Are you ready to redecorate but have a limited budget?

Do you have some great furniture but nothing matches?

Do you love antiques but not stiff formal decor?

Then think Shabby Chic, a fun decorating style that solves all these dilemmas and more. Shabby Chic is a comfortable, casual look using vintage accessories and comfortable furniture.
If you love to collect mismatched teacups, lacy linens, soft floral fabrics, painted furniture, vintage crystal chandeliers, and lots of white accessories, this may be your style.
Shabby Chic is also a balance. Use something elegant and beautiful next to something time-worn, smooth china along with textured lace, dull painted surfaces contrasting antique silver accessories.
Shabby Chic is one of the hottest trends in decorating, and for good reason.
It is versatile, easy, and inexpensive. Shabby Chic is based on simplicity -- simple color themes combined with your favorite furniture and art.
Shabby Chic can be anything you want it to be, and is a great way to bring your personal style to any room. Most Shabby Chic decor is based on a white-on-white or beige-on-beige theme. Soft pastels are often used as accent colors, but with a little creativity, you can add just about any color you want.
A classic example of Shabby Chic would be to cover couches and overstuffed chairs with white slipcovers, whitewash your wood furniture and hang white airy curtains.
Then hang your favorite painting or artwork in the most prominent place in the room.
Choose one or two colors in the painting as accent colors, and repeat the colors in throw pillows, flowers, soft throw blankets, and candles. Another great feature of Shabby Chic is the worn and well-loved look. That side table that has an interesting shape but has seen better days is perfect for Shabby Chic.
Simply whitewash it and put a vase with flowers on top. Better yet, use an old china teapot or your grandmother's favorite vase for the flowers. It's the little details like this that make Shabby Chic work so well.
If you're on a tight budget, Shabby Chic is a great choice. Pick up interesting accessories at yard sales and flea markets, and paint them all the same shade of white. Pull out your favorite pictures and put them in frames painted white or coordinated accent colors. Throw in a few candles, flowers, and pillows, and you’ve got a beautiful Shabby Chic room.

Here are some ways to use Shabby Chic decor in your home:

• White furniture: Painting furniture changes its personality. Once dark and heavy pieces magically turn light, fresh, and summery, and a roomful of mismatched items can be transformed to instant harmony.
  
• Slipcovers hide wear and tear, out of date fabrics, and mismatched colors. White is the color of choice, but faded prints will work just as well. And if they get soiled, just pop them into the washer and back onto your furniture. Look for easy care fabrics, and preshrink before having the slipcovers made for your furniture. You might even get two sets -- white for summer and a warmer floral for winter.
  
• Overstuffed Upholstery including large "sink-in" chairs and sofas are a Shabby Chic staple. Comfortable, slipcovered, rumpled, ruffled, and rounded, with chairs almost big enough for two. They are welcoming and inviting and look right at home.
  
• Leave your ironing board in the closet when decorating in the Shabby Chic style. Upholstery should look sat-in, well used, and definitely not pressed. Note that it is not "messy", just comfortably "used" and "lived-in".
  
• Look for everything from glass doorknobs, iron corner brackets, concrete column bases, old mantles, and more.
  
• Iron Metal furniture, headboards, and decorative items are another successful addition to a Shabby Chic interior. Peeling paint, rusted sections, and vintage looks are all the better.
  
• Fresh flowers are a natural for a Shabby Chic room. Look for a handful of pink roses plopped into a china vase, floral fabrics and needlework pillows, books on flowers and gardening, and candles to bring a romantic mood and interesting lighting.