Shabby chic style should be a collaboration of old meets new, colourful meets pastels and patterns teamed with plains.  Shabby chic furniture should be battered wood, distressed paint effects, detailed with floral prints perhaps and more than a little loved.  It’s the piece that your found on a skip during somebody’s house clearance, the chest of drawers that your distant relative didn’t want anymore, your childhood wardrobe brought back to life.  Shabby chic furniture is shabby – but in a good way.  It is chic – but not too polished.  It’s furniture made with love and we all deserve a piece of that in our homes.

The theme for this year seems to be ‘outdoor living’ and making your garden into a more usable area than just the odd BBQ when the sun comes out.  Over the last few weeks, I have seen outdoor fire places, solar-powered chandeliers and even an entire kitchen suite for the garden!  Not wanting to go over the top  and have virtually an extra room outdoors (we do live in the UK after all!) I settled on a gorgeous rattan corner suite with weather-resistant covers which would not look out of place inside my home.

Fingers-crossed that we get to use it as much as we hope – I’m sure that we’ll be rained off on more than one occasion but that’s all part of the fun.  The most important thing is to choose garden furniture which suits your home and lifestyle – we plan on sitting back and watch the kids playing in the garden this Summer and our new garden set is just perfect for the job.

Not only does it save us a small fortune on matching crockery sets when we inevitably break one of the plates in our matching set, but it also looks fabulous in a higgledy-piggledy fashion.  Bang on trend and so much more homely than matching the fabrics to the wall paints – seriously, does anyone actually have the time to do that?

So, forget the matchy-matchy uniformity of a show home and get creative with colour, pattern and anything else you can think of.  In fact, why stop at just going with the flow when you can get creative – and a hammer – and start distressing the furniture that you already have.  Add a bit of character to your home and let loose with the shabby chic.

Big enough to scribble notes as I remember them yet not too big that it dominates the feature wall, it’s the perfect place to keep things visible that I need to remember.  Initially used purely for those food items that I didn’t want to leave off the shopping list, it now doubles up as a diary reminder for important dates and scribbles telling me what day the various kid’s activities fall on.  In between using it as an extension to my mental notepad, the aforementioned kids usually add their own additions in the form of  stick-versions of mum and dad and pleas for a pet dog alongside sad-looking versions of themselves.  And, being a chalkboard, the emotional blackmail is easily solved with a few wipes of the chalkboard eraser! 

Simple, stylish, yet a godsend if you’re trying to stay organised, a kitchen chalkboard is the new must-have home accessory of the moment.

No, be brave and ignore the practical gift list and go for something beautiful which will remind the bride and groom of their wedding and will take pride of place in their home for years to come.  Think along the lines of an antique-style photo frame sitting on the beside table capturing the moment the new bride and groom shared their first kiss.  Maybe I’m just a romantic at heart but I just can’t bring myself to buy a slow cooker which will never see the light of day.  Be different when it comes to your wedding gift and it will be appreciated so much more.

Now that the idea of outdoor living is becoming more popular, there is more on offer than ever to decorate and light our gardens well into the evening.  When we do get those few balmy Summer nights, the last thing that we want to do it have to head inside as the sun goes down.  We need to think about how we can utilise our gardens in the evenings as well as during the day and this problem is easily solved with innovative garden lighting and garden decoration.

The orchard has many products specifically for this purpose such as their Hexagonal Lanterns which can be both freestanding as well as wall-hanging.  They also have a range of tea holders which are just perfect for stringing up to trees, pergolas and gazebos to create a magical night-time effect.  If you are looking for something to give your garden a bit of personality, look no further than their inspired handcrafted wooden mushrooms – definitely a little bit ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and perfect for Summer 2010!

No, be brave and ignore the practical gift list and go for something beautiful which will remind the bride and groom of their wedding and will take pride of place in their home for years to come.  Think along the lines of a set of gold cluster photo frames, exquistely ornate and perfect for the photos from their special day.  Or maybe a token decoration embossed with their wedding date and names which can be hung all year round on a bedroom door handle and even moved to the Christmas Tree in Winter.

Yes, maybe your friends do really want those automatic salt and pepper shakers to show off to you when you go round for dinner, and maybe that smoothie maker will make it out of the cupboard once in a blue moon.  But, that photo frame which will set on the bedside table showing the new Mr and Mrs Jones after their vows have been taken will be something a little bit different.  They will know each time they look at it that you put a lot of thought into what would make a special wedding gift on their special day.

So, will you be a gravy boat buyer or might you think twice before getting clicking ‘buy now’ on that steak knife set?

Yes, we all deserve a little luxury in our lives and buying the real deal is not an option for many of us.  If you don’t happen to have had a windfall lately, it might just be worth popping down to your trusted furniture store and seeing what they have in the way of reproduction furniture.  There are many eras covered, depending on what style you wish to achieve in your home - Art Deco, Edwardian, Georgian…there is a style to suit everyone and French Reproduction Furniture takes opulence to another level.  It makes your reproduction piece look like it cost a fortune - the only person who has to know that it didn’t is you!

This gorgeous French inspired bread bin is just the most perfect addition to adorn your kitchen work surface.  It looks like the sort of thing you would find in a back-street in Paris which you stumble across when you veer off the beaten path.  Nobody will be able to tell how old is it so feel free to regale dinner guests with a fictitious story of a long lost French relative who has passed this wonderful piece down through generations – they will never be able to tell the difference!

Alongside this wonderful piece of French shabby chic you might want to add another of The Orchard’s pieces in the form of a carved French kitchen wall shelf.  It would look wonderfully authentic with an eclectic mix of oil bottles and spice jars but if the reality is that it ends up with unopened mail and the spare door key then so be it!  Choose pieces for your kitchen that are both functional and stylish in the style of French shabby chic and enjoy them for years to come.

Whether you have an array of flowers to display or proudly grow all your own vegetables, The Orchard has a whole selection with something to suit everyone.  If you want to start small, a manageable garden planter may be just what you need to get into the swing of things.  And just because it’s outside of your home doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have to be stylish.  Try displaying your gardening efforts in a gorgeous blue and white aged ceramic planter or maybe a set of wooden heart-details windowsill planters is more to your taste.  There’s something for the serious gardener too with cast iron wall planters which are a statement piece all by themselves.  And why stop at just decorating the garden when you can adorn yourself with a fantastic leather planters apron! 

And if you yourself and not at all green-fingered, planters make a wonderful gift for the gardener in your life and are also a perfect choice to get children involved in gardening.  The joy of watching the reaction of a child to their seed growing is one of the simplest pleasures in life.  So, whether you are wanting to treat yourself or someone else, a garden pot or planter can make a welcome addition to any garden.