i'm obsessed with navy blue | interiors

Jul 1
2 min read

Throughout life I’ve always been drawn to certain colors. My favorite color to wear is red and my favorite color overall is orange. More often than not I lean towards warm and deeply saturated tones. I love the juxtaposition of dark vs light. White vs black, blue vs yellow, pink vs green. You get it. My go-to neutrals are warm whites, concrete grays, dusty blacks, and an under appreciated favorite, deep navy! Yes, it’s a neutral even though it’s technically blue. Fight me.

I saw a photo of navy blue Zellige tiles and realized that I have never once thought to use navy colored tile. Paint, yes. Bedding, yes. Tiles, no. My philosophy for design is to make the expensive stuff, the hard to install stuff, the kitchens and bathrooms, more neutral. Nothing is ever going to be “timeless” but I can guarantee you, a simple white bathroom is not going to age like a 60s pink tile, 70s green shag carpet, or cold millennial gray anything. (Yes, I’m calling out my generation here, even though I still love warm grays).

I keep dreaming of designing a kitchen or bar with a dark blue Zellige tile backsplash and moody, navy blue Roman Clay walls. I would pair that with warm, natural wood cabinetry and unlacquered metal accents.

The unlacquered element is quite “trendy” at the moment, but I love the look of patinated metals, like copper and bronze, so it’s a popular style I can get behind.

This was the first install I ever saw of the color “In The Navy” and I’ve loved it ever since. It is from Athena Calderone’s family room that she featured on Eye Swoon. I even bought her book, Live Beautiful, as it features this room in print.