A shade of light blue related to grayish nuances. A somewhat dull and sober light blue. This is the color that flourishes in the interior design and decoration headlines, and also the inspiration profiles for the home on social networks, which lately attest to a solid transformation in the aesthetic paradigm. Although not long ago the norm was to aspire to neutral and minimalist homes, with clear palettes and space for natural fibers and textures, now the eccentricity of the inhabitant of the house, their personality, becomes the epicenter of much more saturated and even baroque spaces. , objects and their shapes gain prominence, and the season is also open to experimenting with color.
This transformation is seen in the viral TikTok trend called the unexpected red theory; in the success of greenish tones for very modern homes; in bathrooms that come out of the canon, in force for a long time, which was called clinical bathroom; and also in how more and more people dare to paint the ceilings of some of their rooms. The powder blue or dusty blue It makes its way through trends in a way that is difficult to ignore, providing a colorful but still discreet touch, not too strident, to provide a chromatic common thread to the interior of homes.
In his essay Color: History of the color palette, British journalist Victoria Finlay quotes the 19th century scientist John Tyndall, a great fan of walking under the Alpine sky during his holidays. “Think of an ocean,” Finlay recalls, transposing Tyndall’s words in the School of Mines, “and of the waves crashing against the coast. If they encounter a huge cliff, the waves stop; if they encounter a rock, it only affects the smallest waves; while a pebble only alters the course of the smallest waves that sweep the beach. This is what happens with sunlight. As they pass through the atmosphere, the largest wavelengths—the red ones—are usually unaffected, and only the smallest ones—the blue and violet ones—are what scatter the tiny, pebble-like molecules from the sky, giving the eye human the sensation of blue.” Those who want to capture the light in their home decide on this shade, framed in a trend with certain aristocratic overtones.
While houses gain personality and color and the search for unique spaces through objects and furniture is reinforced, two more or less new aesthetic currents sweep away the reign of neutral and austere homes. What is more or less new is because they draw directly from the past. It is classic Parisian design and English country style. This is reflected in the 2024 trends report from the interior design platform Apartment Therapy. Both styles, quite classic, bring with them color experiments for the rooms in which the dusty blue has a chance to shine.
In the Briller Viertel neighborhood of Wuppertal, Germany, Boss design team leader Dennis von Nazareth opts for powder blue walls for an apartment full of design statements, as seen in his posts on Instagram. He is also chosen (and shown) by the French interior designer Marianne Evennou for a house in which she combines powder blue with another light, muted pink. Two examples of how this tone adapts to apartments with classic architectural elements.
For her part, in Nashville, interior designer Stephanie Sabbe adopts the English countryside aesthetic to translate it into a workspace in which blue comes from the painted wood panels and the window frame, fused to the same powder blue, which contrasts in a sophisticated way with the mahogany desk. The window frames (coordinated with a bench against the dining room wall) were also the bet of the interior designer Pandora Taylor in the house of some clients in Herne Hill, in London. Some elements such as the botanical motifs on the wallpaper on the walls reinforce this aesthetic effect, which interior stylist Lonika Chande also adds to in a bathroom, based on the tiled tiles on the walls, which in turn modernize and soften a classic and slightly overloaded style, with a bathtub with legs and roll top included. Chande’s chromatic technique consists of seasoning the clarity of this blue with red contrasts. Which opens up a legitimate dilemma: how to combine this tone of blue with the rest of the elements in the house.
Materials and colors to play with powder blue
The Parisian style and the English country house style, perhaps because they are excessively classic, do not convince everyone. The best way to know how to combine this special color is to decipher its chromatic properties. The complementary color of blue is orange. Soft shades of blue combine well with warmer, warmer shades. Not only orange, but also red or, when it comes to materials, its combination with mahogany textures or terracotta tones. This is what the YSG architecture studio achieved in Fitzroy North (Australia), by opting for this same tone of blue for the tiles of a fully tiled bathtub inspired by hammam baths, providing a contrast with terracotta red details.
As it is a soft color, powder blue can have the luxury of functioning as a chromatic base on which to build the style of a specific room or home. It is the strategy that Hanna Li’s interior studio has chosen, in a house in a neighborhood of Los Angeles. The choice has been to go for a complete fade to a muted light blue on the walls and bookcases, offering an element that acts as a common thread of the space, and on which wood textures, natural fibers in some details, and objects in ceramic or decorative in which off-white predominates.
Neutral colors make good dance partners for this shade of blue, but its styling possibilities allow for surprises. Interior designer Regan Baker, in a house in Northern California, opts for a kitchen with powder blue tiles, with the built-in extractor hood painted in the same color, but applies a very common contrast to modernize and give interest to this color that For some tastes it can be, on its own, childish or decaffeinated. Her trick is to combine it with an electric blue. Klein blue or majorelle blue—which she once won over from designer Yves Saint Laurent during his stay in Morocco—offer a chromatic contrast that adds interest and a little more energy to the room.
Precisely its softness makes it versatile when it comes to entering into dialogue with other tones or textures. Powder blue is one more idea that adds to the catalog of current color options and trends which, it must be noted, is much broader and more interesting than it was a short time ago.
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