Shabby Chic Decorating Ideas

Shabby chic decorating brings up ideas of summer cottage gardens. This vintage style of decorating brings together floral fabrics, garden furniture, and elegant elements such as chandeliers. Here are a few guidelines to decorate your home or just one room in the shabby chic style.

Colors:

Shabby chic employs soft colors such as pale pink and faded green.

Furniture:

• A lot of the furniture is painted white and given a distressed look. This means that the corners are sanded slightly and the paint is chipped in a few places. Shabby chic always includes not quite perfect items. Shabby chic is also all about combining unmatched items. By painting them all white they quickly seem as if they go together.
• Couches and sofas are overstuffed and the kind that you sink into. They are also often covered with slipcovers that are white or a faded print.
• Iron furniture such as headboards that are slightly chipped or rusted are also widely used in the shabby chic style.

Fabrics and Patterns:

• Any vintage looking fabric even if it is new can easily fit into the shabby chic décor.
• If you find a print that you absolutely adore you can make it look vintage by using tea to stain it.
• Combining stripes, checks and floral patterns gives shabby chic its gathered look, but try to keep at least one common color in the patterns so that it doesn't look too random.

Interesting Details or Uses:

• Use items for something other than what they were intended. Use a chair to hold a vase of flowers or display some other item. Use stacked wooden boxes for books and other trinkets, use a picnic bench as a coffee table and so on.
• Look for old glass doorknobs, mantles, moldings and other architectural items at flea markets or antique stores. Use these in your home to add interesting detail.
• Older yet imperfect items such as chipped teapots, old mirrors and lamps can all be used in the shabby chic décor, simply clean them up and perhaps paint them to match your room.
• Flowers and candles grouped in interesting arrangements
• Put vintage tablecloths on tables
• Decorate windowsills and mantles with mismatched china and glassware
• Use wrought iron curtain rods with interesting ends