How to Perfect Shabby Chic Interior Design
Words by Emma Hughes
September 12, 2025
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6m
Interior design trends come and go, but some styles remain popular for decades. The key to timeless decor is blending styles to create a versatile look that anyone can make their own. One style that has captured hearts for years is shabby chic, with its old-fashioned charm and soft contemporary edge.
If you’re looking to style your home with some shabby chic design, you’re in luck. Our guide will share some of our top shabby chic tips and help explain where this design came from, as well as how it became such a popular staple in homes around the world.
What is shabby chic?
Shabby chic is an interior design trend that blends timeworn, vintage pieces with soft, delicate details to create a space that feels charmingly antique yet effortlessly elegant.
The style first emerged in the late 1980s when designer Rachel Ashwell opened her store, ‘Shabby Chic’. Its popularity quickly grew, and decades later, the look is still beloved in homes across the globe for its nostalgic beauty and timeless appeal.
At its heart, shabby chic is all about balance. Pairing distressed furniture with gentle fabrics, layering soft colours, adding warm lighting and mixing old and new accents. The result is a rustic but inviting look that creates whimsical and romantic spaces full of character.
Are shabby chic and boho the same?
While both styles embrace vintage elements and thoughtful layering, shabby chic and boho have distinctly different personalities. Boho leans into traditional maximalism with earthy tones and bold, busy patterns, using eclectic textures and plenty of greenery to give spaces a vibrant, lived-in feel.
Shabby chic, on the other hand, is more refined and understated. It also celebrates vintage pieces, but with softer colours, delicate patterns, and classic touches. Décor such as dried flowers, ornate mirrors, and crystal chandeliers are a perfect fit for shabby chic. It’s a design that’s less about chaos and more about elegance.
Can you mix shabby chic with modern styles?
You can absolutely blend shabby chic styles with other designs, especially modern looks. The beauty of shabby chic lies in its subtlety, which makes it a versatile backdrop for bolder, more contemporary touches.
Take the Modern Memphis or New Nostalgia trends, for example. Their rounded shapes, bold colours and rich wood tones can be thoughtfully layered into a shabby chic interior to create a look that feels both fresh and timeless.
How to create the shabby chic style at home
Designing a home is deeply personal, and shabby chic interior design leaves room for personal touches that make a space feel like yours.
Here are some beautiful ways to bring the style to life...
Dreamy colour palettes
Colour palettes are an essential element to consider when styling a shabby chic space. You want your home to feel elegant, so using soft, muted tones will help give your room a dreamy feel with a vintage touch.
A few colours that perfectly suit the shabby chic style are:
• Cream
• Lavender
• Sage green
• Baby pink
• Dusty Blue
• French Linen
• Mint
For added depth, introduce jewel tones like emerald, sapphire, or amethyst. Subtle metallics like bronze and copper can also bring a touch of richness that beautifully balances the pastel palette.
Our Finch furniture collection offers a palette that works nicely in shabby chic styles, with pieces in delicate shades for a light feel, as well as deeper tones that can ground your design and add a touch of sophistication.
The romantic details
It’s the small touches in a home that tell a story, and the shabby chic design leaves plenty of room for those meaningful details. Layer architectural accents like wall panelling, with vintage frames, ornate mirrors, dainty cushions, rugs, and throws to create a space that feels personal and full of character. These subtle additions make every corner feel thoughtfully curated and uniquely yours.
A patchwork of patterns and textures
A big part of the shabby chic design trend is mismatched pairings, particularly with patterns. You want to capture the charm of a flea market, as if every piece in your home was lovingly discovered with its own story, while still naturally coming together.
Ideally, you’ll want to find patterns that feel vintage but not busy. Some ideas are:
• Small blooms and delicate spring florals
• Subtle stripes
• Pastel gingham
• Polkadots
• Distressed textures
• Toile
Play with patterns on wallpaper, rugs, and cushions, and weave in textures like linen, lace, and chunky knits to add depth and warmth. Then, anchor the look with reclaimed wood furniture for that perfect mix of softness and substance that makes a space feel truly lived-in.
A gentle glow
No room feels complete without warm, inviting lighting. Soft, diffused light helps create the lived-in ambience that shabby chic is known for, creating a space that feels beautiful, cosy and timeless all at once.
Consider adding chandeliers, wall sconces, patterned lamps, lanterns or wall-mounted lights to layer different types of light through your space. The right glow can transform a room, so opt for warm bulbs paired with delicately detailed shades or vintage-inspired fixtures to give your home that soft, romantic feel.
Perfectly imperfect furniture
The beauty of shabby chic is that you can explore different furniture styles and materials while still finding a balance that feels as though every piece was made to fit together.
For a playful mix of bold and delicate, try pairing a vibrant sofa with a softly toned chair to bring a fresh pop of colour into your living room. Or, flip the script with a bold accent chair to pair with a more traditional seating area.
In the bedroom, you could experiment by pairing a regal bed frame with rustic, vintage bedside tables. This blend of styles not only gives your room the perfect balance that shabby chic designs thrive on, but also provides a unique storage solution to declutter your room.
Mismatching furniture may sound easy, but it works best with a little planning. Too many competing colours, textures, or materials can make your design appear busy or disjointed. The easiest way to avoid this is to start with a statement piece, like a Tetrad sofa, and build the rest of the room around it, choosing pieces that complement its style and finish.
Embracing imperfection
One of the easiest traps to fall into with any home trend is following it too rigidly. When that happens, rooms can feel disconnected, and your home loses that sense of flow.
Shabby chic thrives on character and personality, so let your creative flair lead the way. Embrace the chips, the worn edges, and the little quirks; these “imperfections” are what bring depth, charm, and a sense of story to your space. The beauty of this style is that it celebrates individuality, so let loose, have fun, and create a space that feels like home.
Ready to start your home’s shabby chic transformation? Here at Barker and Stonehouse, you’ll find plenty of rustic pieces and reclaimed wood furniture to fit the trend. For more design inspiration, be sure to visit our blog!