LIFT YOUR SPIRITS
From ice right through to navy, blue is the fresh favourite for summer walls, home furnishings and fabrics, says Barbara Chandler
COOL BLUE is the darling of internet interiors searchers, with hashtags for Hague Blue at an all-time high, according to research by bathroom brand Drench. This particular blue, so inky that it’s almost black, is made by Farrow & Ball — the brand monopolising the top end of the paint trade with a huge range of quirkily named shades.
With an equally impeccable paint pedigree, Little Greene did a capsule blue edit in 2015, setting the trend with a palette of 20 hues from ice to navy. And for 2020, American colour pundits Pantone named Classic Blue — infused with hints of sea and sky — their colour of the year.
You could pay pushing £50 for two-anda-half litres of elite emulsion, for “superior pigments and excellent coverage”, says paint pundit Mel Adams of the all-encompassing designerpaint.com, where masses of shade cards are free. Happily Dulux is much cheaper at around £29 for the same size tin, including Ink Well, Sapphire Salute, and Midnight Teal.
“These are night sky backdrops,” says colour consultant Marianne Shillingford. “Inky blues are soothing in the bedroom, sophisticated in the living room and the most popular colour on revamped kitchen cabinets right now. They look best in a matt finish.”
At B&Q, blue is the most popular shade after neutrals and grey. And fashionably deep is their Antibes at only £12 for 2.5L. It might be best to get your skates on when ordering paint — unprecedented lockdown DIY is rumoured to be causing some shortages.
TEXTILES
Indigo is the benchmark blue for textiles, redolent of Japanese crafts and African tribal weaves. In north London Rob Jones of Romor Designs (romordesigns.com) is the patient master of shibori, making resist-dyed patterns with stitched, clamped and bound cloth. Check out his cushions, shades and Zoom videos on the website.
“Such ethnic dyes and prints are timeless and constantly inspire us all,” says Mark Butcher, design manager at fabric brand Mark Alexander (markalexander.com).
Meanwhile, at cult label Mind The Gap (mindtheg.com) an ambitious oeuvre has fabrics and paper redolent of Zulu and Kuba mudcloths, Navajo weaves and Ikat silks from Uzbekistan.
ROYAL BLUE FOR LINENS
The “Queen of Blue” Zoe Glencross (zoeglencross.com), inspired by the “massive skies” surrounding her Cheshire home, is updating indigo for prints on linen — even the cow parsley is blue. Or take a tip from Instagram influencers and offset your muted wall of ink with the near-match of a navy velvet sofa, giving sheen and depth. Find lovely ones at MADE.com from around £650.
ON THE TABLE
For fresh blue-and-white china, try striped Cornishware by TG Green (cornishware. co.uk), Blue Italian by Spode (spode.co.uk), or a Chinese porcelain vase or lamp base from OKA, now open in Chelsea (oka. com). Paolo Moschino has Canton platters at nicholas haslam.com. Or go for a blue glaze from studio potters — Reiko Kaneko will paint you a wave mural on ceramic tiles (reikokaneko. co.uk). Explore budget blue china and glass at Habitat, Ikea and H&M, or smoky tumblers and goblets at Oliver Bonas and Graham & Green. Finish off your table setting at antiques-atlas.com for old Bristol Blue glass.