The Shabby Chic Home [Hardcover]

Rachel Ashwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2000

Wonderful wide-plank floors, paned sash windows, an old brick fireplace, the charm of living with a home's small imperfections and making them a virtue. These are just some examples of what makes up a Shabby Chic home.

When she first saw what would be her future home, Rachel Ashwell, founder of the Shabby Chic line, was put off by its dark, witchy exterior, gloomy interior, and overgrown garden. But for weeks afterward, she couldn't get the house out of her mind. She went back, took a closer look, and started to see the charm that lay hidden beneath the surface. Excited by the challenge, she bought the house and went to work on it.

Inspired by the original design of the 1920s house, Rachel was able to transform it into her bright, cozy dream home, one that had the hallmarks of a Shabby Chic home: a practical amount of space, a relaxed atmosphere, and a comfortable beauty. Through simple instructions and detailed before-and-after photographs, Rachel reveals her decorating and entertaining secrets. Even the most apprehensive novices will learn how to incorporate Shabby Chic style into their everyday life and home.

Using her home as an example, Rachel shows you how to assess what needs to be replaced (in her home it was the dark tile in the pool and the bathroom doorknobs), make small structural changes (she exchanged a glass window for a glass door), and keep costs down while adding personal Shabby Chic touches. The gray marble countertop in the guest bathroom and the somewhat noisy glass-front refrigerator were fixtures she would have never chosen, but she left them alone and was pleasantly surprised by the character they added.

In her previous books, Rachel showed you how to recognize beauty in overlooked places. Now, in The Shabby Chic Home, she teaches you how to find it in the nooks and crannies of your own home and then apply it to everyday life. She reveals how work, love, a lot of white paint, and Shabby Chic details can turn any new house into a comfortable, functional, beautifully designed home.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Most people are familiar with the hallmarks of Rachel Ashwell's shabby chic style: fabrics in pastel florals and stripes, chintz sofa covers, antique-store and yard-sale finds turned into home furnishings and accessories. At the heart of this breezy style is a very practical idea: don't buy new--use what you have or can find at thrift stores and secondhand shops and enjoy the old-fashioned charm that only aged pieces acquire. The same idea goes for houses. The Shabby Chic Home shows how an older home can take on a shabby chic appeal by being brought up to date without sacrificing any of its charm.

In The Shabby Chic Home, Ashwell walks readers through the renovation of her own 1920s home, from the purchase of the originally dark and gloomy house through the repainting (using layers and layers of white paint) of the home and the rebirth of the garden, yard, and pool, to the final decorating of the home for herself and her two kids. Along the way, readers receive advice on how to choose from among the thousands of paint colors, how to decide whether to live with the old or buy new, and why remodeling an older home might not be such a good idea. The latter part of the book explains how to add touches of shabby chic style to every room of a home--old or new--for a finished look. The result, shown in dramatic before-and-after pictures, is a home that's comfortable enough for a family to relax in, but still elegant and beautiful.

Don't let the floral patterns and chenille bedspreads fool you: Ashwell's advice throughout is common-sense and economical. For instance, she recommends not wasting your time looking through every decorating option--if you like the first idea, color, or plan well enough, save yourself the time and stress and go with it. She also suggests resisting the immediate desire to throw out the old and bring in the new; try living with things as they are for a while, and you may find yourself surprised at how well you've come to like the funky tile in the bathroom or the noisy glass-door refrigerator. Here lies the appeal of a shabby chic home: sometimes old has a charm and lived-in look that can't be purchased from a home improvement store. --Kris Law

From Library Journal

Ashwell (Shabby Chic and Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic Treasure Hunting & Decorating Guide) shows how she transformed her own Malibu home, a 1920s natural-wood dwelling built by a Swedish boatbuilder, into a reflection of the "Shabby Chic" style that she has popularized with her home furnishings and fabric lines. Taking a house with "good bones," she dramatically changed the look of the house with simple adjustments, such as using lots of white paint. (To those who protested her painting the natural wood, she replied, "Oh, well.") Given the continuing tendency to gut or tear down older homes, her recommendations are refreshing. A good purchase for public libraries.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Regan Books; 1 edition (April 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006039319X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060393199
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Expert Advice > Rachel Ashwell
  • #76 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Interior Design > Decorating

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Third Time's the Charm!, June 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Shabby Chic Home (Hardcover)

Rachel Ashwell knows what works for her--white, cream, pink and green--and several trips to the fabulously overloaded flea markets of Southern California. Fans of her funky but glamorous style certainly won't be disappointed by this latest addition to the Shabby Chic shrine, and the funny thing is, other decorating fans will enjoy this, too. Ms. Ashwell tends to become a bit annoying with her rules of white and pink, but I think this book shows she's relaxing a bit, allowing turquoise and cerise into her palette as well. The Malibu house she found for her family is just plain fantastic, with lots of charm and happy personality. The pool and garden areas are just the place you'd like to flop down and spend a lifetime, and her shots of her daughter's room show a nice mix of mom's and daughter's compromising for one another. Where, however, is her son in all this? I think he was mentioned less than half a dozen times! Don't boys fit into the Shabby Chic scheme, too? One word of caution with this book: although it is far more accessible than her last two, readers who don't live in as amenable a climate as Ms. Ashwell might find it a bit hard to take. All that white would sure get old in northern climates come February. If you cannot afford to have wholesale flowers delivered weekly to your home, or don't feel the need to match your shampoo to your decorating colorways, you might feel a bit perplexed by this book!

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Love this book, July 6, 2002

By 

Ascended Master (Celestial Realms) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shabby Chic Home (Hardcover)

I've owned this book now for two years and I keep referring to it over and over. I wish that Rachel Ashwell would come out with these types of books more often. This book continues to provide me with decorating inspiration. Also, I very much appreciate the fact that she doesn't go on and on for paragraphs at a time. Many other books on decorating have a tendency to become boring with too much wording. Rachel just gets to the point. Rachel's home is lovely and the pictures are fabulous. It's too bad that the Shabby Chic stores throughout the country do not follow her advice about home decor articles being inexpensive. I was utterly shocked and completely disappointed that the prices of things in the Shabby Chic stores are way through the roof, and unaffordable for anyone except the wealthy. It is a total contradiction of what Rachel Ashwell advocates in her books.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of my two favorite books of the season, April 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Shabby Chic Home (Hardcover)

In this pretty book, we finally get to see more rooms. (Her previous books focused more on tight photos of objects, tabletops, and the like.) Another MUST-SEE book this season is Flea Market Decorating, which also focuses on decorating with such treasures. Flea Market Decorating is a bit more sophisticated than the shabby chic book, and it's fun for me to look at and read because I like to do thing my own way, and Flea Market Decorating shows me a variety of styles, whbile the shabby chic books are kind of limiting, style-wise.