Shabby Chic Kitchen Collection

This kitchen is quite eclectic, with a variety of colours, materials and features on display in the form of wooden serving counters, plush armchairs and checkerboard flooring. It shouldn't really work, but it does – the plentiful artificial and natural light sources mingle within the room and help to soften it.

Two of the most popular shabby chic colours to use are white/cream and pink, and this kitchen blends both of them almost to the point of saturation, but offsets them with the turquoise shade of the walls. In fact, the room looks a little busy with the chandelier hanging relatively low over the work area – that's one feature that the average kitchen can live without, perhaps.

There is almost a bit of an industrial vibe to this kitchen, with a massive one-piece sink dominating one side of the room. While it might look quite spare and sparse, the flowers on the windowsill add a much-needed colour boost to the room as a whole and ensure that it doesn't slant too far to the industrial side of shabby chic.

Pastels are common colour shades to use in any shabby chic room, but deeper, stronger shades are more unusual. The aquamarine employed here works well with the artificial light sources, the chrome appliances and the white marbled work surfaces and cupboards. Be bolder with your colour choices if you wish to be – the finish of a surface can still mark it out as identifiably shabby chic even fi the colour doesn't.

The most visually striking aspect of this kitchen is undoubtedly the "Bakery" graphic on the wall that draws the eye simultaneously towards it and away from the fact that the kitchen isn't as spacious as it might be. That said, the island in the middle does provide a much-needed amount of surface area to work on.

Space-saving is an important aspect of any interior decoration, and this shelf utilises both of its sides to become a mug-hanger underneath and a normal shelf on top. Creative storage solutions can be found in hundreds of forms, so it's worth shopping around to see what you can find to meet your needs.

Contrast is an important aspect of the shabby chic aesthetic, whether it is employed with material choices or colours, as seen here. It's clear that the chairs and table are all made of wood but, whereas the table has a natural, stripped finish, the chairs are painted a dusky rose shade – this creates a striking, contrastive effect.

Considering the amount of grease, sauce and other stains that can fly around a kitchen, it's a bold move to make white your primary colour when you redecorate it. As long as you're confident that you can keep the room's surfaces looking pristine at all times, though, you shouldn't necessarily rule it out as a design option.

What's a shabby chic kitchen without a cake stand or two? Remember that your kitchen is only as shabby chic as the items within it – make sure it is suitably stocked with items that fit the aesthetic and colour scheme you have decided upon to round it off once it has been finished.

As previously noted, the details of a room are just as important as the big picture – this sign works (even without the apostrophe that should have been used in "cooks") because it matches the colour scheme of the cabinet, and evokes a sense of the past in the way that all effective shabby chic rooms should aim to achieve.

Unusual colour schemes shouldn't be discounted in any shabby chic room – although green isn't the first colour one might think of when directing their kitchen, it is used tastefully here, working effectively with the white walls and countertops and black cooking utensils.

Another unusual colour scheme can be seen above – like green, charcoal isn't a traditional kitchen colour, as the general consensus is that a kitchen should be light, airy and feel big, hence the use of light colours in most examples here. Here, however, the charcoal makes the room feel very dramatic (aided by the large window that lets in a lot of light) and helps neutral colours like the cream of the door and table stand out.

There's a place for a shabby chic piece in any room, regardless of the style it already embodies, and in many cases it will enhance that room. The kitchen counter/island above is not only at odds with the minimalist, clean style of the room in terms of its shabbiness, but also in terms of its colour – the room is predominantly white, while the island is blue.

The standout feature here is the exposed wood that covers not only the floor but also the ceiling and a portion of the walls, emphasising the rustic aspect of shabby chic. In fact, the approach is almost at odds with the relatively modern-looking sink and cabinets with their white finishes and natural wood trims, but the room just about gets away with it.

This is the archetypal shabby chic kitchen, featuring the familiar soft pastel colours and white shades contrasting with each other and the natural finishes of the wooden table and exposed brickwork over the hobs. The room embraces the shabby chic aesthetic while maximising its functionality – there is ample space to work and fridges and ovens are concealed underneath the worktops.