Giving your home an overhaul and love the shabby chic look? Our top tips will help you to set the scene for your shabby chic decorating makeover…
Shabby chic has been a popular style for interior design for quite some time now – but while the furniture and accessories are easy to identify, what should you do with the walls?
The overall shabby chic image is one which echoes antique and vintage style with signs of wear and tear – but that doesn’t mean that you want peeling wallpaper! So before you start filling your room with repurposed furniture and beached-out or second hand fabrics, you need to take care of those walls. Here are our tips for shabby chic decorating…
- Colours – plain colours can work well as a backdrop for your shabby chic furnishings, but getting the right colour is essential. Soft pastel colours are ideal for this design style – think pink, soft rose, mint, a gentle aqua green or a light, sky blue. If you’re planning lots of colour accents, then you can stick with white or ecru emulsion instead.
- Wallpaper – If you’ve decided to add a feature wall, then look out for wallpaper with birds, birdcages, teapots, big flowers or other vintage or nature-inspired prints. You can even look for retro wallpaper for a 70s vibe.
- Wood – Distressed wood is a dominant feature when it comes to shabby chic, so if you’re choosing plain walls you could consider cladding the lower portion for a vintage feel. You can whitewash or paint the wood to match the rest of the walls, or use a slightly different shade to add a little interest. The great thing with this approach is that it doesn’t need to be perfect – rough areas of wood don’t need to be sanded, and any knocks or knots simply add to the overall effect.
- Exposed bricks – if you’re decorating your kitchen or living room, exposed brickwork can be the perfect feature, and you can paint over it to match the overall colour scheme if you wish. It’s a great way to add some texture and could save plastering and wallpapering!
- Murals and stencils – if you can’t find the right wallpaper, you can always stick with plain emulsion and then use stencil, mural or decal. Look for flowers and trees or anything natural and organic with some splashes of bright colours – and if you’re using a stencil, don’t feel you need to map out the pattern perfectly; if you’re confident, just freestyle your way through!
- Pattern rollers or printing – this is another great way of adding some texture to your plain walls; you can buy patterned rollers for a quick yet creative finish, or you can use a stiff sponge or even a potato to create your own print pattern.
- Tiles – Adding some tiles is another great idea if you’re decorating a room in a shabby chic, although this is probably best kept for bathrooms and kitchens. Reclaimed tiles from decades gone by are perfect as they are likely to be showing some signs of age. Don’t feel they have to match either, as long as the colours complement your overall scheme, some variety will definitely add some spice! You can even go one step further and use the smaller tiles to create a mosaic, or use some old broken pots and crockery for the same purpose.