Wild Card Wednesday Brought to You by the Color Indigo Blue, 8/15/12 Gratiana Lovelace (Post #251)

I don’t know what it is about the color blue, but I am surrounded by it at home–not the more tepid shades like robin’s egg blue or sky blue mind you, but deep and vibrant navy and indigo (left).  I suppose that you could call a deep blue my signature color–though I enjoy pale pinks and pinkish burgundy’s, and cream, too–but only for wearing.  I reserve navy blue for the artifacts of my life–evidence of traditions past down to me.

From my earliest years as a little girl I had dancing DeGas ballerinas  similar to the scene at right on my bedroom drapes with deep blue ribbons twirling round their ivory tufted tutus.  My mother also had matching bedspreads made for me with the ballerinas.  Of course as a child, I didn’t know they were DeGas ballerinas.  I just enjoyed the soft and cheerful movement they provided as my eyes glided about my bed room.    My pale pink bedroom walls were a nice complement to them.  It was definitely a little girls’ bed room.  Ha!

And then there is the crockery I have and use regularly–the soup bowls and gravy server with scenes of Holland windmills painted on them that had been my grandmothers’ dishes.  I suppose these ceramic blues instilled in me a love of navy blue against white patterns that I now find in my Finlandia blue and white serving bowl, my Willow Ware blue and white dinner plates (right), my various special plates (from Portugal and a flow blue example at left) and my blue, white and gold Royal Dalton wedding china dinner set at right.  But I only have 6 place settings of my wedding china because though I chose a lovely pattern–Princeton if you’re interested, unfortunately it is discontinued but for china wholesalers–because the dishes are too pricey to buy more.  And who entertains that preciously anymore anyway–let alone the hand washing clean up needed for such delicate items as china?   Life and sharing good times should be about people interacting, not the plates they eat off of.  Ha!  I say give me the easy cleanup of paper and plastic dinner ware any day.  Snap!

But, my blue on white color scheme doesn’t end there.  I have a lovely crystal clear glass paperweight with a deep blue swirl center.   What can I say, the blue spoke to me.  Ha!  And as you can well imagine–given my crockery tendencies–our dining room walls are a deep indigo blue, with a blue on white Finlandia type patterned drapery valance at left (from JCPenney’s).  I also have various vases, butter churn crocks, and figurines in blue and white such as the little Dutch girl in Delft Blue at right–but she is missing her hanging buckets.  And have I mentioned that I’m sitting typing this essay on a navy blue loveseat–wearing an indigo blue sun dress?  Ha!

However let me disabuse you of the notion you might have at this point that my/our living space is completely monochromatic blue.  Ha!  It is not. Our great room–not that large a room actually but the vaulted ceiling adds height, that’s just what they call the room where you spend most of your time–is in golden taupe tones.  And the third bedroom–where my grandmother’s, now my, piano sits and that opens to the great room–has a lovely pinkish burgundy carpet with gold tone taupe walls.  Our ranch style home is of the open floor plan variety, so the kitchen walls are also taupe with gold tones to effect an harmonious flow of gold toned taupe walls as a unifying feature.   So we have deep blues, pinkish burgundy, and gold accents in our various main rooms–jewel tones if you will.  Definitely not a shy color scheme, but it works–each room having accent colors to complement the dominant color in the room.  Snap!

And, wait for it.   Our master bedroom walls at left are painted a soothing pale botanical green–think hospital scrubs.  Ha!  Fooled you!    You see, my other favorite combination is a dusty mauve pink paired with a subdued pale green and ivory cream.  So, our kitchen and master bedroom really speak to my love of the softer color palette.  Ha!   I even made a curtain valance (sampled at right) for our kitchen’s sliding doors out to the deck that is a tapestry fabric of French café scenes in those colors.  And there is a pale green table cloth on our kitchen table–with pale pink silk flower garlands running along the top of the kitchen cabinets.  We have cream colored cabinets.  Think modern Country French styling.

So there you have it.  I live harmoniously in my home with the juxtaposition of bold deep blues and other jewel tones that are softened by their pale pink and green and cream counterparts elsewhere in our home.  Thinking on it now, I suppose that my preferred color choices rather reflect my own personality–bold (the blues) on the outside as needed, but soft and sentimental (pale pink and green) on the inside.  As one friend giggled when I described a flowery and romantic outfit I was wearing at the time, she called me a girly girl.  I guess I am.  I like my blue and white crockery–chipped though some of it may be by now–and the warm memories of long ago family gatherings with loved ones long gone that they evoke.  And I delight in pale pink and green and cream–with delicate flower patterns preferably.  Though, to placate my hubby, we have an occasional dose of plaid in those soft colors so that he doesn’t feel completely overwhelmed by my femininity.  Ha!  But then, my hubby rather likes that about me–my feminine side.  *wink*

So, do you have favorite colors that give you a serene feeling or recharge your batteries?  Please share.