Shabby Chic Home Accessories

bikesbikesbikes | Aug 21, 2011 |

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Shabby Chic Home Accessories

I've written a few articles about how to decorate your home using shabby chic furniture, including how to distress furniture and how to paint shabby chic furniture. All these techniques are great and a lot of fun to work on, but they are beyond the scope of some people. Whether you've already decided on your bigger pieces, or you simply don't want that large of a statement, sometimes your shabby chic home decor needs to be a little more understated. Shabby chic home accessories are a great place to start. They will add that extra pop of vintage style and attitude to your place, and they can nicely compliment almost any look.

This article is all about giving you ideas for shabby chic home accessories and where to place them in your home. I'm hoping it will inspire you a little bit. Most of these ideas can be bought straight up from many designer stores, but I always love it when people get 'hands on' and create their own shabby chic home accessories from scratch!

Read on, and we'll go through a few ideas.

Shabby Chic Home Accessories: Mirrors

Mirrors are a great and ubiquitous place to start. Everyone needs a mirror or two in their home, and they have a ton of advantages. They increase the illusion of space and open up a wall, they're very utilitarian (because who doesn't want to check themselves out once in a while!) and they can be a statement piece, much like a piece of framed art.

The frame is the key bit in a mirror. As shabby chic home accessories go, the vintage, antique style mirror frame is one of the best. It can be a type of distressed metal, painted wood, or anything really. Painted mirror frames usually work well if they're gold, silver, black or white. These colors all work well, but anything works as long as it matches your surroundings well.

Similar to mirrors, paintings can be great shabby chic home accessories as well. Any painting works well in a fantastic frame, so choose a great big chunky one and it will really stand out. A technique my fiance likes a lot is the 'picture wall', a bunch of smaller framed photos or paintings in shabby chic home decor style, sometimes clustered around a mirror. It looks really nice!

Shabby Chic Home Accessories: Side Tables

Side tables and end tables are really nice shabby chic home accessories. They are small and easily moved around a room, and they won't ever dominate a design. That said, they will add a nice element of antique cool, and they're very useful as well.

I highly recommend using your creativity and imagination with your shabby chic decorating ideas. Almost anything can serve as an end table with a little modification. Old trunks are fantastic, and they double as a storage solution. We are thinking of getting a shabby chic trunk for our coffee table.

Another idea is to use a vintage suitcase as an end table. They come in all shapes and sizes and perfectly match up with other shabby chic home accessories. Plus, like the trunk, they are a great storage option.

Shabby Chic Home Accessories: Odds and Ends

I'm usually very anti odds and ends, because I hate clutter. If you put some thought into the arrangement of your nicknacks, however, you can get a nice effect. Shabby chic home accessories must look intentional, or else they'll look more shabby than chic. Don't just pile junk on any available surface, figure out a way to display things properly.

Mounting things on the wall is a nice way to do this. Note the picture attached of the wall of vintage plates, a very nice use of shabby chic home decor. Be creative with your use of odds and ends, and be sure to purge if your place is getting a bit cluttered looking, because it will ruin the effect.

Good Luck!