Get your home in a blue mood

Use this trending color on walls, floors, pillows, rugs — the possibilities are as broad as the sky

When the Pantone Color Institute announced Classic Blue as Color of the Year for 2020, its executive director, Leatrice Eiseman, described it as “a boundless blue, evocative of the vast and infinite evening sky.” The deep blue shade instills calm and constancy, which makes it a per fect color to incorporate in your home.

There are a multitude of ways you can use the hue to give your nest an updated look. Do you want to make a big statement? Or take a more subtle approach? Try these true blue tips:

How to go big

First, decide where you want to add some blue to your home. Do you want to make it a prominent color in a room, like your kitchen?

“If your cabinets are a wood color or white, then paint the island a deep blue,” said Leah Gomberg, an interior designer and home stager who owns Sweet Life By Design in Maplewood, N.J. Or, paint the cabinets blue and keep ever ything else white.

In the dining room, if you have white trim and a decorative chair rail, Gomberg suggests doing them in a crisp white and painting the walls a deep blue, like Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy.

Note of caution: If you have dark walls, be sure to have enough lighting in the room, so the space isn’t so dark. Installing bright bulbs in lighting fixtures will help.

Interested in a blue kitchen floor? Because it will likely get a lot of traffic, you have to figure out how to make it durable, Gomberg said. A smart solution: Add a top coat of polyurethane after painting the floor.

How to be subtle

You can still be par t of the blue craze in less ostentatious ways, such as creating an accent wall in your bedroom.

“The accent wall should be the one behind the headboard,” Gomberg said. “That will balance the room.”

Displaying accessories in a deep blue shade also works. In a kitchen, consider dark blue appliances or a backsplash; in the bedroom, think comforter or drapes. For the living room, choose pillows, a rug or books with blue covers.

Avoid solid blue when it comes to soft accessories such as pillows and rugs — they’ll pop more if there’s an additional color or two. Gomberg suggests making a pattern part of the look, on the pillow or rug, to add texture to the look.

Other colors to pair with deep blue

A dark shade of blue could be considered neutral since it goes well with many other colors besides white, including gray, silver and gold. For an unexpected hit of color, go for orange.

GETTY IMAGES Classic Blue, named Pantone’s 2020 Color of the Year, instills calm and can be incorporated into ever y room.