Elegant Shabby Chic – Old Styles but Beautifully Modern

Elegant shabby chic furniture tries to capture the old in a new way. It has become one of the most popular design trends of the last decade with the focus on a distressed or reclaimed look. It has been predominantly embodied by half painted furniture in old and intriguing styles.

However, increasingly now we are seeing elegant shabby chic becoming more popular. Victorian and Pre-Victorian styles including Baroque have come back into fashion in interior design. Here I look at some of the ways this modern shabby chic can capture the old whilst creating a modern luxury to rival the grandeur of Versailles. See Newtons Furniture for more information about the items covered below.

 

 

Elegant Shabby Chic

Elegant shabby chic uses classical designs but with faded or distressed colouring much like traditional shabby chic. However, instead of a cottage furniture feel the onus is on grandeur and elegance. This creates a wonderful contrast for any room as you have grand, imposing furniture softened by plain and typically uniform colours. This makes this style of furniture very useful for interior design as it is easy to blend it with any colour scheme and with ornamentation.

£314.10 from Newtons Furniture

For example the chair above uses a classic French style that would traditionally have been accompanied with rich fabric and dark wood. This more modern interpretation keeps the aesthetic shapes but minimises their impact with soft colours.

This makes it minimal but also luxurious as it is perfect for creating a sense of comfort and style without being gaudy or showy. The most common styles of furniture we are seeing in this new iteration of shabby chic are baroque and Victorian furnishings.

 

Plain Baroque

Plain Baroque furniture has everything you would expect from this style – classic carved ornamentation and bold aesthetics. A great example is the rococo bed below with its incredible carving but in a plain white colour.

£503.10, from Newtons Furniture

 

Classic Victorian

Classic Victorian furniture is very similar to French designs but tends to be plainer. Again this furniture style is exemplified by plain colours but this time with much less ornamentation. Instead we see plain but bold edging, as in the chest of drawers below.

£224.10, from Newtons Furniture

 

Incorporating Elegant Shabby Chic into Your Interior Designs

Because this style of furniture is typically very plain it gives you the flexibility to integrate it with personal objects and with other splashes of colour. This style of furniture is particularly complimented by soft but not plain colours. The use of throws and cushions on the furniture creates a wonderful style that blends colour in soft layers. Often you can use a more striking colour scheme in the rest of the room – rich purples or dark warm colours contrasted to light plain furniture or distressed furniture make a direct visual impact in any room.

 

Let me know what you think of this elegant shabby chic style in the comments below.

 

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