periods. Primitive farm tables can mix with elaborately carved armoires and consoles. You'll see some gilding and natural wood, but most pieces have distressed white or pastel paint finishes. The paint keeps the look casual--even heavy baroque pieces feel relaxed when they're covered with chipping, peeling paint.
Lighting
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The right lighting is crucial to a shabby-chic room. Dramatic chandeliers and shapely wall sconces pop against the pale palette, simple fabrics and distressed paint. Look for crystal-beaded Empire styles, gilded French, Italian or Russian fixtures with hanging crystals, and painted Italian tole pieces featuring metal flowers and leaves. For table lamps, use silk shades on classically shaped porcelain, figural lusterware and carved alabaster bases.
Artwork and Accessories
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Shabby-chic accessories should have the same blend of faded grandeur and simplicity as the rest of the furnishings. Prop a carved, gilded mirror on the fireplace mantel. Hang an old iron garden gate, or a group of mismatched plates or portrait miniatures. Fill open shelves with collections of jadeite, milk glass or ironstone. Display a big bowl of vintage beaded fruit on the cocktail table. Start a collection of flea-market art, perhaps using old portraits or floral still-life paintings once fashionable with ladies' club hobbyists.
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References
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- Photo Credit Chandelier image by TekinT from Fotolia.com
