The Shabby Chic Home by Rachel Ashwell ~ Book Review

Before and After pictures are my guilty pleasure, I can't get enough of them and I'm always on the lookout for new blogs containing lots of them! So, when this book arrived I was in my absolute element, it has lots of them from inside and outside Rachel Ashwell's home. I put the children in bed that evening and read the whole book from cover to cover, reading every word and soaking in every picture - its been a long time since I have done this, I usually just flick through looking at the pictures.

Although I have read the book, it won't now just sit on the bookshelf (and I must say it does look very pretty in my bookcase amongst my ever growing collection of interior books). It is one I can pick up time and time again, whenever the children are happy to entertain themselves and I can have ten minutes to myself to escape into somebody else's home....bliss!!

I love that Rachel Ashwell is so open about her personal life, as the reader I felt like I knew her and was on the journey with her of turning her house into a truly beautiful home. She is very honest about the fact she doesn't achieve all of this on her own, she has a housekeeper and a team of builders to help her but even so what they have achieved together is inspirational. On this point, I know she has a housekeeper but does she really need to wash her bath mat twice a day??? (my only negative thought about the book).

I love her love of fresh flowers, can you imagine one of your weekly tasks being to arrange a huge delivery of fresh flowers into an assortment of vases/jugs/bowls/bottles and placing them around your home? I do love fresh flowers in the home and usually have a jug of flowers on the kitchen windowsill. My budget won't stretch to filling my home with them every week but I have been inspired and am going to grow more in the garden to cut and bring inside - in fact last week I bought my very first white hydrangea!!

By taking you through her own rennovation, Rachel helps to give you an appreciation for your own home, rather than ripping out and replacing she encourages you to work with what you have. She manages to make a feature of a piece of fabric pinned up at a window, a painted pair of ladders in the hallway and a clothes rail in a living space...all so simple yet effective.

If you love shabby chic, images of flowers, delicate china, and not forgetting all the before and after shots then you will love this book.

Thank you for reading xx



Please note: I am a member of the Amazon affiliates programme, so if you order the book from here, I will get a very small Amazon credit, which I can put towards more home/interior books :) Thank you x