My room isn't done, but I have purchased the furniture and none of it is painted...think white pine :) It has a wonderful shabby chic feel and goes with anything. It's great with kids (you just rewax the table top annually...not a big deal).

Here are a few pics of items that will make up my family dining room (we have two...one formal and this one) which is going to feel sort of cottage victorian, a close cousin shabby chic :)

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I am going to use this painted wicker and change the fabric (on all of the furniture):
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You could go with some added pieces of wicker to make it even more casual and shabby chic feeling (either painted or not).

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I'm not sure if the search feature works today, but if it does you'll see more pics in a thread called Victorian cottage or victorian country (try both LOL I don't remember).

Mixed with cheery fabric, you can get that look and not have a bunch of painted furniture. In addition, you can mix in some oak easily! The chairs with my pine table are oak.

I'm going to paint the walls in this room the color of a ball jar and use some fabric suggested in the other thread. Very country casual, shabby chic (anything in the home of a 4 year old is shabby LOL)

View rooms that have been done in the Shabby Chic style and note what makes them work. Things like not using contrasting colors. Matte finishes. Nothing 'slouchy'. Everything stiff and crisp. Muted colors.

Personalize the look to your particular geographical area or personal architecture. You don't have to use florals. If you live near water you can use water related things like shells. Or do a woodsy look. Pick an era in decorating that will translate well to your 1973 home. Is yours a bungalow or a ranch or what? Would a 1940's look work for your space? Or is your home created more for that newer 'Brocade' Shabby look?

Don't veer too far from your 1973 architecture. It is possible to do a MCM version of the Shabby Chic look by using clean lines and not a lot of detailing in the furniture. You don't need high ceilings, crown molding and French doors. The right accessories will make up for the lack of details in the architecture.

When you say you want "unpainted" furniture I think you mean the washed out weathered look some furniture has. A grayed out barnwood.

Barnwood look table with clean lines:

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It's all about accessories:

Obviously a newer home - trying for that Shabby style:

Here is a link that might be useful: View Shabby Rooms

Here is Shabby Chic done in a newer home with unpainted pieces and working with the newer window sizes prevalent in newer homes. Mix painted and unpainted or bleached wood pieces.

'Shabby' up modern day necessities by replacing typical plastic items with plain pieces.

Try to sneak in some color in very small amounts using muted tones. Not too much color or it will veer too far from the Shabby Chic look you desire.

If your 1973 home is very Modern in it's architecture try to sneak in a couple of 'industrial' pieces into the Shabby Chic mix to link it to the home. A hybrid of Shabby Chic and Industrial Funky will make a statement. Don't overdo it. Don't do a 50/50 mix. Just one or two pieces with impact.

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Also shop places that sell County decorating items to find unpainted Shabby Chic pieces. Look past the County style accessories and just imagine the piece as an accent in a Shabby Chic home. This pie safe would make a great amoire for a TV or use it in the kitchen as intended.

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That was really very helpful.

I have an old rustic painted cabinet that looks terrible in the room -- I moved it out to the garage --, and a lovely old wicker chair that also looks bad and was banished to the bedroom. I have used both of these in other houses/other rooms and they looked fine, but not this time. And, I have too much color in my walls and upholstery. I have moved everything out the room except what has to stay but I was afraid to post pics because the room seems so impossible.

That cabinet is great, and I had been thinking cane would help but I haven't found anything yet and I don't have a very clear picture of how to use it. I should start looking at metal mesh, too, it might be even better than cane.

I think I need to look at other pictures. Maybe googling English country worn out look would help. I'm going to try that.

Dilly dally, you really can make this stuff come across. You clarified things in minutes that I have been struggling with for a while. And Igloo, don't for one minute think you can hide those beefy moldings and trim from me.

Jamies, if you post pics you can get some specific advice for your style home. Don't be afraid. It's not impossible to pull of Shabby Chic in a newer home when you understand the basic principals behind it. Shabby Chic is about personalizing the space. You can get ideas here and then run with them putting your own twist on it.

The main thing that will propel you decision is the style of the house itself. If it is very Modern and you own some pieces that are too rustic, you may have to mix some metal pieces in so the furnishings do not have a disconnect to the house. It won't be pure Shabby Chic but may be a look you are happy with.

And don't forget Fabric. Shabby Chic uses lots of fabric. The dining room above could be made more Shabby Chic by showing it with and abundance of fabric curtains on the windows and maybe even a Chantilly lace tablecloth. Yeah crazy, I know. It's a look people where will either love it or hate it. Memorable. Not boring. People will talk.

You may be able to dress up your rustic cabinet with fabric inserts in the doors or something to soften the rustic look. When you look at a rustic piece being considered for your Shabby Chic look you may have to think about softening it with fabric or a sheer wash of paint to make it fit in your scheme. OR transform a formal piece into something more gritty, like replacing the velvet on dining room chairs with grainsack or sailcloth.

If your home is Modern and you do not want painted furniture consider using some vintage Danish Modern pieces in natural wood for a Shabby Chic look:

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Danish Modern in natural wood with elements of Shabby Chic like the white linen curtains. Picture this with vintage floral china instead of the modern china used in this photo.

If you are trying for a Shabby Chic in a Modern ranch style home, stick with clean lines, monochromatic colors, lots of fabric, and some dashes of feminine detailing in the styling. The natural unpainted wood you desire can still be pulled off. Here is another inspiration room using some found Danish Modern chairs set against an Asian style table with straight clean lines and ornate detailing:

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How would you bring in more Shabby chic to the above room?? Add your rustic cabinet on the blank wall with formal silver candelabra on it? Put up some delicate, yet rough hewn, cheesecloth curtains on the windows? Fresh flowers on the table of course. Jam jar drinking glasses with fine Ivory china? : What?? : It's the juxtaposition of fine pieces that are old and worn and patched, mixed with 'make do' pieces. This makes for that quirky look of a bourgeois household hanging onto everything they had and maintaining epicurean sensibilities despite their new economic status following a great war or pestilence that ravaged their estate.

When you scour the Internet for inspiration photos, run them through your head musing on how, you yourself, would "improve" upon the look if it was your own space. It's good practice. You don't want to copy a Shabby Chic room exactly. They are too personal.

Here's a neat piece I featured last week. It has a SC feel and is not painted:

Here is a link that might be useful: 1st piece

These would also work:

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Plenty more here:

Here is a link that might be useful: At Home - Online Warehouse

DD2 has a new home and this is the new piece in her DR. Ignore lamps - will be moved to guest bedroom and replaced soon. Table and chairs are also going to be replaced and were selected today... waiting on sale.

This metal table was in a catalog I received yesterday. Was called Room Service Home, now RSH Catalog:

Here is a link that might be useful: RSH

Here is a link to a home that has NO architectural (hope I spelled this right) accents, but it is one of the most beautifully decorated shabby chic homes I have ever seen. Reading your post, I thought you might get a kick out of this...You will be shocked! It displays that you can bring in your own achitecture with a little wherewithall and ingenuity!

Here is a link that might be useful: Double Wide in Kentucky!

Wow, amazing. I love the china cabinet with the big head on top and all the little heads in the cups inside. Everything works. I notice that she had a patio table for the kitchen, the subject of another current thread.

I've decided that shabby is not what I was groping for. A touch of the industrial calls me. I think I want a low coffee table on fat casters. But I'm scared because I so often make mistakes. You know the 80's clothes and hair we make fun of? My mistakes are not tied to any particular decade, but they definitely signal my level of development of "taste", or "eye" or whatever you want to call it.

To be perfectly honest, I've gone a little crazy. I bought a pair of Norway armless leather chairs (the kind without springs where the leather pad sits on canvas that is laced to the frame -- don't know what these are called) on Craigslist that are way different from anything I've ever had before, and I had perfectly good chairs already, albeit they are nothing like the Norway chairs. I also ordered 2 rugs from overstock. This behavior, from me, is bizarre.

I recently threw together my living room in a way that is different (for me) and I guess I'm feeling overconfident. What will happen is that my sense of beauty or balance or something will grow, and I'll see what's wrong with the room. But I'm ok for now. I just don't like to have expensive mistakes sitting around haunting me.

I wonder how much it costs to ship a rug back to overstock.