Blue is a hugely popular color for its aesthetically pleasing shades and calming tone. It comes as no surprise that many people opt to utilize blue within the interior decor of their home.
However, it can be a difficult color to match with.
In general, blue looks best when paired with neutral colors such as whites and beiges. Wood finishes can also compliment blue with their soft beige or tan hues.
There are a variety of options available: for a bolder look, you could add a contrasting splash of yellow. Alternatively, combine denim blue with its natural counterpart, orange, for a unique and vibrant style.
Read on to find the answers to all of your cabinetry questions. Which colors match blue walls the best?
Should your cabinets be lighter or darker than the walls?
And what exactly is the world’s most relaxing color?
Which Colors Match With Blue?
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Blue is the color of the sky and the ocean; with so much blue in the natural world around us, it’s no wonder that we see it as a peaceful and tranquil color that we’d like to absorb into our homes.
Blue and white remain as one of the most popular color pairings in the world. Having the ability to adapt to traditional or modern home settings, both of these colors represent freshness and happiness and can bring a nice ambiance to your interior.
Additionally, a blue and white pairing allows a room to look bigger.
Beige is another great pairing for blue walls; utilizing a tan or sandy color can add a beachy, oceanic feeling to your living space. If opting for a shade of beige, wooden finishes can add a pleasant touch.
Gray is on-trend and the perfect complement to the blue hues of your walls. Utilizing cool undertones, gray can complement any shade of blue. To explore grey and blue combinations in greater depth, continue reading below.
Should Cabinets Be Lighter Or Darker Than Walls?
The color of your cabinets depends on the color of the surrounding walls. It’s not necessarily a matter of the cabinets being lighter or darker. Rather, the color of the cabinets should complement the walls that house them.
If your walls are dark, you will most certainly want to choose a cabinet that is of a lighter color. In contrast, if your walls are light, you can choose a variety of lighter or darker colored cabinets to enhance your setting.
When selecting a room’s color scheme, the general rule of thumb is to select one dominant primary color, whilst the remaining colors want to be fairly neutral to add an enhancement.
Whether you should select a cabinet color to match your walls or vice versa is largely a matter of choice, though it’s important to consider that whilst a wall color is very simple to change, it can be a lot more time consuming and costly to replace cabinets, so choose them wisely.
Using lighter colors can help to create a vision of space and openness. If your space doesn’t receive much sunlight, lighter colors can help to alleviate any dullness in the room.
However, if there’s an influx of light in your room and your walls are also light, you may want to select a dark tone of the cabinet to add some definition.
Colors can also affect emotions, and it’s important to consider what mood you wish to create for your space. For a chilled-out, relaxing area, choose cabinets that are a similar color to the wall but a few shades lighter or darker.
If you prefer something a bit more dramatic, mix it up with a contrasting color to create a sense of adventure.
Don’t Just Focus On The Color
Whilst the color is an integral part of your cabinetry decision, the material you choose can impact hugely on the aesthetic or feel of your living space.
Wood is the most common source for numerous reasons. It is eco-friendly and durable. It can be stained with a color of your choosing, and there is a diverse range of textures and grains available, and, once varnished, it is easy to clean and maintain.
Additionally, due to its range, wood can be incorporated in any style, from classic and cozy to modern and spacious.
The main drawback of solid wood is that it is prone to damage and infestation. To combat this, you can consider laminates. A laminate is essentially a sandwich of thin sheets of plastic resin, topped by a printed design and finished with a sturdy plastic cover.
These are much more affordable than wood, and the printed sheet allows you to select a finish resembling any material you like.
Whilst this may sound like an ideal alternative, it’s important to take into consideration that these types of products are less sustainable, largely unecological, and there is a chance that they can emit toxins. Also, if you purchase a low-quality product, the layers may start to peel away.
Instead, you can opt for a wood veneer, which is similar to a laminate but topped by a sheet of wood, making it more sustainable and ecological.
The main drawback to this option is that these products are easily damaged by sun exposure, so consider how much direct sunlight your cabinets will receive before choosing this option.
PVC encompasses sheets of polyvinyl chloride with a solid finish that is waterproof, oil-proof, and easy to maintain. These qualities make PVC a great option for your kitchen, along with the fact that it is affordable and easy to install.
Though some brands offer faux wood finishes, PVC cabinets can often lack style options. If you’re looking for something simple, this could be a good option, but other materials provide a wider variety of choices.
Finally, you can purchase metal cabinetry.
Though this is more expensive than its counterparts, it has a unique look, is strong and sturdy, and resistant to heat, humidity, and grime.
In saying this, metal tends to show up marks such as fingerprints and can require some effort to maintain.
Are Blue Kitchen Cabinets On Trend?
Whilst blue remains a hugely popular color for interior design. The kitchen may be considered a less favorable location due to the appetite-suppressing nature of this shade.
Most blue kitchen cabinets aren’t a primary shade of blue, rather a gray-blue infusion to maintain more neutrality. With bold contrasts beginning to trend, brighter shades of blue could become a fashionable addition to the kitchen.
Whilst toned down gray blues are likely to remain a staple style for many years to come, bright, bold blues will likely be a passing phase.
Do Blue And Gray Go Together In A Room?
Blue and gray are an ideal combination to create elegance and calm. Gray is a versatile color as its subtle hues can complement and enhance a wide variety of colors.
Whilst there is a multitude of possible combinations that will look great, it’s best to avoid any shade of gray that has a green tint as this will clash rather than compliment the blue.
When selecting your shade of gray, always check what undertones it has. As a general rule of thumb, any color that would compliment blue will work fine as your undertone, but anything that would clash will create an unbalanced look and feel to the space.
The scope of colors that compliment blue is a wide one, largely dependent on the shade of blue you opt for.
Some combinations provide a classic feel. For example, classic blue and white offer a fresh look that never goes out of style. Beige tones paired with a baby or watery blue keep the look simple and relaxed whilst adding a fresh beachy feeling to the room.
For a bolder color combination, opt for orange. As orange sits directly opposite blue on the color wheel, it is a natural complementing color that adds variation and daring to your style.
Try combining denim blue with bright orange for a visually striking room.
What Is The Most Calming Shade Of Blue?
Did you know the secret to a calming room is navy blue? These findings were concluded in part of a larger study, “The World’s Favourite Color Project.” which explored a variety of colors and the feelings they invoked within people.
Nature-based colors provide the most therapeutic level of calmness, particularly those associated with water.
Additionally, Better Homes and Gardens conducted a survey in which they found cobalt blue to be the favorite home trend.
Utilizing these shades of blue within a bathroom can create a tranquil, spa-like setting. They are also ideal for meeting spaces such as the kitchen to create a serene environment.
Decorating your interior walls in blue is likely to draw masses of compliments, but picking the perfect color to compliment it can be a challenge.
If in doubt, stick with a neutral shade that accentuates your beautiful blue without distracting attention away from this hue.
