The Unexpected Trend of Blue and Green, Part 2

When I was young, a friend's mother told me that "blue and green should never be seen without another colour in between". I was very scared of this friend's mother. So I adopted her colour philosophy and followed it religiously for 30 years.

Until now.

{Credit for above image is detailed below}

One of the wonderful things about reaching your forties is that you no longer care what people think. Nor do you heed decorating laws that don't make sense.

Look at Miles Redd, whose work is shown above. Do you think he adheres to a strange blue and green rule?

Feeling rebellious, we've started decorating our new house in exuberant shades of blue and green (cobalt, denim, kelly green, moss, even navy).  I still worry that a Colour Policeman is going to knock on our door and give us a ticket for blue-and-green misdemeanours, but apart from that we're over the moon paint can about our Pantone choices.

This is what inspired me. The colours of the gardens we saw in Connecticut on our garden tour of New England earlier this year. And also the colours of the Florida Keys a week later.

Did you hear that Madonna doesn't like hydrangeas? Good thing she's not coming on the Grand Botanica Tour in 2013, isn't it? We'd have to hit her over the head with one to show her how beautiful they are.

We're not the only ones embracing the new blue/green mood. Others are adopting the hues, too. According to House Beautiful's first Annual House Beautiful Color Report in the magazine's September issue, which was based on a survey of more than 4,000 people (including 300 interior designers), lots of people like blue and green. They even like them together.

 {Image above from House Beautiful. Interior design by Marshall Waton. }

In fact, almost a third of respondents selected blue as their favorite hue, while another 21 per cent were just as keen on green. (The rest were distracted by orange and purple; two of the hot new shades for 2013.) "We're seeing a trend toward soothing colors in the home," says House Beautiful Editor in Chief Newell Turner. "Blue and green are cool hues that imbue our living spaces with serenity. We're not surprised that the two most popular colors are restful and reassuring." {Image above from House Beautiful; image below it from Designers Guild}

Here, in tribute to two of my favourite shades, is a small post on the sophistication of this unexpectedly complementary combination.

Blue and green. They should be seen with nothing in between. Don't you agree?

{Image above is my slightly wobbly photo – I blame the wine in the rack of lamb – of Pierre's in the Florida Keys, still one of our favourite restaurants in the US.}

{Via Tricia Guild}

The London garden of designer Tricia Guild, director of Designers Guild. I've always loved this garden. Look at the beautiful cobalt blue fountain.

The chinoiserie-enhanced garden and sunroom of designer Mary McDonald.

The vegetable garden of Michael Devine.

The vegetable garden of Brooke and Steve Giannetti, of the beautiful Velvet & Linen Blog. 

The new collection of jardin-inspired fragrances from Hermès. My favourite is Un Jardin Sur Le Toit– The Garden on the Roof – which was inspired by the real rooftop garden atop Hermès' St-Honore store in Paris. Here's the packaging below. Sublime.

Nantucket in summer, one of my favourite places. Jetblue offer flights from NY for $100. It's worth it. Stay at the Veranda House Hotel. It's not blue and green, but you'll love it anyway. www.theverandahouse.com

Via House Beautiful's 'Green' issue. They could have named it the 'Green and Blue Issue'.

Ms Charlotte Moss. Another fan of green and blue.

Can you believe the dapper-ness of this distinguished gentleman? It's from a blog called 8-bit lan. Not sure what it's about, but I like his style.

Spectacular patio. Spectacular. Via Better Homes & Gardens.

Pretty. This would look gorgeous in a beach house. Via House Beautiful February 2012.

Todd and Rachel of Utah loved green and blue so much, they were married in the two colours. Photography by Jacque Lynn. Aren't those bridesmaids dresses pretty? Horizontal stripes aren't slimming, but these are gorgeous.

Kate Spade's dinnerware.

And missing the source of this, but love it anyway. (There's always one!)

How Not To Decorate (A Lesson)

I was originally going to call this post 'How To Decorate In A Day'. (Or a week.) But then I realised, with some consternation – and a small sigh of resignation – that I am a rubbish decorator. Truly. I am simply a journalist and an author. I wouldn't know how to position a cushion if you paid me to do a PhD in it.

Furthermore, with all of the turmoil of the past month (refer to post before previous one), including travelling overseas, moving house, band-aiding our family back together, and generally juggling writing, work projects and life, I haven't really had much time to think about colourways and creative spaces. In fact, I was so weary after 'decorating' our library (and I use that word loosely), that I thought about calling it a day on the interior design.

As such, our bedroom is still full of cardboard tea chests and liable to stay that way until we decide to move again. I did contemplate painting it navy, which would 'intimatise' the space (design code for making it sexier), but it's not a priority. So the aesthetic will remain 'tea-chest chic' for the moment. At least we'll have somewhere to sit. Even if we're not getting any.

So this is my warning to you all, dear readers. This is how NOT to decorate. And if you're a professional interior designer or architect, please look away now. Because the following images are liable to offend all of you with any taste. Or decency. Or indeed desire to declutter your lives. I can only apologise.

HOW NOT TO DECORATE: 

FIVE EASY STEPS

STEP ONE: Choose a colour palette and choose it quickly. I plucked out this Parisian green shade, called 'Blade', at Porter's Paints five minutes before closing time last Friday night. It looked pretty. Like Paris' Palais Royal gardens in spring. Or Ladurée's signature green boxes. It even seemed to be the same as the cover of my first bestseller La Vie Parisienne. Surely a good sign? "It'll do," I said nervously to the Porter's Paints girl. "Are you sure?" she said, questioning my judgement (and perhaps my sanity). I looked at the hundreds of other colours and felt slightly faint at the prospect of picking one. "I think so," I replied, and shrugged. That's when I knew I wasn't really a decorator. A decorator would never be this blasé.

That weekend, I slapped two coats on our new library. "What do you think?" I asked RR. "It's very green," he said in his typically understated way. (And yes, I know a great many of you abhor green. That's okay. It's not for everyone, I know.)

Here's where I painted around a big spider. This is called Arachnid Decorating.

STEP TWO: Find fabrics to match. Now 'real' decorators (professionals) don't believe in being too 'matchy-matchy'. Apparently, it's amateurish. Well, in Magazine Land we were taught that if you wanted a stylish cover you never used more than two colours, three at most. I'm going to stick with matchy-matchy, I'm afraid. Real designers, please look away, because I don't know how to decorate any other way. (And yes, I know French ticking is passé. But I love these monogrammed cushions. Perhaps nobody will notice?)

STEP THREE: Find the cheapest furniture this side of a Hard Rubbish Collection. After a month in the US and a new mortgage, we couldn't afford Moooi or Fornasetti (my favourite brands), or any other dazzling piece. So I went looking for a bargain. Fortunately, it's the end of the financial year, so places like Town & Country are having 50%-off sales. I nabbed a beautiful black library for half price. (Tax time. I tell you, it's the best time to decorate!) It was still expensive, but I wanted something to 'anchor' the room, and this handsome piece was begging to be taken home. No, not the Brazilian delivery guy. The library.

STEP FOUR: Pull out the sewing machine. My mother kindly loaned me her new sewing machine a few years ago. I haven't returned it. It's been the most useful thing in our lives since the blender. Last week, desperate to finish decorating, I whipped up some covers for a few ottomans. Slip covers. I tell you. They're the best thing ever. This was made with a remnant of Ralph Lauren pinstripe. (NB Professional decorators, please don't look too closely. There's no piping. And the ends aren't tied off.)

STEP FIVE: If in doubt, fill the room with books. The problem, is, we always forget to hide the trashy reads. We file the Fifty Shades of Grey next to the Graham Greene.

STEP SIX: Create a welcoming bar in the corner, so you can offer guests a drink upon arrival. I pinched this idea from Bunny Williams' guest house. I was in awe of her guest bar: an enormous antique table FILLED with top-shelf spirits that was conveniently placed within a few feet of the front door. "I'd like to emulate that!" I thought. But there were a few problems. I didn't have an antique sideboard. OR the budget for Chateau Lafitte. So we just have water. Or water.

STEP SEVEN: Always have a vase of flowers to scent the room. Dead tulips, such as these (above), are not recommended.

STEP EIGHT: Throw a throw or three around. They offer 'visual warmth'. Unfortunately, they're usually just for show. If guests are cold in our house, they're told to go and put a sweater on.

STEP NINE: Stack the sofa with cushions, so guests can't sit down. This discourages them from lingering too long.

STEP TEN: Clutter away. Clutter like your life depends on it. This is our entrance library before we moved in. (The furniture is the former owner's. I'm not a black leather kinda gal.) 

And this is our entrance library after...

No wonder my mother was horrified.

{Terrible photography. Had to use an old point-and-click as my SLR is dying. I think it's horrified by the interior design too.)

And lastly, a gratuitous shot of our just-washed puppies. Just because...

And one more of my study. Yes, more clutter here, I'm afraid. I need Faux Fuchsia to come and work her magic. But at least it's not green.

Armani, Gardens & A Verdant New Trend

If you're averse to green – and many people are – then look away now. I have become seriously obsessed with this fresh, sophisticated colour, and it seems I'm not the only one. {Image via Vogue Italia 2008}

Mr Armani used it for most of his recent 2012 couture collection, sending models out looking like fairies in a Cotswold garden. (Albeit very tall ones. With funny hats.)

Mr Oscar de la Renta is also fond of it (love the emerald frock with the cute turquoise heels above) – and no wonder, when his Connecticut weekender is a haven of greenery.

Mr Jeffrey Bilhuber also loves it for its therapeutic qualities. I shot his Oyster Bay / Long Island mansion two years and just photographing his kitchen garden made my heart lighter. Interestingly, Mr Bilhuber believes that green is dazzling to the complexion. "Green brings out the pink in you," he says. I believe him.

Green has integrity. Strength. Life. It speaks of new beginnings (think spring), fresh starts, growth, and hope. It elevates the spirits and brightens the heart. All of which is just what we need in this economic climate. No wonder we're all looking to it for decorating inspiration. {Images above and immediately below from a recent issue of Veranda magazine. Loved this cover. Loved it.}

I just adore it because it reminds me of gardens. Seeing it is like looking out a window to a view of spring. Nothing makes me happier.

"I love Farrow & Ball's Cooking Apple Green. I've just used it in the great room of a New England barn and the walls just pull all the green out of the landscape". Christopher Ridolfi

"Green works just as well in Palm Beach with hot pinks as in New York with black and white." DD Allen.

"I first saw [a luminous green] in the dining room of Charlotte Moss's shop, Townhouse. Trust Charlotte to know!" John Yunis 

"I just did green in a parlour in Charleston with a lot of white woodwork. Dogs love it!" Mario Buatta

"There's a cafe in Paris near the Place des Voges that has an unusual green on the walls, a kind of old-world colour that makes you feel calm. Think of a mossy garden after the rain. It would be a beautiful colour with black and white toile – or stripes." Stephen Shubel

Chair by Thibault Design

A recent advertisement from Travers.

The glorious cover of Charlotte Moss' bestselling book.

Litchfield style.

Princess Sophia of France, via Fallon Elizabeth. (A great little site.)

A modern kitchen with a traditional edge, via House Beautiful. Love the gingham ceiling.

Our Jack Russell X, Coco, at Como Park yesterday. She adores green too.

Washington Mews, New York, photographed on our recent trip. (This street is full of the prettiest houses.)

A vintage tulle gown in a SoHo, New York, store, shot on our recent trip. I loved the colour of this against the worn floorboards.

Vogue, June 1959.

The view from our sitting room. (The 'I Haven' sign is Danish for 'Out in the garden'. It's a vintage sign I picked up while visiting family in Denmark. It was only 10 kroner. I just love it.)

A corner of our new library. The Louis Vuitton poster was one of my few purchases from New York.

Another corner of our new library. More on this in the next few posts.