Interesting post, patty_cakes. I've been reading blogs that are heavy on the chippy style lately, and at first I was rather enamored, but now I think I've been oversaturated and find it a bit boring. I like a little of this look, but I agree that making such purposeful choices in a home on a large scale can seem very contrived. Too much of it and the statement is lost somehow.

Maybe I should say I have a love/hate relationship with this style. Living in a 72 year old house means that chippy and shabby comes with the territory in certain spaces that need updating, and I struggle with embracing it at times. I can see the beauty in that which is old, faded, worn, chipped when it's put together just the right way - but when you don't want shabby cabinets in the kitchen or old, peeling shelves in the bath, it's sometimes hard to equate that which is truly shabby to the decorating trend. Sometimes I get a little annoyed with blogs that celebrate All Things With Peeling Paint. (It is not endearing to have a chunk of your cabinet drawer fall off when you close it.)

I also live with a partner who just doesn't understand this look. When my framed botanical print arrived from an Etsy seller the other day and he saw the chippy white frame (one of the things I loved about it), he stated, "Well, it's a pretty picture - but you need to paint the frame."

Please email me a link to the blog. (Please don't post as she will be led back to it, and I doubt you want to hurt anyone's feelings!)

I have a few chippy pieces. You have to know when to stop, imo.

I know I am am amoeba responding to trends, but I can't help it, I love that look.

For example, in our gut reno and expansion, I bought all old white doorknob sets and locks. I bought an old wooden toilet tank for a silly price because i loved the blue grey chipped paint. Several of my new furniture pieces were so distressed that the workmen blithely used them as workbenches and places to put their tools, lunch, etc. (we didnt live in the house during reno)

I just love patina. DH has come around to it, but he abhors fake patina, ie distressing. I also prefer texture to color. All grey and white, sounds great to me!

I would dry the line, though, at old upholstery. Umm, no thanks

i meant DRAW the line ...

I have some chipped dinner plates if anyone wants them.

AJ, i'm'facinated' too, but wondered if I bought something, how long would it take before I got tired of it, and the stuff AIN'T cheap. If I had to choose between shabby chic and this chippy look, I would prefer the latter. Like your DH, my kids would call it junk, and definitely would not understand!LOL

Hi Allison, but you have taste(not that this 'blogger' doesn't),and you know when to stop. It's the idea of everything having this look, which I don't understand. I wouldn't consider a home full of antiques to be contrived, but this look? It just IS. Will send the link.

mtnrdredux(what does it stand for?),and from what i've seen YOU also have taste, and would know when enough is enough. The white door knobs, I get. Even the toilet tank, I get, and you have 'several' pieces of furniture, but having doors, trims, columns combined w/everything else going on, I *don't* get. I like 'natural' patina also, or a weathered look. Problem is, when I look at old wood, be it a piece of furniture or an old tree, I can't help but think black widow spiders might be living in there! Painted, with a little rubbing off of the paint is good, but not w/a sander! And glazing is always good! Will send you the link, also.

my gawd..it's getting late.....

I would also love to get the link to that blog !!!

I have some chipped dinner plates if anyone wants them.

Thank you! I needed a smile this morning. ;)

Me, too! I want to see mass chippy! I also like that look, sparingly, so it looks inherited or found, not orchestrated.
Dee

thanks, patty

mtnrdredux = Mountain Road Redux

(my home is on Mountain Road and we gut reno'd it)

You mean like this? One day during a soup making marathon I decided I needed a chair to sit on while browsing the cookbook. Remembered a pair of chairs that had been hanging out in the garage for years. So I got one of them down and took the broom to it and all these little flakes of blue and yellow paint were flying all over the yard. Liked how solid and comfortable it was so much that I got the other one and put it in the pantry as extra seating. I thought about painting them but haven't decided on which color, in the meantime they'll do as is. In fact, there was a matching table - yellow top, blue legs - bought them at an antique shop painted that way; but replaced the table with the enameled topped one later. It's now in the cellar, not one bit of paint left on it. It's been through floods and what have you. But all three pieces are solid oak I think and have metal fittings to strengthen joints.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

You can post the web address just not in a "link" form.

I really like that chair, schoolhouse! Because the surrounding elements look pristine (but vintage style), the chair is like a piece of art. Can you apply a protective clear coating over that chippy paint and use it as is?

Thanks auntjen. I'm pretty sure I won't apply any protective coating on the chairs, more than likely I'll leave as is for now. Another idea would be to refinish them if I don't use paint.

This table in front of the bed is my only piece of "chippy" furniture. I bought for $15 from this old man at a consignment shop. He said he wouldn't sell it for any more than that because it was just in too poor shape and would need a lot of work.

I dusted and oiled it and put some flowers on it!

{{!gwi}}

I love both the chair and the table in their settings. I think that if everything in the room was chippy none of it would look special.

I guess the biggest problem with the old pieces would be that the chippy paint is surely lead based. I'd be especially careful of where and how I used them.

I have a few chippy pieces of furniture - though more in my DD's room than anywhere else. She has an antique iron bed that I had sandblasted (to get rid of the lead paint) and refinished with chippy paint and glaze.

schoolhouse, the chair is sweet! I agree that it works well with the pristine cabinets and gorgeous floors (are they oiled?)

Thank you juddgirl2, the floor was probably oiled and often in its life as the floor of a schoolhouse (whole house has the original wood floors) but since I tore up the linoleum and carpet 32yrs. ago to expose them I have not put any type of finish on them. I've mopped them down but any patina left is original. There are areas that are becoming worn and dry finally, and I plan to use a good old fashioned oil recipe on the floors one day.

Cool chair!

Patty_Cakes, if you sent the link I must not have known it was you. I check from iPhone sometimes, and the baby gets my attention instead. Maybe send again when you have time? Put DONT DELETE in Subject line. ;D Thanks.