All New Shabby Chic Thread!

pollyskettle

lolly_896 -that's very lovely! I'm very impressed.

Thank you for the lovely comments about my shed. When we moved here three years ago I told OH that I would 'stripe the shed' and I finally got round to doing it a couple of weeks ago. It's only Cuprinol Shades and that stuff goes a very long way, I used two 1 litre tins and have quite a bit left. I've got my raised beds next to the shed and we're going to put gravel around them so I'm thinking a creamy colour and I shall paint the beds too but I'm not sure what colour yet, I'm thinking dark oak for the furniture and fencing and maybe a soft greeny colour for the beds. I'm also going to put a window box under the shed window and paint it blue and plant red geraniums and trailing plants in it!

I could wax lyrical about my shed forever, I just love it! I'm sorely tempted to move into it, truth be told. Or, I might take up Cherisongs suggestion and sell it, I could be sitting on a fortune :rotfl:

Why_oh_why

Hi :j

I am obsessed with this thread and the OS forum and check about 50 times a day for new posts (despite the fact that I am subscribed lol) and thought I should finally come on and annoy people .

I'm am just starting my attempt at shabby chic - so far that has mainly involved unpacking the ornaments I packed away 5 years ago in my last house (because I didn't really like living there and wanted everything as bare as possible). So far I think things are feeling so much more homely - despite it being a rented property.

I have got some paint to attempt to work on various pieces of furniture, so that will hopefully be my priority if I can drag myself away from working 16 hours a day!

Hubbie has been doing a little bit of work for my company and has said that I can have the £42 he earned to spend getting some bits for my shabby chic grand scheme :beer: So, my question is, if you had £42 to start off with, what would be you priorities? I have looked at the heart door hangers but have decided to attempt to make some myself eeeek (I am hopeless at sewing, although I like to think I am good at cross-stitching).

I'll stop rambling now

Kandipandi

pollys - the sed is beautiful - reminds me of the beautiful beach huts of my childhood.
lolly - your unit is fabulous!

Claire_Bear

£42 sounds like a wonderful fortune for shabby chicness! If you hit the car booties, charity shops, jumble sales, flea markets, regular sales, pound shops, cheapy furniture shops, ebay etc you can make it stretch out and get loads of fabby bargains! I would maybe splash out on a piece of second hand furniture like a dresser or a sideboard from ebay, then either leave it as it is or paint it up. Then whatever was leftover from that I would buy lots of little accessories.

Pollyskettle, loving your shed! Who thought that such a mundane piece of garden furniture could look so good with a lick of paint? Looks especially lovely in the nice sunshine!

Tara, if I won that oriental bowl, I could go and pick it up personally :rotfl:

Frenchgirl

:TWOW WOW WOW I just love this thread. The shed is lovely. At my last house I painted my shed the same blue never thought to use white as well. I love the chairs. I am hoping to get motivated to do a little chair. Keep the photos coming.

What is a nitromors???????????????????

midnightraven3

nitromors is a powerful paint & varnish stripper
you paint it on outdoors, and it all just rubs/brushes & falls off

strong stuff to be used with instructions fully in mind, but great for finiky little bits and ornate chair legs etc

tara747

lostinrates wrote: »

very personally, if I were going to varnish I'd opt for a matt varnish. But I don't think people should worry too much if what they like isn't technically the style of shabby chic. To me part of shabby chic is the individual nature of what we like, and rejection of corporate style trend....while I do agree some of th beautiful things bought at big chains etc are wonderful and look the part and are great in our homes, very personally I'm going to try and minimise them in my home. I'd like to surround my stuff with stuff that not only do I find beautiful and useful but that has genuine memories, is ethical/green where possible and which I'll want to keep for a very lonhg time, making it cost effective, if not always cheap. I don't plan to be inflexible about it nor to chuck stuff I've already succumbed to and like from chains. Many years ago, as a student, I had a mismatched fine bone china table setting, for eight. I love it, but TBH, it grates slightly that now everyone does it and that what was fairly unique when I was 18 looks sort of cliched now.

I feel exactly the same way!!

p.s. not everyone does the mismatched china thing, I promise. All my friends are obsessed with Habitat, Ikea, M&S etc and wouldn't know shabby chic if it bit them on the bum! So we are not that common lol.

Kandipandi wrote: »

.......
When my DH came in he asked about my current obsession with union jack stuff and said if you put all that out people will think we were supporting the BMP now:eek: ... I told him to shut up

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Why_oh_why wrote: »

Hi :j

I am obsessed with this thread and the OS forum and check about 50 times a day for new posts (despite the fact that I am subscribed lol) and thought I should finally come on and annoy people .

I'm am just starting my attempt at shabby chic - so far that has mainly involved unpacking the ornaments I packed away 5 years ago in my last house (because I didn't really like living there and wanted everything as bare as possible). So far I think things are feeling so much more homely - despite it being a rented property.

I have got some paint to attempt to work on various pieces of furniture, so that will hopefully be my priority if I can drag myself away from working 16 hours a day!

Hubbie has been doing a little bit of work for my company and has said that I can have the £42 he earned to spend getting some bits for my shabby chic grand scheme :beer: So, my question is, if you had £42 to start off with, what would be you priorities? I have looked at the heart door hangers but have decided to attempt to make some myself eeeek (I am hopeless at sewing, although I like to think I am good at cross-stitching).

I'll stop rambling now

Welcome! Oh my goodness, isn't your OH sweet

I'm glad you've unpacked and displayed your pretty things. We rent too and I always make a point of making our house as pretty as possible, it is our home after all. :A

midnightraven3

does anyone else keep going back & looking at the shed?:D

its not a shed
its a beach hut
cant you imagine sitting on a nice old fashioned deck chair just outside, a good book, on a warm summers day?

**sigh**
its lovely, really lovely
and so nice to have outside space thats "your" little corner :T

the people at Google Earth and gonna be rubbing their eyes at the spate of beach huts springing up all over the country:D

sootypea

Thought I would show you the first thing i made over. Only because I am going to use them today

pollyskettle

Sootypea - they're lovely. I'm really impressed! Were they easy to do? They'd look great in the garden!