Shabby Chic: Sumptuous Settings and Other Lovely Things

• Shabby Chic
• The Shabby Chic Home
• Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic Treasure Hunting and Decorating Guide
• The Shabby Chic Gift of Giving
• New Cottage Style (Better Homes & Gardens)

Rachel Ashwell uses her signature style to make any event a special occasion.

This beautiful, accessible book proves that entertaining need not be expensive. Making every day into an elegant extravaganza is a matter of inspiration and imagination, and shopping is a great way to get inspired. Travel with her to unique locations like a Chinese grocery store, local antique mall, a flower market, or a flea market to search for the perfect accents that will give your event unexpected charm without breaking the bank. Use the treasures you find to jazz up average items – sometimes it's as easy as adding a little paint, ribbons, or flowers. Decorate the chairs, create a themed meal, or custom design menus and place cards. When it comes to setting a scene, Rachel is an expert and with her easy how–to advice, you can be too. She has practical ideas for any occasion – baby showers to weddings, birthday parties to bar mitzvahs, even old–fashioned family dinners.

The ideas and photos are just superb. Very inspiring. Rachel is a romantic Goddes with all that soft and lovely collors and treasures.

As usual Rachels books never fail to delight the eye with the sumptuous photography, attention to detail and her style of putting together the simplest objects to create visual feasts. A book to devour over and over with a lovely cup of tea.

The events the author created are lavish affairs for Hollywood socialites. Paper parasols, vintage/flowery hats, a mixture of china teacups, and lots of old-fashioned flowers. As a party planning book, it's can be an inspiration. Maybe "Elegant Shabby Chic" would have been a better name for the book. I picked this up, originally thinking it was a decorating book.

The photos are gorgeous. The reader can find inspiration from these and depending on the budget, create your own event. Each chapter covers a separate affair or decorating challenge. There's Jennifer Lopez' restaurant and Pamela Anderson's son's birthday party.

I wasn't expecting another book like the first ones and had I, I think I would have been disappointed. So if you're in the need of some more inspiration and love her books, this would be a great match. But it is beautiful, thoughtful, unique and true to Shabby Chic. I was in great anticipation of this book because I found her previous ones (with the exception of the Gift Giving one which I have not read) to be beautiful, inspiring and filled with great, new to me, information. What I was expecting, however, was just another beautiful book filled with wonderful images to give my brain a creative spark. If you're looking to learn more about shabby chic for home and how to do all that, her other books are much, much better. And it did just that.It's not really a how to, it doesn't lay things out easily, and it's not really for home ideas and living.

If you like the casual comfortable look of overstuffed slip covered furniture, this is the best reference you could buy.