In interior design, blue is a calm, soothing color that’s especially pleasing to the human eye. When the right shades are combined with the right lighting, blue can be an excellent choice in most rooms, but especially your living room. Here are some ideas for using blue in your living room:
1. Complementary Coloring
Bright and vibrant color schemes can be created by contrasting blue with its “complementary” colors on the opposite side of the color spectrum, which include shades of red, orange, and yellow.
2. Countering Dark Blues
Darker shades of blue and blue-gray often need a bit of balance in order to not appear too dark for the room. In other areas, “metallic” shades – which appear to shine as if from polished metal – can both complement the darker blue and improve the room’s lighting via reflection.
3. Country Blue
Country blue, similar to sky blue, is a lighter, paler shade of blue with a hint of purple, and is loved by some for its pleasant contrast with the natural greens of grass and trees outside the home.
4. Blue Framing
Adding blue to your living room doesn’t necessarily mean the walls. Lighter shades of blue are popular for door and window frames, shelves, and cabinets and are often paired with one or more appropriate shadings in the walls.
5. All Blue
Sticking with various shades of blue for the entire living room can be surprisingly effective. Shades of blue are relatively pleasing to the eye, as previously mentioned, and finding balance between multiple shades can bring the whole room together.
6. Serene Blue
Pale shades of blue are believed to be particularly effective at calming the mind; as such, using these “serene” shades in the right setting, whether in all-blue or contrasting color schemes, can contribute to the calm atmosphere of the room.
7. Saturated Blue
Meanwhile, “saturated” shades of blue are opposite from pale and more effective at drawing the eye. These provide a stronger, more vivid blue that typically reacts well to different forms of lighting and can even be used to highlight certain furniture or details of the room.