Ever heard of "Shabby Chic" style? It's a style that originated from Great Britain in the 1980s, which combines chic and shabby: It is an interior and exterior design style in which furniture and accessories are chosen for their antiquated or used look, or artificially antiquated, projecting us in the past. Also called Cottage Chic, Beach Cottage Chic or French Country, the idea remains the same, with a few variants in the colors and tones that are preferred. The Shabby Chic style is available to anyone: It's easy to obtain this antiquated finish, even for beginners, as long as you can follow simple instructions and have the appropriate products.
Furniture, linen, garden...
Shabby Chic objects show some wear and tear that manifests itself through many coats of paint appearing at worn areas. This style can be imitated by finishing a piece of furniture or accessory (candlestick, lamp, etc.) and then giving it some wear and tear by sanding, rubbing, crackling the paint and by damaging it in strategic areas.
Shabby Chic style is not limited to furniture: It can be applied to linen, often dyed with tea or bleached pastel colors, to provide a used, worn look. Garden accessories can also be given a very pleasing aesthetics when finished with a Shabby Chic finish.
Simplicity and Creativity
Shabby Chic is interesting because of its minimalistic and discreet approach, which promotes recycling and reusing of old furniture, puts imperfections and defects as part of the aesthetic, goes along well with new, handmade furniture, while putting comfort and functionality at its core. The welcoming and warm effect it provides in rooms where it is used is much appreciated.
In that spirit, recycling and reusing old wood to adapt it for a new use, such as an old wooden door transformed into a coffee table for the living room. This is an important value of Shabby Chic, which was at the core of the style as a counter-culture movement when it first appeared in the 1980s, at a time when luxury decorative objects were becoming more and more popular among upper-class dwellings. The first Shabby Chic finished interiors were then considered as works of art.
Nowadays, old furniture has become more popular, and it's not always easy to find for a Shabby Chic project. For this reason, undertaking a Shabby Chic finish on new wood is possible, as shown below.
Simple Buttermilk Paint Shabby Chic Technique
One of the best product to obtain a Shabby Chic style finish is Old Village's Buttermilk Paint. This water based paint, tinted with natural pigments is ready to use and can be stored for many years. It can be used either indoor or outdoor, provides superior covering power, and is perfect where distressing will be used (sanding, crackling, etc.) on the paint to reveal the different coats and colors. Finally, this paint is available in a nice color set that reminds of the colonial period in New-England, which is what we want to achieve with Shabby Chic.
Following are the different steps you'll need to follow to get an antiquated, Shabby Chic finish. The colors used in this guide are only suggestions: Feel free to explore your creative instincts!
On new or restored wood surfaces :
- Sand the whole surface with 120 grit sandpaper.
- Apply a coat of Medium Brown Water Based Dye Stain.
- Once the stain has dried completely, apply one to three coats of Buttermilk Paint, either white (2 coats minimum) or any color you prefer.
- After the paint has dried, it's time to do some wear and tear: With a Cotton Rag or a wet sponge, rub strategic areas such as around the knob, edges, trims and other areas that would be subject to wear over time, so that you can see the stain that was previously applied.
- Sand the whole surface with a 220 grit sandpaper.
- Apply Neutral or Natural Carbamex Wax, or a matte Water Based Varnish.
On painted or varnished wood:
- Sand the old finish with a 120 grit sandpaper.
- Apply a coat of Buttermilk paint, and use any color you'd like to act as a first coat. When you distress the furniture in further steps, this is the color that you'll see underneath the final coat.
- Follow steps 3 to 6 above.
And... you're done! Adding a shiny decorative accessory, such as a vase, mirror or antique lamp will certainly enhance your new Shabby Chic furniture piece! Enjoy!
