Ruth Burts Interiors: "I need a great blue paint color (Not navy!)"

Thursday, May 12, 2011

"I need a great blue paint color (Not navy!)"

Navy is super chic right now! So are highly-saturated cobalt and royal blues (little white involved here!) And YOU're ready to commit to some serious blue in your home...just not navy blue!! Hopefully you'll find a good one here...

Sherwin Williams' "SASSY BLUE" 1241

"Blue is my secret agent color. I'm always sneaking it in these days. I guess it's like a bit of sky peeking out, which makes everything work. Blue is lightness and air.
I used to use white to lighten things up, but now I'm using blue.
It gives breath to everything." - William Diamond

Veranda, April 2011: David Kleinberg (above: paint color unknown)

Elle Decor, March/April 2011: Steven Gambrel using

Benjamin Moore's "ADAGIO" 1593 (above)

Architectural Digest, April 2011: Jeffrey Bilhuber uses a pale French blue

in an nyc apartment's sky-lit atrium (above: paint color unknown).

Although lighter than the navy and cobalt blues I featured in my post, "best of the bold blue paint colors," these blues are cleaner and more intense than recent years' light blues. Blue on moldings and mill work is an exciting development!

Valspar's "SEA KISS" 5005 - 9C

"We've all been cocooning, but we're sensing a change. So now what? This blue feels like a new stage of life, inspired by all those water colors that sustain, refresh, rejuvenate. It's so airy it can almost make walls disappear.
It dances with the light." — Sue Kim

Elle Decor, 2011: Home of Robert Couturier

(above: Donald Kaufman Colors DKC-29) Couturier augmented his blue walls

with a stimulating combination of red, black and white!

Olympic Paints' "AQUA CHIFFON" A58 - 3

"I think everyone is looking for a little change, but nothing drastic. Aqua Chiffon is playful and happy, not too dark and not too light. I'd use it as an accent to bring some freshness to a bathroom or a bedroom. And since blue is relaxing, it would bring peace of mind." — Tina McHenry

Above (via flickr) and below (House Beautiful) photos

BOTH in Farrow and Ball's "POWDER ROOM BLUE"

"VERDITER BLUE" DCR 078 NRH

Sherwin Williams/Duron, COLORS OF HISTORIC CHARLESTON :

"This is an intense 18th-century blue-green with a great history. They used to make it by pouring acids on copper and using the verdigris as the pigment for the paint. A living room would be killer with this on the walls, dead-white trim, and mahogany or black-painted furniture. I'm fair-haired and blue-eyed, and we go for these incredibly sharp colors." -Ralph Harvard

This blue interior by Eileen Kathryn Boyd (above: paint color unknown)

exhibits a gorgeous mix of pink, salmon, greens, white (+ mixed surface finishes).

Parker Paint's "WATERSIDE" 7573M

"This bright, pretty turquoise reminds me of summers on Lake Michigan when I was a child, skipping stones and looking up at the sky, and feeling the sun on my body. Blue calms me and reenergizes me — just as the ocean does." ("Waterside:" is the paint color in photo below; woodwork is painted Benjamin Moore's "Ivory White" 925. If you do not have access to Parker Paint in your area, many paint stores are able to reproduce other manufacturers' colors.) -Markham Roberts

Benjamin Moore's "AQUARIUS" 788

"I've never met a blue I didn't like. Everything from the darkest to the lightest — and this is in the middle — with a hint of aquamarine. A blue living room would be glamorous, especially with bottle-green silk velvet upholstery and a touch of silver or gold on a chair, or tiebacks for a curtain. And the walls should be slick, which gives a room a sparkle. It can never be too glossy for me." -John Yunis

interior via Elle Decor 2011 (above: paint color unknown)

Isn't this space fantastic with the white floors and moldings, the glossy black leather chair, mixed-finish wood furniture, and especially the artwork which sets it all off!

WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE BLUE ?