Maybe you have seen a house, restaurant, or other business which was decorated with older, worn, chairs, wall hangings, lamps, tables, and shelves instead of realized it was called Shabby Chic Decor. It’s a design which has been around a while but has truly taken off in popularity lately. One reason people like it is that they can get a great deal on normal, everyday items, that they may buy at garage sales, second hand stores, and flea markets. These items are excellent choices and with little alteration and a little paint, you’ll have a designer piece in no time. Plus, with these older items, they are already in good enough shape and they just need to be cleaned up and discover a good place to display them. Additionally there is the hobby of finding compatible furnishings, frames, signs, kitchen utensils, fishing gear, and other items and convert those to Shabby Chic. Here are several Shabby Chic DIY ways to take great finds and convert these people to decor.
The Shabby Chic Look Is Distressed But Clean
First thing to know is the actual look that you’re after. You don’t have to conform to the standard, that’s the complete idea. However, many of the Shabby items which are the most desired are clean, they look old, weathered, with multiple layers of paint coatings. There are several ways available to create that same look, even with newer things which you see, and it’s fun to perform, as soon as you obtain the hang of it. Plus, if you would like to take a few of your other decor items to suit, you’ll have an easier time changing them to match what you have, as an alternative to looking across town to get a match.
Let’s say you find a classic, wood cabinet, sitting at the garage sale for an affordable, maybe $25 or less. Negotiate a bit about how exactly hard it’s gonna be to wash it, offer slightly less, but purchase it none the less. It’s a great prospect for Shabby Chic DIY. The first thing to do is clean it with a rag with mild soap and water. Then try taking a little sand paper and sand it down – excellent start.
Apply a water based primer paint across the cabinet and allow it to dry thoroughly. Now take your preferred color, whether it’s pastel blue, pink, yellow, or orange and paint the cabinet entirely. Following that coat, after it is completely dry, take very fine sand paper and sand the cabinet down, paying special focus on the sides. Go deeper through the colored layer and expose some of the white primer layer as well, and in many cases down into the older layer of varnish plus some places in to the wood.
After you have the fundamental look that you desire on your own finished product, try taking a little water based satin finish clear acrylic and lay several final coats on the cabinet permitting drying between coats based on the instructions. These final coats will ensure that your cabinet stays exactly that way for a long time since it will be resistant to spills, moisture, and dirt by that clear topcoat.
Once you have a specific look that you like and learn how to duplicate it, you can find all sorts of old things in the second-hand stores and garage sales you could alter to match the design you want. Plus, you can include other old things like signs, fishing gear, sports memorabilia, even pans and pots that one could neatly clean and then coat with clear finish in order to preserve them. The sky will be the limit and there are many great examples online of what you can do, have fun, save some money, and place old things to good use to create the design you want.