How to ‘shabby chic’ furniture

Shabby chic is a trend that I’ve always liked. While I wouldn’t want every item in my home to have that slightly distressed/old look associated with shabby chic, having a couple of items styled this way can look fab.

When we first moved into our home three years ago, we received this mirror as a new home gift:

As much as I love wood (most of the furniture in our home is pine or oak), I had further ideas for this mirror. Three years later, I’ve managed to make them come true!

 

What is shabby chic?

Before we get into the how, first I want to explain the what. Shabby chic is a term that explains the way a piece of furniture can be distressed to look old even if it’s relatively new (or brand new, in some cases).

You generally find that the furniture is ornate in a sort of French style and painted a delicate cream or pastel colour. While you may think furniture that looks a bit battered would provide a harsh finish, shabby chic actually boasts elegance and softness.

 

How to shabby chic wooden furniture

So, you’re probably here because you want to do some furniture painting and, more importantly, you want to make said furniture shabby chic. Here’s how I upcycled this mirror to look like this:

 

What do you need?

• Your piece of wooden furniture
• A paintbrush or roller
• A tin of shabby chic furniture paint (I used Chalky White from Rainbow Chalk)
• A couple of pieces of fine grade sandpaper (around 150 grit should do).

   

Start by gently sanding the wood to get any scratches or dents out. I know we’re trying to make the piece look old, but you do this using the paint, so get any large, noticeable scratches out with the sandpaper.

My mirror was secondhand from a charity shop so had its fair share of dinks. These were very easy to remove.

 

I sanded very gently until I couldn’t feel the scratch with my finger anymore. Once this was done on the whole mirror, I gave it a wipe down with a clean, damp cloth. This removed any dust from the surface that I didn’t want to become embedded underneath the paint.

Now, there are two ways of creating a shabby chic look. The first is the way I have done and the second is known as the two colour distress technique.

Obviously, you’ll need to choose the colour that you want the main item to be. For me, that was white. I was happy to paint my mirror white and have the distressed parts show the brown wood underneath.

However, if you want a contrasting colour underneath, you should choose the second method. This involves applying an undercoat in one colour and then add the top coat of another colour.

When it comes to sanding parts of the item down, the first colour will show through.

This means, for example, you could give the item an undercoat of gold shabby chic paint and a topcoat of white. When you sand the item down, the gold will show through beautifully.

I want to show you an example of how this can be done. I’ve followed Gareth from design at 31 on Instagram for a really long time and he gives me so much upcycling inspiration. He has experience using the two colour distress technique, which you can see below:

     

He used a Primer Red for the first coat then, when dry, painted over with Chateau Grey. Once the item is distressed, the red shows through beautifully. Then clear wax was added over the top and dark wax was used in places to make the item look aged (around the handles).

Gareth’s advice is as follows:

Think about the colours you use together. A Primer Red and Chateau Grey as I’ve done above, would be a typical combination used on old French items (window frames, etc.).

Chateau Grey is the colour old French painters would use to undercoat when they mixed all their leftover colours. So I think it’s good to consider the look you’re going for and then think about what would create the most authentic, faded, rusted look.

 

So consider carefully the finish you want to achieve. As I said, I was happy to just have parts of the wood show through the white paint.

The beautiful thing about chalk paint is you don’t need to waste time removing varnish off the wood. You can just get painting!

Obviously, there are tonnes of different chalk paints you can use, but the one I had from Rainbow Chalk was just what I needed. I didn’t have to use a lot of it, as a little amount went a long way. It was also slightly more watery than I would have imagined, but surprisingly, I had no drips and it dried insanely quickly.

   

The beauty of creating something that looks old and distressed is that you don’t have to be too perfect with your painting. I deliberately made mine patchy and so you could see the brushstrokes. It’s the ideal technique for you non-perfectionists out there.

I only gave my mirror frame one coat, as I wanted a light finish.

   

I waited around half an hour for this to dry before cracking on with the sanding.

 

There isn’t really a technique for this. The best thing to do is think about what parts you might naturally want to look older. Corners might typically get bashed more as the item is moved around through the years, so focus on these areas.

   

Just use your sandpaper and lightly wear away the paint you’ve just finished.

As you can see, I went for a very delicate, light finish. I didn’t want too much wood showing through and even did some sanding and then added a tiny bit of paint on top as well to reduce how much the wood shows through. However, you can be as aggressive as you want with it, so keep sanding until you’re happy!

If you decided to take the two colour approach, you’ll begin to see your first colour shining through.

Once you’ve sanded enough to your liking, you’re done! It really is as simple as that. This is a great project to do during our current lockdown.

     

Now I just need to tackle that sideboard next…….