Welcome to Rachel Ashwell’s world: as beautiful as it is comfortable, as inspiring and spontaneous as it is practical and personal. In this book, Rachel shares her inspirations and her humour, celebrates the charm of the old and battered, and demonstrates time and again how interiors touched with Rachel’s magic transcend fashionable trends, extending a calming, personal welcome to all. In this new book, Rachel takes us to homes in the US – from a shabby shack on Malibu’s oceanfront to a ranch on the wide, open spaces of Texas and to the wooded hills of the Catskills – and in the UK – from a houseboat and a city townhouse to a centuries-old manor house deep in the country, and Rachel’s own London apartment. All the houses, regardless of their size or location, embody Rachel’s ethos and share the same qualities: a respect for beautiful objects from the past, an extravagant sense of comfort, an eye for the unexpected and that signature touch of bling. All are inviting, artistic, soulful, inspired and inspiring, beautiful, gentle, considered and, in their own way, perfectly imperfect.
Shabby Chic Meets Bohemian Gypsy I have been a fan of Rachel Ashwell and her shabby chic look for years. I own every book she has authored. This book is a huge disappointment in that she has veered even further away from her original look. Her new look is very confusing as if she wants to accomodate every other look out there, wrap it all up together and present it to us with a “tah-dah”! A more appropriate title for her new look could be labeled “Bohemian Gypsy meets Wandering Peasant”. I am so sorry. I wanted to love…
Worth Waiting For I have been waiting (not so patiently) for Rachel’s newest (and 7th book) and was thrilled to find it arrive on my doorstep today. The book is very pretty and filled with many pastel-hued, romantic photos that have come to symbolize “Shabby Chic”. While I do agree with other reviewers that the book occasionally veers a bit off track (I could live without the brown leather couches, twiggy furniture, and what is it with that room with the horrible stripes in those horrid 70’s colors?), I still…