Decorating with Blues
With the welcome arrival of beautiful blue skies this week I have been inspired to write about my most popular colour, as well as the merits of all things ‘blue’. So, whether you prefer your blues ‘warm’ or ‘cool’, I hope you will find my insights and tips useful.
I am frequently asked the following questions:
Can I use blue fabrics in a living room and bedroom as well as a kitchen and bathroom?
Which of your blues are cold and which are warm?
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Blues are incredibly versatile and are suitable for any room as long as you add in an accent of a warmer colour for instance, yellow, terracotta, peach, a warm green or red. Alternatively, combining blues with cushions, flowers, painting, sculpture or floor rug in these hues can also compliment you room well.
True to all colours, there are of course many different shades of blue; from the cool shades of Cornflower and Indigo to the softer Sky Blue and Speedwell. I consider my warmest shades to be Duck Egg, Teal and Powder Blue. And, we mustn’t leave out our prettiest blues, Powder Blue and Forget-me-not!
The second question takes a little longer to answer… here it is…
What colours go with Duck Egg blue?
Duck Egg fabrics are among best selling shades of blue, inspired by Farrow and Ball’s ‘Light Blue’. I created my first ‘Duck Egg’ living room curtains 25 years ago, hand mixing the dyes and printing metres of fabric on my table tennis table. I was so charmed by this colour that I included it in all of my collections over the next 22 years, it has definitely stood the test of time.
The shade of this blue is not easy to describe…neither just blue…nor green, nor grey… but a blend of all of them. It is a colour that never dates in my view and is very easy on the eye; great in busy kitchens and living rooms, creating a serene feeling of calm.
My favourite fabric designs in Duck Egg are Cow Parsley, Acorn and Leaf, Down to Earth and Up the Garden Path to name a few. Many of my designs co-ordinate harmoniously with them from stripes and spots to plains…see my French Ticking, Stockholm Stripe, Pretty Maids and Plain Dotty in particular.
Here are recommendations and advice on decorating with stripes.
Suggested coordinating fabrics are:
Plain Linen Union – Cornflower
Fine Foliage / Wild Fern / Down to Earth
Plain Dotty / Acorn and Leaf / Cockerel and Spot
Flora and Fauna / Cow Parsley / Stripe and Dash
Feather and Egg / Up the Garden Path / Stockholm Stripe
What colours go well with Teal blue?
Teal is a stronger shade, it is a rare combination of strength and quietness in one. There are few colours that you can use throughout a whole room and not feel utterly overwhelmed and this is definitely one of those. With such a breadth of tones it can cheerfully be employed for upholstery fabric, underfoot as rugs and on the walls as the backdrop. Teal takes its name from a bird named the ‘Common Teal’ which has a Teal stripe on its head. It’s essentially a mixture of blue and green.
Suggested coordinating fabrics are:
Sepals and Petals – Light Kale
Sunflower / Plain Linen Union / Stockholm Stripe
Cow Parsley / Life and Eternity/ Simple Ticking Detail
Branching Out / By the Sea / Up the Garden Path
The Teal has a slight green undertone, so makes sense to coordinate with the the complementary greens mainly found in Kale, and Moss. Using very bold colours against it creates an instant impact, as you can see with the inclusion of the Tomato red, and Saffron yellows.
What colours work best with Powder Blue?
Powder Blue is a wonderful warm blue, making it a good choice for bedrooms as well as living rooms. One of my most popular Powder Blue fabrics is Fruit Garden, which coordinates perfectly with Pretty Maids.
Suggested coordinating fabrics are:
Pretty Maids / Fruit Garden / In Full Flight
The brightness of the Powder Blue helps to lift the rooms up that otherwise may feel a little darkened, such as the lounge on the right hand side.
What to choose with Cornflower blues?
This is like a denim blue, the perfect tone to go with Raspberry, Terracotta and Peach.
Suggested coordinating fabrics are:
Fruit Garden – Peach, Smoke, Winter
Wild and Free – Terracotta, Charcoal
Sunflower Detail – Peach, Soft Day Lily, Day Lily
Lapland Stripe / Plain Dotty / Little Fern
Life and Eternity Detail / Simple Ticking Detail / Sow and Scatter
Stripe and Dash / Up the Garden Path / Fallow Deer / Cow Parsley
Again the Raspberry red pleated edge to this bed quilt warms up this blue attic bedroom. As do the small pouffe in raspberry red Simple Ticking Detail, red geraniums and red spots on the jug in Rose’s small painting! The red piping on the bolster cushion is another opportunity to add some warmth.
What colours work best with Indigo?
Indigo is another dark blue, a little warmer than Cornflower, but works beautifully when teamed with greens.
Suggested coordinating fabrics are:
Sepals and Petals – Light Kale
French Ticking – Field Green, Charcoal
Berries and Leaves – Moss, Light Indigo
Japonica / Shibori / Origami / Plain Linen Union
Berries and Leaves / Sunflower Detail / Sunflower / Sunflower Detail
Indigo works particularly well in creating a base for all the other colours in the room to work from. As you can see in these beautiful images, greens and pinks help to balance the rooms out creating a cohesive, well though out room scheme.
Colours to match with Speedwell
Speedwell and Sky Blue are both soft, delicate blues: Speedwell is warmer than Sky Blue as it contains a little dash of yellow pigment.
Suggested coordinating fabrics are:
Up in the Air / Fern and Dragonfly / Little Fern
Forget-me-not blue colour matching
This is such an incredibly pretty blue so if you are looking for a fresh subtle fabric then this is the shade for you.
Suggested coordinating fabrics are:
Up the Garden Path – Cornflower
In Full Flight – Damson, Winter
Simple Ticking Detail / Stripe and Dash / Down to Earth
The subtlety of the Forget-me-not is underestimated, because as you can see here, it works so well in softening the rooms to give a tranquil feels. What could be more useful than a Simple Ticking fabric: its stripes goes with everything and is easy on the eye.
What colours work well with Smoke blue?
Smoke is one of our most popular blues because it has a subtle but beautiful green undertone to it.
Suggested coordinating fabrics are:
May Blossom – Light Peach, Charcoal
French Ticking- Limestone, Smoke
May Blossom / Pretty Maids / Up the Garden Path
Woodland Walk / Fern and Dragonfly / Stockholm Stripe
Colours that work with Soft Cornflower
My Soft Cornflower isn’t as dark as the denim like Cornflower, or as light as the Speedwell, this is happy medium between the two.
Suggested coordinating fabrics are:
May Blossom – Light Peach, Charcoal
Stockholm Stripe / Lattice Leaf
Lattice Leaf / Lapland Stripe / Lattice Leaf
Little Fern / Wild Fern / Up the Garden Path
The Moss green, as you can see, is the best complementary colour to go with the Soft Cornflower! It’s not too dark that it dominates the space, but is just right in working alongside the creams, greys, rich golden Saffron yellows, sharp Raspberry reds, and more neutral items such as rugs and stone walling.
Beautiful blues at a special wedding
My son, Ned married Kitty last weekend in our garden! The bridesmaids, pages, Ned and I all wore indigo blue by chance! The sun shone and opened up a beautiful warm, calm world of cow parsley, aquilegia, hawthorn blossom, clematis, alliums and peonies.
A very talented local florist called Pearl from Millefleur made this amazing wreath for my front door, created bouquets like you have never seen before and decked an arch with wild and foraged flowers. The flowers were grown in our next door village, Chedworth and supplied in buckets by Karen from Pancake Hill Flowers.
Have you ever seen anything so natural and understated? They are works of art and I will never forget them!
Bunches of garden and hedgerow flowers for the brides maids…Cow parsley and clematis welcoming guests into our house.
This looks so much a part of our wild garden…it was a wooden arch with absolutely nothing on it before Pearl got her very creative hands on it….the flowers at the sides look as though they are growing out of the ground. Ned and Kitty got married here. By the way, the arch was made by Ned over 11 years ago for a DT project at school, it was once a hammock support!
Decorating Tips, Advice, Styles and Inspiration
Want even more interior design tips and advice for your home? Check out our decorating guides to help you find your perfect style:
We sell fabrics exclusively designed by Vanessa Arbuthnott, along side small, bespoke collection of Made to Measure items which includes curtains, blinds, sofas, footstools, chairs, headboards, and quilts, all handmade specially for you by master crafts people.
