Shabby Chic - Timeless Style for Your Home

Janet Ramin - Like a grand dame in her waning years, a shabby chic home reflects faded beauty and elegance but with blurry features. Despite this decay, Shabby Chic became a very popular style that gathered steam in the 1980s and continues to be a fashionable choice today. In our continuing series on mood boards, we’ll delve into the elements of a shabby chic interior.

Despite its emergence as a somewhat contemporary style, shabby chic has actually been around for a long time – the style really derives from the faded elegance of old British country manors. The British upper class commissioned furniture makers to create long-lasting quality furniture and basically handed it down to their heirs. Sometimes their descendents replaced the furniture with newer styles but as fortunes waned, some kept the more popular pieces – the Georgian and neoclassical styles – until it broke down. What started as mere frugality eventually became a style statement in the 1980s. 

A shabby chic interior usually features furniture that has naturally faded by time and use, its paint peeling, its edges worn down but with its integral structure still mostly intact and functioning. Or a shabby chic interior can feature furniture that has been artificially “aged” using distressing techniques. The overall mood that a shabby chic style tries to achieve is elegance and a romantic atmosphere. Shabby Chic doesn't try to achieve a “funky," thrift shop look that may happen when using vintage pieces; it aims for more of a timeless, classic style. 

On our mood board above, this Shabby Chic bedroom includes the Montana chaise by Peninsula Home. The chaise frame has been painted and then partially hand-rubbed off to create an “aged” patina. The Lisbon table with its X-shaped legs, also by Peninsula Home, is used here as a bedside table. The Lisbon was distressed and then its edges studded with brass nail heads. 

The writing desk with cabriole legs from Guildmaster is

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Summery Home Styles Set the Seasonal Mood

Janet Ramin - The thermometer reads hot, hot, hot – summer is definitely here - and the only thing on my brain is escaping to the beach. For our Mood Board this month, we’re exploring all kinds of ocean-inspired styles. Many clients have a secondary home on the beach, near the ocean, or on a tropical island so there is always a demand for that tranquil, summery, ocean-inspired look.

Our first mood board is the Seaside Style - which I chose to be an elegant, sophisticated interpretation of the vacation home genre. The inspiration and starting point is the Conservatory lounge chair from Ralph Lauren, an updated version of the 19th century library chair. The baluster rail arms and gold fluted legs give the chair that elegant, upscale feel. Yet the lounge chair is upholstered in crisp ocean blue cottons and deep cushions, inviting one to relax with a good book while being lulled by a seabreeze.

Next to our lounging chair is a pierced cube side table made of tropical hardwoods from Tucker Robbins, adding a touch of earthen stability. On top of our cube is the very nautical Marine Tripod Lamp from Restoration Hardware. To provide texture and a suprise touch as well as a place to put up our feet, we added a dhurrie pouf from West Elm. The browns from the dhurrie upholstery give a balancing contrast to our ocean palette of blue and white. Rounding out our seaside theme, we added shadow boxes of seashells from Palacek to grace the walls. 

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