Turning Shabby Ick Into Shabby Chic

The furniture is a motley mix of periods and shapes, scars and stains. In other words, it looks a lot better in the attic than it does in the living room.

Given a choice, many would reject it. But Rachel Ashwell, a former movie set designer and stylist, elevates it to shabby chic. It all began in 1988, when she set about sprucing up a house she had rented in Malibu Beach.

“It had a great view of the ocean, but there were rusty aluminum-framed windows, brown acrylic carpet and unattractive furniture, curtains and light fixtures,” she recalled.

Major weapons in her initial assault on grunge were white paint and white denim and a sisal rug over the carpet. The look was so appealing that she started re-creating it for others, gradually perfecting her arsenal to include equal measures of time-worn objects and slipcovered and painted furniture.

Within a year, she had opened Shabby Chic, a store in Santa Monica. Today there are also stores in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

Now she has written “Shabby Chic” (Harper/Collins, $30). Her decorating ideas, detailed in words and photos, are particularly useful to those who want to invigorate rooms furnished with vintage pieces of no special value or interest.

“I have only a few tricks, but I use them time and time again, and they work,” Ashwell said.

The first store became a mecca for sofas loosely slipcovered in tea-stained and faded fabrics and for antiques and vintage accessories. She later switched to new furniture covered in new fabric, but the look was the same.

When nondescript furniture needs refinishing, Ashwell reaches for the paintbrush and a can of matte-finish white or off-white paint, which she uses equally on wood and metal.

“It works with virtually any style and is easier to do than faux finishes,” she said.

White and its various tints are her choices for almost any room and type of furniture. If painting all the furniture in a room--a bookcase, side tables, bed and chest, for example--Ashwell uses a slightly different white on each piece to minimize any tendency to seem institutional. Among her favorite tints are ivory or cream, the palest of pink and celadon and what she describes as a very washed-out baby blue.

“The legs of tables and fronts and sides of chests can be funky, but for comfort and looks, the top needs to be clean and fresh-looking,” she said.

Ashwell may put a marble top on a battered patio table, end table or chest. Marble on outdoor furniture turns it into a substantial indoor piece, she said. She prefers old marble. Otherwise, she asks for a honed or matte finish to make it look aged.

A less expensive upgrade for table and dresser tops is a piece of cut-to-size fabric under cut-to-size glass. Any attractive fabric will work, perhaps one used elsewhere in the room. Lace is another alternative. For a more finished look, put a beveled edge on the glass.

White walls and printed textiles with lots of white help unify a room when dark wood furniture will not be painted, she said. Short of buying new slipcovers, Ashwell might use as a partial cover an old tablecloth, lace curtain panel, chenille bedspread or tapestry throw cushions. These same embellishments look good on top of new slipcovers.

Many rooms done in the Shabby Chic style include mixes of pattern. There might be plaid and striped bedding, a profusion of floral patterns in the living room and a dining table with a different china pattern at each place.

Though the effects may seem impromptu, the schemes have a strong sense of order. Textiles are related on the basis of color and subject, such as all florals or all geometrics.