Shabby Chic

This trend burst on to the scene circa 2008 around the same time that all those banks collapsed. Shabby chic is exactly what it says it is; chic and shabby. Grande ould swaths of lace or fine pieces of antique furniture distressed and shabbied up a bit.

The logic being, and it happened in food and fashion too, we wanted to lose all the bells and whistle of the economic boom and spend our days harking back to cosy, nostalgic times past. 

How rosemantic is this? A balmy Monday afternoon, not a soul in the house, grab Jane Eyre, your piping hot cup of tea and go out to your little shabby-chic-ed shed for some you time. Curling your feet under you - a prerequisite.

Shabby chic is about two things, well maybe more but two things that matter hugely are pale colours or white and distressed furnishings, like this big dresser here. 

Vintage fabrics also equate to shabby chic and no other place can you reuse vintage threads than in curtains. Not quite what Maria did in Sound of Music, she made clothes out of curtains right?

Also integral to nailing this look properly is lace. Warning - don't go overboard though.

Then there's these....... distressed (see?) lanterns, whether they're up cycled or recycled I don't know but they say nostalgia and romance pretty well.

The Window Seat

There's something uber cosy and uber romantic about a window seat. It's not quite a room nor is it just an idle seat in an unlived-in hallway. You're not outside and yet you are. There's no TV. It's all about the view and the reading material and making the most of the space you have.

           

The books are stored in a clever little way here. This could have just been window sill but look at it now.

Proving you never need straight lines to make your home-y dreams come true. This port hole window isn't even at ground level - it's a window above a desk. Grab the Great Gatsby and snuggle your curvy spine into this perfect reading alcove.

Sometimes you don't even need a real built-in window seat to have a real-life window seat. Throw open the window, get some cushions, plop them on the window sill and lay your ass bones on top.

Hello New England. A window seat in a boudoir, overlooking the beach, what more could one ask for in life? 

No half-assed window seat here, if this little area hadn't been cultivated in this manner then it would be a big plonk of disused space and probably would have become the junkyard of the home attracting everything from unironed piles of clothes to hockey sticks and mucky football boots. This is real nookie.

Keeping the best 'til last, this is utopian. What more can I say?

Pink Interiors

Jackie O, loved pink. Although she was and is absolutely,  heralded as a style icon and the role she played as a First Lady before having her own career as a book editor she is also charged with having transformed the White House during her tenure there. Her and John moved in there after Truman and she got to renovating, when she was done, she brought the cameras in and broadcast the details and the decoration into every American home with a TV set.

Whilst this post isn't about Jackie, nor is it about the White House, the image of her in her hot pink dress with JFK to the background is quite arresting.

                


So let's get to it. Hot pink/fuchsia/cerise/magenta might not be for everyone, it's pretty bold and it's pretty powerful.

It's the warm side of the colour spectrum and although pink means unconditional love, compassion and nurture, the people who decided those meanings were talking about the pale pinks you'd dress a baby girl in. What hot pink does represent is confidence and assurance, passion, play and happiness. 

Whether you're going all out with the paint brush or investing in pink furnishings or you're just going to use it as a little inconspicuous accent here's a few ideas on how to use it.

    

                                                          

This is phenom, nothing goes better together in this world than turquoise and fuchsia do. The wallpaper is a bit bonkers but the plain floor and unpatterned fabric chair let the wall art take centre stage. For the very brave hearted.

  

This is for the less brave hearted. The lighter pink on the walls and the white make for a pretty quiet effect but kudos to the hot pink lampshade it brings everything around it out of itself. This is a picture perfect example of how an accent works.

  

See the turquoise is at it again, and then all against a crisp white chaise longue. Bold colours look great next to white or black. Whst also makes this room work is the antique vase as it calms down the modernity that the vibrant colours create. The gallery wall effect also breaks up what would otherwise be a whole wall of hot pink.

               

If you're lucky enough to be living in a Mediterranean climate, or in arid Arizona or sunny California then you could definitely pull this off. Distress it a bit and leave it matte. This hot a colour used out of doors certainly doesn't want gloss anyway next to near it.

This really works. Monochrome black and white or zebra print next to a bold colour is definitely trending. In my humble little opinion it works even better in interiors than it does in glad rags. Love, love, love.

   

Real pretty, kind of like what the lampshade did for the hallway above this is venturing that little bit further and putting the hard pink on to a bigger spot. Not overwhelming and still pretty powerful.

         

See all the white? It's on the floors, it's on the walls and then a bold colour comes blazing in and jazzes it all up. See if you spend your mula and big decorating jobs on safe neutral colours then you can play around with the ever so temporary and easily removed furnishings. See the blue in the rug again. Best friends those two colours.

And see here a really safe room all neutral and oatmeal-y. Put and your finger tip over the pouffe and footstool area and see how plain the room is. Lift your finger off and see the true effect of an accent of colour and colour in a not so central piece of furniture. Like a little miracle.