Color Guide: How to Use Light Blue
Whether you call it powder, sky or baby blue, this ultratraditional color lends fresh-faced appeal
Light blue, in its many variations, is one of the most classic decorating colors and appears in traditional motifs dating back thousands of years.
Today's light blue goes by many names: baby blue, powder blue, angel blue. Whatever you call it, light blue is calming and easy on the eye. It's the color of a spring sky and clear seas. It's the soft sigh of the color wheel.
Although they vary greatly in hue and tone, traditional light blues are true blues without the obvious yellows and greens in turquoise and teal or the grays in slate.
On walls, they have a softening effect, which makes them a popular choice for bedrooms and bathrooms. Although it's rare in modern design, light blue can be used as a neutral backdrop for eclectic, midcentury-inspired and modern designs. But it's most often used in traditional and Colonial designs.
It pairs well with bright whites, beiges, golds and yellows.
Today's light blue goes by many names: baby blue, powder blue, angel blue. Whatever you call it, light blue is calming and easy on the eye. It's the color of a spring sky and clear seas. It's the soft sigh of the color wheel.
Although they vary greatly in hue and tone, traditional light blues are true blues without the obvious yellows and greens in turquoise and teal or the grays in slate.
On walls, they have a softening effect, which makes them a popular choice for bedrooms and bathrooms. Although it's rare in modern design, light blue can be used as a neutral backdrop for eclectic, midcentury-inspired and modern designs. But it's most often used in traditional and Colonial designs.
It pairs well with bright whites, beiges, golds and yellows.
A very traditional light blue softens this white and gray bathroom and makes it seem both welcoming and formal.
Light blue and billowy white are the colors of dreams (or at least of the sky and clouds). There is something feminine and soothing about this combo.
Work with an interior designer to create a serene sleeping space
Work with an interior designer to create a serene sleeping space
Light blue bedrooms don't have to be frilly, but they will always have a touch of the traditional about them.
Here, light blue provides the whimsy in a cheerful but quite traditional room. See how great it looks with the gold frame and the beige sofa? It’s a match made in heaven.
Light blue stretches its modern muscles in this space. This is about as starkly modern as this color gets.
Here's another go at modern style using light blue (though these hues edge closer to slate and turquoise than they do to true light blue).
Light blue is the go-to color in beach decor. Blue, beige and white equal sky, sand and spray.
This eclectic light blue room combines traditional lines and shapes with a bit of wild color. Note that everything aside from the orange velvet chaise lounge is white, beige or black, allowing the patterned paper and chaise to take center stage.
Here's a crisper, more modern take on the light blue and orange combo.
Light blue is a popular Colonial color, blending well with bright white trim and gold-tone wood floors.
Find a local hardwood flooring installer
Find a local hardwood flooring installer
A handful of light blues suit this Colonial dining room perfectly.
A light blue kitchen just says country, even its updated incarnation. I'll bet whoever lives here can bake a mean cherry pie.
Read on for our favorite light blue paint picks.
Read on for our favorite light blue paint picks.