How to decorate with deep, dark blue

As an interior designer, I am always falling in love with the rooms or products I design. My current project is always my favourite project (most designers will tell you that) and at the moment, I'm in love with blue... the darker, the deeper, the better. It's a fantastic colour and adds drama and intrigue to a room. And guess what, I am designing a room with all shades of deep, dark blue... and it looks gorgeous. On Friday, I will share the design plan I have prepared and why it has ignited my love of blue.

Before you start using deep blues, ensure you include plenty of lighting in your rooms; you may be lucky enough to have floor to ceiling windows but for those who don't, just add plenty of pool lighting. By this, I mean table lamps, floor lamps, wall lights, cool pendants and even candles... all will glow in an inky blue room and dazzle. White looks great and will give a contemporary vibe but I love to use accents of charcoal and black, shimmering metallics, browns and caramel tones, and even hot punchy red.

Blues work in any room and look amazing in minimalist or maximalist houses and with either classic or contemporary styling. It's a soothing, calming and incredibly versatile colour and is even given credit to bestow feelings of well being.

Kitchens:

How fab do these kitchens look in shades of blue? I totally love them. A mix of natural wood adds an earthiness to the blues and accents of black and white add punch. Brass taps deliver a pizzazz of metallic sheen while aged concrete floors and an industrial stool enhance a relaxed vintage decor.

Bathrooms:

The use of blue in these two bathrooms is to die for. Blue is the most commonly used colour in a bathroom (for it's obvious aquatic connection) and most people would plump for a dreary pale, watery tone. Not so here... and this is a lesson in how to be bold and daring in a room that traditionally needs as much 'natural' light as possible. The black blue shade is lifted by a pair of sculpted white basins with gold accessories that shine against the colour. Gold is a great foil for blues. Similarly in the second bathroom image, the gold enhances a warmer blue wall. Look at the difference in wall finish in these two rooms - one matte and one with a lustrous, glossy light reflective finish. It looks incredible!

Living Room

Looking lovely in living rooms, blue adds real drama in these images. The inky tones sit well with contemporary furnishings -  low black furniture is laden with modern, monochromatic prints, sofas piled with funky cushions and black industrial wall lights with touches of stand out white to lift the room. It is triumphant! And such a contrast to the other living room with it's cosy, super cool seaside vibe (note... no bland white walls with obvious dashes of boring watery blue and ubiquitous seashells in sight). Just glorious, confident, grown up, textural, earthy layers of blue on blue. See how using oatmeal/creamy tones instead of white gives a softer more relaxed feel. White demands to be noticed while the creamier tones blend and soften.

Bedrooms:
Now I think bedrooms should be dark and daring... provided you have lots of gorgeous light. White, light filled bedrooms just don't do it for me. And they don't come much better that these rooms! Delicious and daring inky deep blue walls are given luscious, grown up glamour by adding accents in caramel and gold tones (loving the mural of the horses). Adding statement, oversized pendants (we have a huge Normann Copenhagen one over our bed) for instant, task lighting but crucially, on a dimmer so you can cosy up the room gives focus but see also how a vintage table lamp imparts a welcoming glow? It's absolutely lovely.

So, now you know how to do it, grab a brush, some deep inky blue paint and give your rooms some TLC! Oh, and my current favourite shades? Farrow & Ball's Black Blue and Hague Blue, Little Greene's Deep Space Blue and Sanderson's Indigo Blue.

Image credits:
Plain English, Pandas House.