A Starters Guide to Shabby Chic

Shabby chic styles decoration has made a massive comeback in recent years, and for good reason – the trend allows you to experiment with D.I.Y. techniques and celebrates imperfections – which means you can save yourself a massive amount of money by pulling together a wide range of pieces, which hugely range in prices.

You may find a charity shop bargain for little more than a couple of pounds, or you might invest in beautiful antiques that will be in your family for years to come, and finding this mix and match of items is what eventually adds to the authenticity of your shabby chic living area.

The difficult part is differentiating between the items that you can potentially save on, and the pieces that you should splurge on – to get that balance just right.

We’ve listed three pieces below that we feel deserves a little more of an investment, of either your time or budget, when you come to decorating your room in the much loved shabby chic style.

shabby-chic-lighting

Shabby Chic Lighting

Lighting is important an important feature as it shows all of the other pieces in your room, and it can also act as a focal point – depending on your own personal taste and how big you would like to go. Chandeliers are a beautiful option as they are very luxurious and contract beautifully against the distressed, antique appearance of the rest of your shabby chic pieces.

Arlington Fabric Sofa | The English Sofa Company

Arlington Fabric Sofa | The English Sofa Company

Shabby Chic Sofas

Depending on what you would like to be the focal point in your living room, makes a massive difference to how much time or money you would like to invest in your sofa. Shabby chic sofas are traditionally very shabby-looking – with a white cloth or linen covering a simple style sofa in a valance-like way. But this can crease easily and be hard to maintain in the long run. We suggest a simple yet elegant sofa, neutral toned, with a lot of depth to reflect the comforting nature of the room. If you prefer, you could even go for a bold, vintage print like this Rochester designer fabric sofa, which still reflects the shabby chic theme perfectly!

shabby-chic-mirrors

Shabby Chic Mirrors

Many face difficulties when choosing a mirror for their room as they can be problematic in terms of both price and availability. With this piece in particular, the time invested – rather than the cost, is an important to consideration to make. For example, you could go to a car-boot sale or really look around and find a beautiful piece for little more than £30 – but it might be a fixer-upper. There are hundreds of online tutorials and pictorials to chose from if you do like this D.I.Y. idea. But, in equal measures, there are also hundreds of pre-made or ‘reloved’ mirrors out there that reflect the shabby chic theme perfectly. Again, you will really have to look around as you often pay more for this, so it just comes down to yourself and how much time you have!

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