Shabby Chic Thread?

maypole

sweetpea03 wrote: »

Bibbly, it looks gorgeous & I love the look of the pink plates & the white dresser together, you have done a great job! :T

I found some lovely 1950's duck egg blue pyrex plates at the weekend which I thought you might like to see, I think they will look nice in my dresser when I eventually get one!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24755011@N06/2389693046/
Sorry it's a link, I haven't worked out how to get the photo from flickr straight onto here yet

I love seeing all your shabby chic buys & projects, hope everyone has a productive day!

Beautiful colour!

BigMummaF

Just read thru over 300 posts:o AND had to keep up my own supply of tea whilst doing it:p

Forgive me for not remembering names, but someone had a Christmas material & was asking for ideas of how to use it.....I thought of the Advent Calendar too, but what about cutting out the various designs to applique[sp?] onto crimbo cushion covers, or sewing two of the same shapes together with a bit of wadding to hang around the house as ornaments? Hem down the sides of the piece as it is for a table runner? Line it & make a short door curtain to keep some of the draughts out?

I feel a little despondant tho---you have lovely homes whilst I live in a cardboard box of a place. One of the kitchen cupboards is literally held up with 3 packs of nails & two of screws cuz of the stupid plasterboard walls:o We've had to have a plank of wood about five foot long that is fixed to the bathroom wall with seventeen heavy-duty cavity wall raw plugs, to fix on a towel rail & loo roll holder, but even so we dare not hang a used bath towel on the damned thing:eek:

We are so limited with floor space too...the third bedroom is 7'6"x6'6" & the biggest room is the kitchen/diner at [EMAIL="18@x24'"]18'x24'[/EMAIL] but at least it doesn't stop me looking at your wonderful ideas & dreaming:D

sweetpea03

BigMummaF, don't feel despondant, not everyone here lives in a beautiful house (I live in a council house in the rough end of town ) but this thread is wonderful for getting ideas for projects that might eventually be & it's nice to dream over too

Thanks maypole Eventually once I have finished collecting & identifying all the British pyrex designs I won't be keeping most of my collection, I'm hoping to find a British museum or similar place that would be interested, I don't know if I will find anywhere though! The duck egg plates I would like to keep hold of!

HariboJunkie

BigmummaF don't be daft.

Our house really isn't big and it needs constant DIY. :rolleyes: Sometimes it fels like it just constantly leeches money. Your home is what you make it and a happy home is pretty important too.

And our 3rd bedroom is about the same size as yours.

vintagepleasure

sweetpea03 wrote: »

BigMummaF, don't feel despondant, not everyone here lives in a beautiful house (I live in a council house in the rough end of town ) but this thread is wonderful for getting ideas for projects that might eventually be & it's nice to dream over too

Thanks maypole Eventually once I have finished collecting & identifying all the British pyrex designs I won't be keeping most of my collection, I'm hoping to find a British museum or similar place that would be interested, I don't know if I will find anywhere though! The duck egg plates I would like to keep hold of!

Do you have a reference book about what there is? I didn't realise you were collecting all the Pyrex you can find.You are going to have quite a collection!

daisy_steiner_2

HariboJunkie wrote: »

:eek: Even I would draw the line at that. _pale_ :silenced:

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


Thankfully they were wooden drawers. Ahem!;):rotfl:

I got them from a tiny little charity shop just off a street that seemed to have all the big shops on. It seems to have lots of bits and bobs shops.

vintagepleasure

BigMummaF wrote: »

Just read thru over 300 posts:o AND had to keep up my own supply of tea whilst doing it:p

Forgive me for not remembering names, but someone had a Christmas material & was asking for ideas of how to use it.....I thought of the Advent Calendar too, but what about cutting out the various designs to applique[sp?] onto crimbo cushion covers, or sewing two of the same shapes together with a bit of wadding to hang around the house as ornaments? Hem down the sides of the piece as it is for a table runner? Line it & make a short door curtain to keep some of the draughts out?

I feel a little despondant tho---you have lovely homes whilst I live in a cardboard box of a place. One of the kitchen cupboards is literally held up with 3 packs of nails & two of screws cuz of the stupid plasterboard walls:o We've had to have a plank of wood about five foot long that is fixed to the bathroom wall with seventeen heavy-duty cavity wall raw plugs, to fix on a towel rail & loo roll holder, but even so we dare not hang a used bath towel on the damned thing:eek:

We are so limited with floor space too...the third bedroom is 7'6"x6'6" & the biggest room is the kitchen/diner at [EMAIL="18@x24'"]18'x24'[/EMAIL] but at least it doesn't stop me looking at your wonderful ideas & dreaming:D

The shabby chic look is so perfect for smaller houses.the whites and creams make spaces bigger and using accents colours can take your eye away from imperfections.Also by distressing things it can actually make the imperfections a feature rather than a flaw.Like that five foot long piece of wood.You could shabby it up with paint and hang a few very light weight handtowels made from pretty fabrics and trimmed with lace.Just for show and guests but very pretty to look at.
I am lucky that my home is on the large size but I still know the importance of storage.Everything has to have a place and everything has to be in it's place.I fight this constantly with my hoarding tendencies!
When we lived in a 2 up 2 down I still had heaps of stuff but aslong as you love or use everything you own it doesn't seem to matter.In fact when we moved house the removal guy counted 21 chairs!He asked if we were emptying the neighbours house too as there was that much stuff.
I would recommend that you really look at all your belongings and work out what you really want and need to keep.
Then think about how you can make things look more attractive?Maybe by painting or re-arranging or adding a few soft furnishings.Think of new ways to display and store things.Get rid of everything you really don't like no matter who gave it to you! If you have lots of mis-matched pictures frames etc get a few tester pots and paint the frames so they all tie in with each other.Group things together by colour so they build up a scheme in a room.
Then set yourself a little wish list or items you really love or need.Treat yourself every so often to a little something.Charity shops are full of treasure.Make sure all your family know what you are after then future birthday presents etc will add to your home.
Above all really learn to love your home.If you aren't moving then you really need to make the most of what you have.There is always a way to make a home beautiful no matter how small!

daisy_steiner_2

BigMummaF wrote: »

Just read thru over 300 posts:o AND had to keep up my own supply of tea whilst doing it:p

Forgive me for not remembering names, but someone had a Christmas material & was asking for ideas of how to use it.....I thought of the Advent Calendar too, but what about cutting out the various designs to applique[sp?] onto crimbo cushion covers, or sewing two of the same shapes together with a bit of wadding to hang around the house as ornaments? Hem down the sides of the piece as it is for a table runner? Line it & make a short door curtain to keep some of the draughts out?

I feel a little despondant tho---you have lovely homes whilst I live in a cardboard box of a place. One of the kitchen cupboards is literally held up with 3 packs of nails & two of screws cuz of the stupid plasterboard walls:o We've had to have a plank of wood about five foot long that is fixed to the bathroom wall with seventeen heavy-duty cavity wall raw plugs, to fix on a towel rail & loo roll holder, but even so we dare not hang a used bath towel on the damned thing:eek:

We are so limited with floor space too...the third bedroom is 7'6"x6'6" & the biggest room is the kitchen/diner at 18'x24' but at least it doesn't stop me looking at your wonderful ideas & dreaming:D

I agree with Vintage Pleasure. Small houses really lend themselves to this look. Our house is teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeny tiny. The living room (which is one of the biggest rooms) is a max 2.5m x 3m. We have invested in lots of storage. Shelves, baskets and pretty boxes/tins hide things not pretty enough to be on display. This need not cost too much either, heavens we have not long graduated from uni so we have hardly any money. Most of the stuff in our house is charity shop, ebay and family hand-me-downs, with the odd smattering of ikea often given a lick of paint so it doesn't look like the inside of the ikea catelogue!

Good luck if you want to use this kind of style in your house. My top tip is get yourself down to the charity shop and give yourself a nic nack budget of £5 and see what you come out with. Try the things that you buy around different parts of your house, because they might look better in a place other than the one you first intended.

sweetpea03

vintagepleasure wrote: »

Do you have a reference book about what there is? I didn't realise you were collecting all the Pyrex you can find.You are going to have quite a collection!

I think I will be happy when I've collected just something of each design vp! I don't think I have room for a huge collection! I have the Little Book of Collectable Pyrex by Susan Hibbard but most of the info is coming from a lovely member of flickr who used to work at Pyrex before they closed down(you may know who I mean) He has been brilliant & posts up scans of the old Pyrex ads & catalogue brochures I don't think I would have been able to identify quite a few pieces if it he hadn't so kindly shared the info
Not all the pyrex is to my taste by the way! Someone on flickr described some of their pyrex as "!!!!!!" I had to laugh at that!

Pipkin

Thats a fantastic post Vintage, thank you :T

I second everything vintage has said, and especially the part of getting rid of things you really don't like, not to hurt people, I would never advocate that, but you do have to be ruthless (in that specific kind of decluttering way) to get the look you want, it just won't work otherwise...mum in law often comments on my flat, and how I get things that shouldn't look okay to look nice (hinting that she can't do it) but the sad thing is that she has a far more lovely house (in the basics/kitchen/structure) than I will ever have (she has a kitchen I would saw my right arm off for.. well maybe not, but you know..) the only difference between us is that she holds on to everything she has ever been given (literally) .. wether she needs/likes it or wether it goes with her house or not.. and now you can't see her much nicer than mine house for the sheer volume of unneeded stuff floating about.

The beautiful kitchen is just totally lost and also unable to be used properly because of all the bits and peices lying about.

The thing is I'm a coward, and just can't say to her.. but thats all it would take to transform her house, to just get rid of all that stuff that she never uses and doesn't actually want.