Decorating with Blue, Make that French Blue

Blue is just one of those peaceful, dreamy colors. Maybe this is why so many people use blue in their kitchens and bedrooms. And if you are looking to achieve that French County look, blue is a staple in this style of decor. If you are looking to add some blue to your own home, House Beautiful has a great series up on their site that may speak to you love if you adore the color blue.

Here is a little excerpt from Douglas Brenner’s interview. You can read the entire interview here.

DOUGLAS BRENNER: This whole place has an American-in-Europe mood. It’s sort of Henry Jamesian–meditative, elusive, romantic. The Paris of The Ambassadors meets the Venice of The Wings of the Dove.

JULIE WATKINS BAKER: Calmness, a serenity, is what we were going for, and a feeling of soul and grace and history. Understated design is a signature of my mother, Babs Watkins. She has a great color sense. The palette here is so subtle–all these soft blues and platinum grays.

You look at the living room and think ‘blue,’ but then you look closer and say, ‘Wait a minute…just where is the color?’

There’s that blue-painted cabinet, some blue in the carpet, blue glass boxes on the table, but not much more. You don’t need much blue for a whole room to seem blue.

Are blues hard to get right?

Really hard. We agonize over them. They change with the context, because other colors affect them dramatically. Natural wood warms them up, silver cools them down, white brightens them.

Light seems to bounce and flow everywhere–silvery chandeliers, luminous fabrics. I can’t take my eyes off those sexy curtains.

They’re ball gowns! We use that fabric a lot. It’s duchesse satin, and it’s got real weight and an iridescence that’s very understated, and it just hangs beautifully. We have it lined, and the whole point is for it to look like a ball gown that’s slightly rumpled–one you had a really good time in. Curtains should never be stiff. They’ve got to look like they’ve been opened and closed and touched. These are slightly too long, but not draggy and contrived. Nobody’s going to trip over them. It’s just enough to hold them out and rumple them up a little bit.

Interior design by BABS WATKINS, JULIE WATKINS BAKER & ELEANOR CUMMINGS

Interview by DOUGLAS BRENNER

Photographs by KERRI MCCAFFETY

PRODUCED BY DAVID M. MURPHY

STYLIST GREGORY BISSONNETTE