subject: Trips On Making The Most Of Cottage Style Furniture [print this page] For those who enjoy the look of classic, shabby-chic for their ideal interior design, but can't necessarily afford vintage or antique furniture, many might find that cottage style furniture can truly help utilize the overall effect, giving a room or home a sense of comfortable sophistication that meets a cozy, antique or vintage-like feel.
Shabby-chic design, more or less, encompasses antique or vintage styled furniture that is worn or distressed, as well as heavily painted or sanded in order to reflect much of this. The norm for the design style is often in colors of whites or faded pastels, although other colors can also be incorporated with the overall look of things when designing a room such as distressed black or espresso-colored furniture or other items.
The types of fabrics used for a shabby chic design are generally cottons and linens, often in whites and pastels that appear to be yellowed or faded with age. Patterns that have a vintage appearance to them are also used, as well as old-time French pieces and so forth. Even if fabric is new, people will often use tea-staining methods or bleach in order to achieve an older look.
Antique or vintage-inspired pieces and accessories are often used to help maximize a shabby chic-styled room. Such items can be anything from vintage bedspreads, beds, lamps, chandeliers, door knobs, blankets, reupholstered furniture, as well as cottage-type pieces in order to give a worn, old-style appearance and feel.
Types of materials that are often used, aside from fabrics, are often heavy or chunky pieces of wood that still manage to have an elegant feel to them. However, they appear heavy or solid in terms of their well-made quality often associated with vintage or antique pieces. Overall, one needn't match origins of pieces in order to get the right feel, but can mix anything from an French-styled armoire to a more cottage or mission-styled bed, providing they have similar distressed or worn appearances to them.
Since the original shabby-chic style originated in Great Britain, bringing on the thought of old country houses and cottages, cottage-type furniture is a perfect addition to the style itself. The overall goal is to achieve an elegant and comfortable feel, without necessarily going for a more Victorian-type setting. While the original method of the style was on a more grand scale, it now has evolved into comfortable and cozy-like feel that embraces many types of old-world origins, from American, French, Bohemian all the way to Great Britain and so forth.
The wonderful thing about the shabby chic design factor is the ability to mix and match one's own style preferences, as long as the pieces have that worn look or a style that is similar. However, it's also good to realize that one doesn't have to stick straight to the shabby chic theme, as it's perfectly acceptable to mix and match different styles as well, be it a few contemporary pieces to give a more modern feel to things, or any other style that reflects well with the initial decor.
Above all, it's important to select any cottage style furniture or pieces for your shabby chic design by going what feels right to you overall. Nowadays, with so many people trying to do better with the environment and recycling what they can, it is more than possible to find pieces to fit your needs, whether at the nearest flea market, garage sale, donation center or likewise.
