Shabby Chic Heart Box diy

✨ Romantic shabby chic decor using the IOD Felicité mould — perfect for elegant handmade gifts or vintage-inspired homes.

This Shabby Chic Heart Box diy project started, as many of mine do, with a simple idea and a heart-shaped MDF box 🤍

From there, it slowly evolved through layers of paint, texture, and small decisions made along the way.

In this tutorial, I’m creating a shabby chic, romantic heart box using soft vintage colours, subtle stencil work on the sides, and a raised floral composition made with moulds. Rather than following a fixed plan, I let the piece guide me — building depth gradually and responding to what the surface needed.

After the base colours were down, I added paraffin wax over the brown base, which allowed me to gently distress the surface later using medium-grit sandpaper. This step helps reveal the layers underneath in a soft, imperfect way, giving the box that time-worn, well-loved feel that suits shabby chic pieces so well.

As the florals came together, I realised the foliage needed a little more contrast. The lighter green felt too flat next to the flowers, so I deepened the tone to bring more definition and help the leaves stand out. Small adjustments like this are part of the process, and they often make the biggest difference in the final result.

This is the kind of project that invites you to slow down, trust your instincts, and allow yourself to change direction if something doesn’t feel quite right. There’s no perfect formula — just layers, patience, and letting the piece tell its own story.

I hope this inspires you to work with what you have and enjoy the quiet beauty of creating something by hand.