Bolder than magnolia and warmer than grey, blue is the colour on everyone’s walls this year
Interior styles tend to stick around a bit longer than those in the fashion world, which is handy since updating your wardrobe is usually significantly cheaper than updating your home.
When it comes to big ticket items like kitchens, magnolia was the go-to colour for years. Then grey made its entrance to the market a few years ago and Scandinavian palettes have been daubed on lounge walls up and down the country every since. However, could it be about to give way way to something more intense, more striking, a shade more luxurious in fact than UK kitchens and living rooms have ever known?
From wardrobe to wall
Blue, that’s right. Navy may not be the first colour we think of when we think of neutrals, yet the ease with which we throw a pair of navy denim jeans on every day tends to suggest that’s how we use it. Its the prevailing shade of a wardrobe staple that can be dressed up or down at ease. And there’s every reason it should be an interiors fundamental too.
The problem with grey
Grey can be hard to get right. Choose the wrong shade or misjudge how it sits with other features in a room and instead of disappearing into the background it stands out like a concrete eyesore.
Before I discovered the perfect grey (Farrow & Ball Cornforth White – thank me later), we made plenty of grey mistakes in our own home, including a now lilac garage.
Unlike grey, navy is difficult to get wrong. Don’t believe me? Check out some of these gorgeous blue interiors from our Macclesfield HMO:
Blue interiors
To style blue, let neutral coloured furnishings or light wood flooring offset the blue’s intensity to create a fresh and streamlined look.
We chanced upon navy accidentally after trying to paint our lounge a very dark grey, which in fact turned out as a dark navy. It could have gone either way, but guess who’s super smug two years later?
After the surprising success of navy in our living room, I was keen to put a navy kitchen in our Macclesfield HMO. Unfortunately, the blue kitchen trend hasn’t yet filtered down to the affordable kitchen aisle.
Magnet (whom we get our kitchens from) have an amazing navy kitchen, but presently it’s only available in their high-end range. However, with blue here to stay, we’ll hopefully see blue kitchens begin to filter down into more affordable ranges soon.
Not that this has stopped us riding the blue interiors wave. Our decorator has already painted the woodwork in our Macclesfield HMO in Farrow & Ball Stiffkey Blue
If you fancy something stronger, Farrow & Ball Hague Blue is a twilight shade with deep green undertones that provides an imposing backdrop to clean furnishings.
Have you taken the plunge into blue, or are you considering it? Let us know!