Shabby chic with Patricia. Living room in vintage style

Shabby chic furniture and decorative wall stripes – Pure cosiness for living rooms and elsewhere in the home

Patricia Morgenthaler is an interior designer, book author and creative coach. The master of shabby chic furniture sets to work and show us how aubergine-coloured wall stripes, a chest of drawers and a longcase clock in a used design can be used to design a living room that is not only cosy but also in the trendy vintage style.

Flamboyant, unusual and simply lovely: these are the ideas of Patricia Morgenthaler. She describes herself as a creative, sometimes chaotic person with a great love for simple Scandinavian design and vintage treasures. As a child, Patricia was very creative and so it was obvious that she would make her hobby her career. Today, she works as an interior designer and book author, freely in accordance with the motto “Discover the possibilities”, and takes inspiration from a wide range of materials. Since July 2011, Patricia has been regularly seen as an interior and decoration expert on TV, including the programme ‘Kaffee oder Tee’ on the channel SWR, and on ARD-Buffet. Since 2015, everything on her blog has revolved around DIY, homes, cooking and living. You can find step by step photographic instructions here as well as video tutorial with lots of tips and tricks for recreating her projects.

A love for the sea, the fresh breeze from the North Sea and the unique nature around them have turned these two Schleswig-Holstein-born individuals into passionate North Friesians. Their passion for DIY and creativity, on the other hand, have turned them into DIY professionals! They've managed to do what many people can only dream of: turn their hobby into a career. As a married couple and work colleagues, the two are part of “Saris Garage”, creating furniture and home accessories that are made primarily from Euro pallets with passion and an incredible eye for detail. They explain their methods with a variety of tips and tricks through DIY tutorials and publish them on various channels. And the great thing is, you can also buy their furniture in their shop.


         

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You will need:

  • Protective sheeting
  • Tape measure
  • Mask
    • Upcycled wooden chest of drawers in an individual shabby chic style
    • Old grandfather clock converted into a unique piece
    • Different wood paints
    • Decorative items such as faux fur and cushions, old wooden boxes and plants

    Vintage or shabby chic style?

    The term vintage is generally used to describe a style of furnishing that effectively combines unique items with other pieces of furniture and styles as a way of creating a nostalgic effect. The shabby chic style stands for timeless elegance with a used look, and has a very romantic effect with its mostly powdery, light colour tones. With the shabby chic design of the old longcase clock, Patricia perfectly combines the two styles into a nostalgic-romantic look.

    Decorative wall stripes

    Step 1 of 2: Measuring up, Covering and masking

    Measuring up, Covering and masking

    Patricia decides to design the walls with a striped colour accent in the warm colour tone aubergine. She measures a height of 1.10 m with a metre rule and marks out the area with masking tape. Above the masking for the wall stripe, an approx. 25 cm-wide piece of masking paper with integrated tape protects the wall against unwanted splashes of paint. Patricia also covers the floor and the door.

    Step 2 of 2: Applying paint to the wall

    Applying paint to the wall

    After Patricia has stirred the aubergine wall paint and thinned it with water, she pours the paint into the large spray attachment of the paint spray system W 690 FLEXiO from WAGNER.

    Applying paint to the wall

    Patricia now sets about applying the paint. She sprays in even strips, approx. one third overlapping, from top to bottom.

    Applying paint to the wall

    Patricia only has to top-up the paint in the wall paint spray attachment once for the entire area of the wall stripe – so she is quickly finished with the wall design.

    Applying paint to the wall

    After a short drying time of 10 minutes, Patricia removes the masking from the wall.

    Useful pointers: Metre rules with integrated spirit level offer two functions in a single tool. Marking out the decorative wall strip proceeds quickly and the result is even and straight.

    Shabby chic furniture

    Painting the chest of drawers with two coats of paint

    Step 1 of 4: Applying primer

    Applying primer

    Patricia prefers to accept the challenge of conjuring individually designed unique pieces from boring furniture. For the wooden chest of drawers, she chooses two complimentary, pale colour tones – silver grey and mint. Patricia pours the silver grey paint into the small spray attachment of the paint spray system and starts the priming process.

    Schritt 2 von 4: Applying second layer

    Applying second layer

    As soon as the first coat is dry, the second coat of mint-coloured paint follows.

    Used Look

    Step 3 of 4: Used look

    Used look

    Before the second colour layer is fully dry, Patricia dabs off individual areas with a cloth to create “traces of use” for the used look.

    Step 4 of 4: Sanding

    Sanding

    Once the paint is fully dry, she works on the overly perfect surface with a sander. The skill here is to remove both colour layers in some areas and to allow the silver-grey first coating to shimmer through in others.

    Liven up an old grandfather clock with a shabby chic look

    Step 1 of 2: Painting

    Painting

    Patricia paints the ageing and very sad-looking grandfather clock with just one coat. She uses the silver-grey paint again for this, so that the chest of drawers and grandfather clock go together superbly in the final look.

    Step 2 of 2: Sanding

    Sanding

    Once the paint is dry, the sander is used again to allow the original colour to shimmer through in a few places.

    Interior design in the vintage style

    Patricia now places the chest of drawers and the grandfather clock in the room and decorates with matching accessories and colour accents. These include a faux fur and cushion, old wooden boxes on the wall as shelves and a couple of plants. We think the result is a complete success! And as Patricia summarises it: “It all went so quickly and was a huge amount of fun. I never thought it would work so well. I have never painted a wall, let alone made a shabby chic chest of drawers in such as short space of time.”

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    The result

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