Spring is just around the corner, and if the still-grey skies are getting you down, it might be time for a slightly different case of the blues. We've been seeing beautiful shades of sky blue popping up all over the pages of House & Garden, sometimes decking out entire walls, sometimes used as an accent on furniture or woodwork. These colours seem to work well if they have a green undertone, and some even hover on the border between blue and green, and though pale, are deeply pigmented. They work wonderfully when combined with cheerful shades of pink and red, and also with yellow accents.
The full blue look
Sky blue is a wonderfully forgiving colour to paint an entire room. Walls, woodwork and doors look beautiful when entirely done out in this hue. The main bedroom in a London project by Kate Guinness (above left) has walls and woodwork in Edward Bulmer's Sea Green, the fabrics in the room balance it out with shades of pink and darker blue. The bed is upholstered in ‘Mende Bhutan’ by Namay Samay, from Tissus d’Helene, with a bedspread from Guinevere. In a London house by Rachel Chudley (above right), the warm tones of the new walnut parquet flooring set off the bespoke pale blue paint on the walls, which was developed by Rachel with New York colour consultant Donald Kaufman and now forms part of the Rachel Chudley Colour Studio range; it is enlivened by the wall trim, ‘Greek Key Border’ in grey from Adelphi Paper Hangings.
Sky blue kitchens
Blue kitchens often tend to come in darker shades, but a more cheerful shade can be just the ticket, especially when combined with a pop of red, as Beata Heuman has done here in this London apartment. The jaunty red stripes on the kitchen island, and the deep crimson of the blind, make a perfect foil to cabinets in ‘Oval Room Blue’ from Farrow & Ball. The kitchen overall was inspired by a trip Beata made to Swan House in Atlanta.
Sky blue woodwork
If the full paint scheme isn't for you, painting your doors and trim in this colour, perhaps to bring out the shade in a patterned wallpaper or contrast with anaother paint colour, can be a delightful addition to a scheme. In the hallway of a writer's flat in Edinburgh, Susan Deliss has used Edward Bulmer’s ‘Verdigris’ paint on the woodwork to complement ‘Lioness & Palms’ wallpaper in the midday colourway, an Arts and Crafts design by CFA Voysey available from CommonRoom. In Sebastian Bergström's Stockholm flat, he has painted a cabinet in the living room in Farrow & Ball's ‘Oval Room Blue’, which Sebastian calls the perfect backdrop for his tomato-red chairs, which are painted in ‘Heat’ by Little Greene.
Blue and green, far from never being seen together, are practically constant companions in today's interiors schemes. Nicola Harding is a particular fan, and has used ‘Sakura’ wallpaper in sky by Galbraith & Paul in this children's bedroom in a house in London (above right) together with woodwork in a greeny sky blue. The same sort of colour scheme applies in Eildon Hall in the Scottish borders (above right), where panelling around the windows in ‘Van Courtland Blue’ contrasts with walls in ‘Paper Doll’, both from Benjamin Moore.
This story originally appeared on House & Garden UK.
