Interesting spin on a white ceiling
IN RICHMOND, Virginia, people debate their favourite sky blue paint colour for porch ceilings as they would their favourite biscuit recipe.
“It’s all about bringing the outside in,” said designer Suellen Gregory, who has seen blue ceilings on front and back porches, screened-in porches, loggias and garden rooms. “My clients do ask for it. It puts an interesting spin on what would be just a plain white ceiling.”
Across the South, the tradition of painting ceilings blue is passed down from generation to generation. There are many stories and legends as to why, and it’s not just about keeping bugs at bay.
In the Deep South, some believe a darker blue sometimes called “haint blue” keeps away evil spirits.
“I was always told that the colour of our porches was ‘dirt dauber blue’ and that they kept wasps from building nests in there,” said Jonathan Savage, an interior designer in Nashville, Tennessee,“if you are on a porch with a blue ceiling, it seems to keep the daylight in.”
Gregory said blue ceilings are such a tradition in the South that they evoke a feeling of the past and make people feel comfortable and cosy.
In the 2017 Kips Bay Decorator Show House in New York, Savage used Farrow & Ball’s Borrowed Light for the ceiling in his dramatic stair hall in the grand 1905 townhouse. “A powder blue ceiling, although normally found out of doors, felt Southern and sophisticated here.”
Gregory said another ceiling paint tip she’s often used came from a savvy Parisian hostess: Paint ceilings pale pink so your skin glows by candlelight. – The Washington Post