Shabby Chic? Definition, please

What is Shabby Chic?

The words “Shabby Chic” have become synonymous with the love of decorating with time-worn vintage objects.

Designer Rachel Ashwell, who coined the phrase in the late 1980s when she began to market her shabby but elegant flea market finds, as well as furniture covered with loose, washable, white denim slipcovers, caught the imagination of others who shared her fondness for items that had developed a patina, as well as a few scars, from years of use.

“Shabby Chic is the marriage of my English heritage with the fresh and eclectic qualities of my California lifestyle,” Ashwell writes

She is the author of four books featuring her homes, lifestyle and decorating philosophy, and she frequently appears on television.

Her line of “Simply Shabby Chic” bedding is carried by Target stores nationally.