Shabby Chic Ashwell, Rachel

Description

Product Description “Shabby Chic is as unpretentious as its author, including thoughts about what works and what doesn’t, tips on how to shop at a flea market, inspirational photographic illustrations and plenty of encouragement.” —Los Angeles Daily News   Rachel Ashwell’s bestselling guide to home furnishings, flower arrangements, flea-market finds, tag-sale treasures, and more continues to bring American home decorating back to basics with its remarkably down-to-earth yet beautiful aesthetic, showing you how to capture “the aura of old money, cushy comfort, and crafted indifference.” With her keen eye for thrifty style, and a peerless sense of how to get the most for the least out of your adventures into interior decorating, Ashwell and Shabby Chic areyour treasure map to a treasure-filled home. From Library Journal Ashwell, founder and owner of Shabby Chic, a home furnishings chain, shares her secrets on how to obtain the decorating look that suggests “the aura of old money, cushy comfort, and crafted indifference.” She covers such topics as how to negotiate a flea market and incorporate the purchases for the home, the types of fabric best suited for this look, and how to use flowers to accessorize a room. Lots of color photographs depict the “shabby chic” look in casual, formal, and contemporary settings. This type of eclectic decorating continues to be popular, making this a wise purchase for most libraries.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review “”Shabby Chic is as unpretentious as its author, including thoughts about what works and what doesn’t, tips on how to shop at a flea market, inspirational photographic illustrations and plenty of encouragement.””Los Angeles Daily News From the Back Cover Valuable flea market finds…A peeling, antioue vanity in muted sea green…An elegant, cracked chandelier…An enormous, slipcovered sofa with deep, cushions…Comfort, the beauty of imperfections, the allure of time-worn objects, and the appeal of simple practical living: these are the cornerstones of what has come to be known as the Shabby Chic style. Like the cozy familiarity of a well-worn pair of faded jeans, the dilapidated elegance of an Italian viIla, or the worn grandeur of faded velvets and mismatched floral china handed down from your grandmother’s attic, the Shabby Chic style is a revived appreciation for what is used, well-loved, and worn. It is a respect for natural evolution and a regard for what is easy and sensible.The hundreds of lavish photographs in this book invite you inside the unique world of Shabby Chic. Rachel Ashwell, founder of theShabby Chic home decor stores, for the first time provides her invaluable and much-sought-after advice on how to re-create Shabby Chic style in your own home. With engaging text and easy-to- follow instructions, Rachel details the Shabby Chic basics in a way that will put even the most apprehensive or novice decorators at ease. From flowers to fabrics to lighting, Rachel illuminates all of the elements essential to this unpretentious yet truly exquisite style.A behind-the-scenes look at a flea market lets readers in on Rachel’s personal secrets of how to cull hidden treasures from flea market trash–an old trunk, its paint peeling around the edges, can be given new life as a coffee table, while a chipped white iron salvage piece becomes the perfect frame for a vintage mirror. This book tells you not only how to restore these pieces but how to find the perfect place for them in your home. Gorgeous color photographs and accompanying text reveal how this relaxed look works with a variety of different styles, from Victorian to Mediterranean to contemporary. About the Author Rachel Ashwell is the creator of the Shabby Chic style. In 1989, she founded the Shabby Chic home furnishing stores and then later, the Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Couture stores. She is the author of Shabby Chic, Rachel Ashwell’s Shabby Chic Treasur