Amazon.com
By now most readers even marginally interested in home decorating are familiar with the democratic principles of decorating elaborated in Rachel Ashwell's first book, Shabby Chic: namely, that well-made vintage furniture and home accessories can add a cozy grandeur to your home, even if the paint's a little thin or the fabric a bit faded. In her second book, Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic Treasure Hunting & Decorating Guide, Ashwell shares her processes, from a stall-by-stall description of a flea market trip to pictures of her design boards scattered with photos, fabric swatches, and paint chips. Ashwell doesn't skimp on details: she tells how to decide on a fair bargaining price at flea markets, how to clean old items without harming them, and (step by step) how one ugly glass-fronted cabinet topped with old linoleum and mismatched shelf paper became an attractive, roomy storage piece that houses her daughter's books, dolls, and bedding. This is a friendly, intimate book in which Ashwell shares pictures of her own home and those of her friends--some of whom live in roomy beach houses and some of whom live in 450-square-foot cottages, and all of whom use the main Shabby Chic concepts of comfort, function, and beauty in deciding which objects to share their space with. Fans of the original Shabby Chic will find this follow-up every bit as useful, attractive, and accessible.
Booklist
Who is Rachel Ashwell--and why should we care? Not really a Martha Stewart clone, she is the owner and quasioriginator of a line of home furnishings that recalls the aesthetic sensibilities of genteel nobility, the kind of clean but slightly neglected homes and interiors associated with a decline in income. In an intensely personal narrative, she invites readers to flea markets, to examine the old and unusual, and to tour her home (and those of four others), and all photographic wanderings are accompanied by gentle, almost subconscious instructions. An oversize round table, whitewashed and with cutoff legs, becomes a comfortable coffee table in a seaside cottage. Carefully scrubbed and washed, old Christmas mercury ornaments shine like silver in garden settings. Even a stained linen cloth and a pink sari have new lives. Barbara Jacobs
