March 11, 2019

French Happy Shabby Chic is back

Yes you heard it here first - French Happy Shabby Chic is back.

I tried adding modern pieces to my home from modern shops, to find that I was throwing out trends that I no longer liked quite quickly! which wasn't very ozone friendly...I even tried living with the pared back look and although I liked it for a while...I felt something was missing.

I have been feeling very unhappy lately and even had a mini breakdown last week...Yep I hit ground zero! luckily my family gathered around me and picked me up, I know they all love me, but I felt that I was spinning too many plates in my life and I just needed some time for myself...that's something that I never seem to get, being a carer to 3 people is very wearing...sometimes you just want to scream! and my way of coping has been to stay up to silly o'clock so that I can do everything that I want to do for myself as well...

That idea though has thoroughly worn me out, trying to burn the candle at both ends is not a good idea if you want to stay healthly and the fact that I am in denial about having type 2 diabetes and constantly eating lots of sweet treats has just added to my poor state of mind...I do this you see! It's like a recurring circle, I feel depressed, eat something sweet to make myself feel good...immediately feel bad!  Then I stay up too late and have to get up early and all this added together just made me hit rock bottom!  I know I should go to bed at a reasonable time, but the only time that I don't get disturbed is when everyone is asleep and that time for me is bliss!

So! after thinking for a while and looking around the house, I asked Freddy if he would mind me adding some more of my happy shabby pieces into the mix...I felt I needed to add some more colour into my life, to try to make me feel happy again!  I thought I needed a change when we moved to this  house, but we have been here 3 years now and I still feel that I haven't got it right!  When we first moved in, I tried to do the happy shabby look, but it just didn't work...then we took it all out, and went for a more pared back look and for a while that felt good, well for a while anyway!

Then we added a bit of vintage in with the modern accessories, ferns, gold and quirky modern pieces...and yep I liked it! I really really liked it!
The thought of adding anything red! oh no! not me...I am not going back there! I thought to myself! but really! is that really me? and after my mini breakdown, I started thinking what do I really want! when was I at my happiest...and the more I think about it, it was when we were living on the Island and we decorated in a french happy shabby chic style...with rather of a lot of Cath Kidston thrown in (back then Cath's homewares were to die for!) I started to look at old blog posts from that era and my heart skipped a beat!

So out came all our vintage French enamel and other old favourites, there was mess everywhere, but it was a beautiful mess! I was supposed to of sold a lot of this stuff, but I couldn't bare to part with my favourites and stored it away, just in case one day I would have this eureka moment and want it all back!  Fred stayed out of my way while I played house! I asked him if he minded me changing the look again, as he really liked the modern look, but he said he just wanted me to be happy!

The pictures I have shown you in this post is the progress...ha and the mess!

This time I have incorporated old mixed with quirky, modern and chic...items that make my heart sing.  Everything, I look at sparks joy! I keep asking Freddy if he likes it...but he just say's sarcastically 'it's nice'.

But to me...it's my 'happy' and I can't wait to get all the house under it's spell again!...and hopefully if I can get to bed earlier, it might make me feel better in myself so that I can have more time to do the things that I enjoy!

My pictures aren't the finished room design...but I will be posting the final pictures soon!

Love to you all x