This style combines such directions as retro, provence, country and baroque, and its name means "shabby chic". It is often used to decorate the entire apartment or its individual elements. Creating a shabby chic in the interior of a room with your own hands is not difficult, you just need to decide what you want to see as a result.
The origin of style
This interior style originated in England at the end of the 20th century. The British began to furnish their country houses with shabby furniture. They just took their old furniture, found family heirlooms, bought antiques. Gradually, the fashion for vintage things penetrated into other countries. Housewives and interior designers began to buy shabby furniture at flea markets to highlight its history and breathe new life into it. These things may even be from different eras, but together they look interesting and unusual.
Features of the shabby chic style
The translation of the name of the style speaks for itself - the shabby chic interior should have shabby furniture and battered decor items, in addition to which characteristic background features are used:
- Naivety and romance.
- Pastel shades.
- Plant motifs, as well as angels.
- Ruffles and festoons.
- An excess of details, as, for example, in the Baroque style.
- Natural wood, as well as ceramics, wrought iron, glass.
- A large number of decorative vases, candlesticks, figurines, caskets.
- Live roses.
Style color scheme
Pastel colors are used in the interior of the shabby chic style:
- Light green.
- Blue.
- Pink.
- Light purple.
- Peach.
They are diluted with white or beige colors. The use of bright colors is not allowed, even in individual elements of decor. Walls, furniture, textiles, trinkets - absolutely everything should be in pastel colors.
wall decoration
If you decide not to overload your apartment with shabby chic, but only add some elements of chic, then it is better to choose white walls. Against such a background, the rest of the elements of this style will look good, and the guests of the apartment will not have the feeling that they are in a dollhouse or a theater interior.
To save the walls of the apartment from the hospital flavor, it would be better to give them volume with the help of textured plaster. Also, the style allows the use of wood panels. They can be run full height on one wall and painted using the worn effect. Don't forget the white stucco moldinggiving sophistication to the entire interior.
It will be interesting to finish one wall under white brick, for example, at the head of the bed in the bedroom, or around the decorative fireplace in the living room.
To create an interior in the style of shabby chic with a romantic bias, you can stick wallpaper in a flower with your own hands. The background should be light and the flowers should be in pastel colors. Roses are the best.
Ceiling
The ceiling must be made plain. You can paint it in ivory, light pink or pale blue, depending on the purpose of the room. Or you can choose the classic white color, diversifying it with the effect of old cracked paint.
Decorative wooden beams will look unusual on the ceiling of the apartment.
Floor
Style canons require the use of natural wood flooring only. It can also be aged and worn. For the kitchen and bathroom, it is better to choose tiles.
Light-colored carpets with short or long pile add coziness to the interior. A carpet with a pattern needs to be aged, to create the effect of a worn coating so that it can fit into the shabby chic style.
What furniture does shabby chic require?
For this style, you can take old family furniture or look for suitable rarities at a flea market.It can be both the most ordinary and with its own special long history.
Wicker furniture, which is usually used in summer cottages and country houses, is well suited for such an interior. For example, a wicker rocking chair with soft cushions will look good in the living room or on the loggia of an apartment in the spirit of shabby chic.
So that the furniture does not look like shabby trash, it will have to be cleaned and decorated with your own hands.
The most important point is that all furniture should be made of wood. Then it will be easy to work with her, and you will have a lot of room for imagination. Craftsmen create the effect of cracked or worn paint, carved decor, patina effect on metal elements, or simply paint floral motifs.
Chest of drawers in decoupage technique
Decoupage is one of the most popular techniques for creating shabby chic with your own hands. Suitable for decorating wood and metal surfaces. With it, you can decorate any piece of furniture, such as a chest of drawers.
- Take a ready-made chest of drawers or a wooden blank. Even a rare "old man" from a flea market or from a thrift store will do. In this case, it will have to be cleaned of varnish and paint.
- Paint the chest of drawers inside with paint. Then take a synthetic brush and dip it in the stain. Remove excess with a newspaper and use a dry brush to apply the stain over the paint. You should get a faded effect.
- Prime and sand the outside.
- Those places where scuffs will be created, paint with black paint and rub with a candle.
- Paint the whole chest of drawers with the main color in 4-5 layers.
- Take a special tool for artists - a palette knife - and peel off the paint with it in places of scuffs. You can do this after applying the varnish, but it will be easier. You choose the amount of damage.
- Take a decoupage napkin and cut out the desired elements. Most often, floral motifs are used.
- Stick the elements on the dresser with a brush and smooth out any bubbles and creases.
- After the glue has completely dried, sand the napkins. Pay special attention to the edges so that there are no visible borders.
- With a thin brush, paint over all the borders with the main paint so that the napkin blends into the background.
- The boxes inside can be pasted over with a cloth.
- Coat the chest of drawers with varnish in 5 layers.
Using fabrics in shabby chic decor
In the shabby chic style, only natural fabrics are used, plain pastel or with floral motifs - linen, cotton, silk, satin. From geometric patterns, you can choose thin stripes or small cells.
There should be a lot of textiles in a shabby interior: sofa cushions, upholstery, curtains, tablecloths, blankets and napkins create comfort. Embroidered pillows or tablecloths look luxurious in shabby chic style. Motifs are selected floral, vegetable or rustic.
Choosing lamps
Traditionally, the style involves the presence of a large baroque chandelier in the center of the ceiling of the room with imitation of candlesticks, with crystal pendants and forged elements. In places of rest - near an armchair or bed - they put lamps with textile lampshades. Their colors should be in harmony with the decoration of the entire interior of the shabby.
Table lamp decor
A shabby chic lamp is easy to make with your own hands. For this:
- Take a table lamp and separate the lampshade from the base.
- Prime the bases and cover with dark paint, and rub the corners and protruding parts with a candle.
- Paint with white paint.
- Take decoupage napkins, cut out the desired motifs.
- Peel off the bottom two layers of tissue paper, you won't need them. Glue the top layer to the lampshade with a brush and PVA glue, varnish on top.
- Rub the base of the lamp with sandpaper in the places rubbed with a candle. The bottom paint should show through and create a worn effect.
- Sew on lace at the bottom of the lampshade, emphasizing the style of the product.
- Decorate the base with a ribbon bow.
Shabby chic living room
For the living room, a spacious bright room is usually chosen. Furniture is placed in the center, leaving space around it. At one of the walls you can create an imitation of a fireplace.
Sofa and armchairs available baroque style, but it is necessary to age them. The upholstery should be just light or in a small flower. Scatter a few pillows on the sofa.
Walk around flea markets and antique shops, for sure there will be items that will fit perfectly into your shabby chic living room. On the coffee table, you can put a vase with fresh roses that emphasize style, candlesticks, figurines and photo frames.
Photo frame with a touch of antiquity
Patina is a trace of aging on a metal item. On iron it looks like rust, on copper it looks like green plaque. In order for the new photo frame to match the style, it needs to be aged, that is, patinated:
- Take a plaster photo frame with curly elements.
- Apply a special patina primer.
- Paint the surface with metallic paint.
- Without waiting for the paint to dry completely, apply the patina paint with a thin brush. To make it neat, let the patina itself drain from the brush and spread over the surface.
- During the oxidation process, green stains will appear. Then varnish the frame.
Shabby chic bedroom
The bed - the main element of the shabby chic bedroom - should be wooden or iron with a wrought iron headboard. The wooden headboard needs to be aged. Above the bed you can hang a canopy made of light plain fabric, and on the bed itself you can lay a floral bedspread and lay out several rows of pillows.
An obligatory element of a shabby chic bedroom is a mirror in an old frame. You can also create the desired effect of worn gold with your own hands.
All other elements - a wardrobe, chest of drawers, bedside tables - should be in harmony with the bed and repeat its shape. Also, the wrought iron headboard can be repeated in the chandelier.
We decorate the kitchen
The shabby chic kitchen set should be made of natural wood, decorated with decoupage or simply aged. Be sure to have a large wooden dining table. Its coating is easy to age with your own hands using sandpaper.
Along the walls, you can put cabinets with glass doors, in which beautiful dishes should be displayed. To accentuate the style, the walls of the kitchen or dining room can be decorated with decorative plates.
Bathroom
Even in the bathroom you can create a shabby chic interior. But for this you need a fairly spacious room, preferably with a window.
The bath itself and other plumbing can be standard, and elements such as a chandelier, a mirror, and vases will help to style the room. A chandelier can be forged, a mirror can be placed in an aged frame, and vases can have stucco decor. Faucets and fittings will suit golden color, as in baroque style.
Creating an interior with your own hands in the style of shabby chic is not at all difficult, the main thing is not to overdo it and competently combine all the decor items with each other. Then the room will look romantic, fresh and cozy.
