Decorating in blue

The spectrum of blue colors give you endless possibilities for home decor. Ranging from navy to the palest pastel, blue offers a variety of options to improve your decor.

Sapphire blue is the color of the 5th chakra, in the Indian view of the spiritual body. The 5th charkra represents communication. By decorating with sapphire blue, you support your ability to articulate clearly and express yourself authentically. Like the clear blue waters of an oasis pool, or a clear blue sky on a perfect day, sapphire blue will give your living space a sense of open depth and clarity, creating the right environment for effective and meaningful exchanges of ideas, and purely reverberating prayer.

Sapphire blue looks beautiful in blown or stained glass; in drinking glasses; bowls; mobiles; and in sheer fabric that floats on breezes as drapes, table cloths, wound around pillars, or lacing the backs of chairs. Wall tapestries and oriental carpets may use sapphire blue as a field or as an accent in a floral motif.

The darker blues like midnight and navy would be perfect for decorating the doorway and entrance to your home, according to Feng Shui. In this traditional Chinese approach, blue and black represent water, and having the water element symbolically flow into your home is auspicious because it represents the in-flowing of opportunities and blessings to enhance your career and life path.

Pastel blues with floral motifs were popularized by the oriental movement that branched out of the Rococo period of home decor. Europeans had become enthralled with imported goods from China, and began manufacturing their own imitations of Chinese silk paintings. Prints that were once found on pastel blue wall paper with predominantly pink flowers on winding green stems and vines in a curvilinear motif, have been copied to nearly turquoise blue upholstery fabrics to revive the Cinophile Rococo look in a fashionable modern context. Bedspreads, ottomans, and chairs done in this fabric turn a bedroom into a romantic and optimistic refuge.

In Swedish decor, very pale blue is sometimes used as a nearly white paint for walls and furniture. Danish porcelain tea sets have a royal blue motif on a white back ground, and look lovely in display cabinets and on table settings.

Royal blue jewel tones are great for adding drama to a room. Royal blue velvet, for instance, adds a Victorian accent that can be very elegant and regal, like Buckingham Palace, or mysterious and magical, like Harry Potter's Hogwarts, or Merlin's Camelot.

With all of these wonderful choices, you are sure to have spectacular results when you decorate with blue.