Shabby Chic
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Valuable flea market finds...
A peeling, antioue vanity in muted sea green...
An elegant, cracked chandelier...
An enormous, slipcovered sofa with deep, cushions...
Comfort, the beauty of imperfections, the allure of time-worn objects, and the appeal of simple practical living: these are the cornerstones of what has come to be known as the Shabby Chic style. Like the cozy familiarity of a well-worn pair of faded jeans, the dilapidated elegance of an Italian viIla, or the worn grandeur of faded velvets and mismatched floral china handed down from your grandmother's attic, the Shabby Chic style is a revived appreciation for what is used, well-loved, and worn. It is a respect for natural evolution and a regard for what is easy and sensible.
The hundreds of lavish photographs in this book invite you inside the unique world of Shabby Chic. Rachel Ashwell, founder of theShabby Chic home decor stores, for the first time provides her invaluable and much-sought-after advice on how to re-create Shabby Chic style in your own home. With engaging text and easy-to- follow instructions, Rachel details the Shabby Chic basics in a way that will put even the most apprehensive or novice decorators at ease. From flowers to fabrics to lighting, Rachel illuminates all of the elements essential to this unpretentious yet truly exquisite style.
A behind-the-scenes look at a flea market lets readers in on Rachel's personal secrets of how to cull hidden treasures from flea market trash--an old trunk, its paint peeling around the edges, can be given new life as a coffee table, while a chipped white iron salvage piece becomes the perfect frame for a vintage mirror. This book tells you not only how to restore these pieces but how to find the perfect place for them in your home. Gorgeous color photographs and accompanying text reveal how this relaxed look works with a variety of different styles, from Victorian to Mediterranean to contemporary.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Over the last decade, since opening a home furnishing store in Santa Monica, Calif., Ashwell (Shabby Chic; The Shabby Chic Home; etc.) has built an empire around a decorating style that involves equal parts flea-market salvaging, craft work and mix-and-matching from different ethnic cultures. In this uneven fourth book, she instructs readers on how to create striking settings for entertaining and special events. While there are some useful ideas here for anyone who wants to create a unique party on a budget for example, hanging flower-adorned thrift-store hats on the backs of chairs or mixing vintage pieces of glassware with more ordinary tumblers for a funky effect the usefulness of other do-it-yourself sections, such as a page devoted to instructions on how to make a traditional English maypole, may elude the average reader. Some might also be alienated by the celebrity sheen of other projects, which range from the makeover of a Pasadena, Calif., restaurant for Jennifer Lopez to a birthday party designed for Pamela Anderson's six-year-old son. Although this book is a bit more glitzy and produced than Ashwell's previous works, her old-fashioned yet fashionable style is appealing when she focuses on basic decorating tips. Newcomers to the shabby chic aesthetic might do better to seek out previous volumes in Ashwell's oeuvre, but confirmed fans will probably find something to enjoy in her ideas on how to transform a party space into something unusual and memorable.
Customer Reviews
Very good
I like this books so elegant and romantic
Shabby Chic
As a new found lover of Rachel Ashwell, and the Shabby Chic brand, I found this book so helpful! I'm a college student so that means a tight budget on my end but I found so many little tricks and ideas that I could do that spent little to no money in the end! It worth every penney in my eyes and if you love interior decorating and restoration, this book is for you :)