“Shabby Chic” style decor is a nostalgic, feminine style of living. However, it is not shabby, as the style’s name suggests, rather a cozy mix of heirlooms, furnishings with patina from the flea market, a harmonious pastel color palette with noble accents, patterns of flora and fauna, and natural materials. The shape and color scheme of Shabby Chic often recall the country homes of the English or French aristocracy from the 18th and 19th centuries.

What is Shabby Chic Decor?

Shabby Chic Style Furniture

Having Shabby Chic decor means living with vintage furniture. These are recognizably old: traces of use such as flaking varnish, scratches, scrapes, and nicks are integral parts of Shabby Chic.

However, not all vintage furniture is suitable for Shabby Chic living: Shabby Chic furniture is light-colored, often painted white, made of wood and has a romantic rustic look thanks to carvings and curved shapes.

Shabby Chic lovers will usually find what they are looking for at flea markets or maybe even grandma’s attic. Old furniture is polished, sanded down or newly lacquered to become a beautiful eye-catcher with history.

This beauty in imperfection is also often manufactured: In Shabby Chic, furniture is designed to look old, artificially creating signs of use. Check out this cute, white chipped, shabby-chic accent table by Ashley Furniture with scrolled feet, a shapely pedestal base, and a beautiful vintage-style finish, for example:

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You can easily do this yourself: With varnish and sandpaper you can give furniture the typical used look of Shabby Chic.

Shabby Chic Decor

Even the home accessories in Shabby Chic are mostly from the flea market.

Popular are filigree porcelain cups, worn enamel bowls and jugs, tarnished silver cutlery or brass candle holders. Matte metal settings create a slight contrast to the pastel patterns of flora and fauna, which usually appear faded on textiles, wood or porcelain. Cut glass, blind mirrors, crystal chandeliers, and nostalgic lampshades are also popular.

I absolutely love this vintage-looking, cream color, dragonfly, Tiffany floor lamp, which is perfect for Shabby Chic decor.

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Many indirect light sources such as fairy lights and white, long-stemmed candles or tea lights are suitable for atmospheric lighting.

Objects found in nature should be present in any Shabby Chic home: Driftwood, shells, and feathers left untreated can be integrated into the decoration with great attention to detail.

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Shabby Chic: Color Palette and Materials

The Shabby Chic is feminine, romantic, and elegant. The style lives from a harmonious world of colors and patterns – strong contrasts and the color black doesn’t really have a place.

Delicate, matte colors such as pastel pink, light blue, white, beige and violet dominate. Ornaments of gold and silver refine the color palette and ensure feminine elegance.

Realistic, small natural motifs such as birds, butterflies, and rose petals appear faded and pastel on pillowcases, tablecloths or paintings on vases and bowls. Paisley patterns and Toile-de-Jouy are also popular.

Take for example, this rustic milk canister. It looks old and used but in reality, it’s perfect for Shabby Chic. Some artificial flowers would probably look very nice as well.

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With a material mix of velvet, silk, linen, and cotton, it’s cozy. A textile layered look with knitwear, lace, and tulle is typical of Shabby Chic. It’s best to choose only a light color tone and only create contrasts with the materials.

DIY Shabby Chic: Step by Step

Here is a quick How To DIY Shabby Chic Decor.

Step 1: Gather Materials

Look for a suitable find at the flea market or antique shop – wooden furniture is the best choice.

Then get

• sandpaper
• small foam rolls or thick brushes for painting
• oily white undercoat
• matte acrylic paint in the desired shade and you’re ready to go!

Step 2: Preparation

Making Shabby Chic yourself is one thing above all: time-consuming. Unfortunately, it is not done by sanding and brushing over it once. First you have to clean the furniture properly, for example with soda-liquid cleaner, and remove all remaining metal fittings. Then take the sandpaper and sand everything down carefully. Then vacuum up the dust and wipe everything again with a damp cloth.

Step 3: Paint

Then you can paint your vintage piece with the oily white undercoat. You can also use blue, green or red as a base instead of the classic white.

Very important: The paint must dry well, preferably overnight. Then comes the second coat of paint. This time you use water-soluble, matte acrylic paint and let it dry well again.

Sand the piece of furniture until the surface is nice and smooth and repeat the whole process about three or four times.

Step 4: Aging

Now comes the real trick to making Shabby Chic yourself: When the final layer of paint is well dried, you can use sandpaper again and work the typical traces of use of the vintage look into the wood.

How much you sand and where you sand is entirely up to your imagination and individual taste! Which is one thing I love about shabby chic and boho styles–the individuality!

How do you like the Shabby Chic style? Would you try to create it yourself?

Thanks for reading,
Anna
www.mybohobliss.com