Shabby Chic Furniture

To me shabby chic is a style and a way of life that is about taking things that other people overlook and seeing the beauty lurking beneath the surface. The things are shabby, paint is peeling perhaps revealing the wood beneath, there are cracks, in my Gramma’s favourite phrase:

“they’ve seen better days”

And maybe that’s the point. Because these are always things that were once stylish, often they were the design classics of their day. They usually say something about the era they came from and that gives them a depth that something straight from a department store will never have. Character.

“An air of sweet disorder”

These are things that have been allowed or even encouraged to enter a state of genteel decay. They remind us of old houses, times past, our childhood perhaps or even of a mythical past we wish we’d known. Somehow they carry with them a sort of faded glamour. The furniture seems quite grown-up. It gives our homes an air of stability that many of us long for in these times of constant change.

“The thrill of finding buried treasure”

When we discover a piece that ‘has potential’ there’s a frisson of excitement. It’s a moment when the hairs on the back of your neck rise and you know you really want this piece. This is often strongest when spotting a piece in the most unlikely of places, a skip, a yard sale, occasionally, and embarrassingly, in a friend’s house (This is really tricky if the friend is not aiming for a Shabby Chic look!) Sometimes it’s on ebay, but more often that is treasure someone else has already uncovered.

“The unbearable lightness of being”

Shabby Chic furniture often has a lightness of touch. It might be something physically heavy and solid but it’s impact will often be lightened by the use of pale or understated paint colours and effects. There’s often a tendency towards decorative features, scroll work, carving even, but these are counter-balanced by softening layers of paint. The overall effect is light and often playful.

“We add ourselves to what we find”

When we spot a piece of furniture and we carry it off in triumph, we have in mind a vision of how we want it to look. This might involve adding a paint effect, a crackled glaze, new (old or vintage) fabric covers. In doing this we make the piece our own. It gives us chance to express our creativity in a way that buying new stuff never can.
Shabby Chic Furniture, painted furniture, vintage furniture and accessories, they all really sing to me!

A Little Bit About Me:

Linda Hartley

So you may well ask, who is this woman and what does she know about Shabby Chic furniture? I’m Linda Hartley. I live in London though I’m really from much further North and I’ve loved Shabby Chic furniture for most of my life. I grew up with 1960s minimalism. My Dad was an architect and Shabby Chic, courtesy of Laura Ashley, was my kind of teenage rebellion! Later when I had a home of my own I learned all sorts of fancy paint effects, mostly courtesy of Jocasta Innes’s books and my own experiments. I’ve tried my hand at most Shabby Chic techniques and joyfully regard myself as a Jill of All Trades. I WILL eventually finish my popular series on Painting Wooden Furniture, hopefully!!I am also passionate about Nursery Wallpaper, North Devon Cottages, Vintage Cashmere West End Breaks, and lots of other things.