As we celebrated Memorial Day weekend here in the USA ( our official, un-official start of Summer, hooray!) I couldn’t help but find myself basking in our country’s national colors of red, white and blue.
Martha Stewart’s patriotic flavor
And though we may automatically think of this stunning color combination as pure ‘Americana’ ( I know I always have ) it’s actually a color scheme that we share with 27 other countries around the world -England, France, Australia…and even North Korea among them!
Red, blue and white are by far the favorite hues when it comes to representing countries- most likely due to their underlining symbolic meanings in cultures around the globe. This colorful pie chart, based on flags from around the world, is a fun look at which colors rank in popularity- I wonder if purple feels left out?
Red, white and blue is a scheme that has always been one of my favorite for home…there is just something so exciting about mixing a cool and a warm color together within the same visual space.
My own home takes it’s exterior color cues straight from this idea. The overall scheme is ‘cool’ with it’s grayish-blue siding and slate colored patio and roof – doors painted in a glossy deep, warm red help to shake the whole look up.
My exterior colors are all from Benjamin Moore, I recently “uped the red ante’ by changing my doors from Country Redwood to Classic Burgundy -a truly fabulous front door color!
Not my actual house- but this image from Behr’s inspirational site is close enough. Featured here are Behr’s Exterior Colors in Skipper 570F-5, Burnished Mahagony 160F-70 and Divine Pleasure W-B-210
Inside my house Benjamin Moore’s Covington Blue, an amazingly ‘could go anywhere’ beautiful blue from their Historical Color Collection trimmed in Linen White makes for a dreamy boy’s bedroom- this time with a worldly-splash of Moroccan Red.
Charlotte Moss used a very similar palette for her Kip’s Bay Show House living room last year
A little tweaking of hues and red, white and blue can create very different moods. These three bedrooms featuring in House Beautiful show that it’s a combination that can go from classic ( true red and navy )to eclectic ( pale blue and deep burgundy) to modern ( bright blue and a red-orange ) simply by changing the particular shade of each color.
Even when paired in adjacent rooms, the colors can work off of each other beautifully.. I love this example of a house that uses a blue-purple color on the wall leading into a kitchen that features red cabinetry.
This home and article featured in the Seattle Times Home and Garden section takes a fun look at a sophisticated scheme of red, white and blue
This blue and silvery white dining room (above) featured in Elle Decor uses a pop of Coral Red as an attention getting statement- meanwhile this mostly crimson library (below) from Southern Accents use just a touch of blue and warm white to temper it’s energy.
While this modern white room by Jonathan Adler as seen in Metropolitan Home features a red and white rug with navy and white curtains combining together as the basis for a very ‘colorful’ scene.
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