Popular blues

Enjoy the tones of sea and sky with these favourite blues!

Resene Solitude
An introverted tint of blue, cool and dreamy.

Resene Breathless
A cool blend of blue, lilac and grey with an inspirational and airy ambiance.

Resene Pattens Blue
A baby boy blue, innocent and genuine.

Resene Duck Egg Blue
A pale shell blue, crystalline and calm, reflecting winter skies over the Baltic Sea.

Resene Forecast
A pale blue almost grey, a friend to fishers.

Resene Dusted Blue
A pale grey, bleached by age and slightly blue in mood.

Resene Neutral Bay
A smoke grey haze with blue.

Resene Regent Grey
A Franciscan friar grey, contemplative and serious.

Resene Raven
A mysterious and timeless grey blue, like Cape Cod cottages.

Resene Shuttle Grey
An industrial determined grey well suited to an urban environment.

Resene Hammerhead
A steely grey blue.

Resene Rhino
A smoky grey blue with a slight purple edge, changes shade in differing lights.

Resene New Denim Blue
A charcoal blue.

Resene High Tide
A deep charcoal blue, inky and buoyant.

Resene Coast
A stark blue, what one would expect to find on the Southern Wairarapa coastline.

Resene Dark Knight
A strong slate blue, moody and malevolent.

Resene Jaguar
A sophisticated and dramatic inky colour.

Resene Indian Ink
A blackened blue, reminiscent of a night without moonlight.

Resene Bunting
A deep navy school blazer blue that goes even deeper than classic navy.

Resene Blue Night
A dark blue with a feeling of depth and infinity.

A touch of the blues

Blue is a colour found in nature – the soft blues of early morning skies, deep indigo blues of the shadows on hills, cornflower blue of flowers, sparkling blues of summer seas and every variation of blue from ivy blue through to storm-cloud grey blue and midnight navy.

Sandy beiges and blue conjure up visions of the seaside; the natural combination of leaf greens and blues offset each other well, as do purple blues and lime. Combined with white it brings to mind Chinese pottery painted with animals or birds.

Though blue comes from the cool side of the colour wheel it need not be a cold decorating colour. The dark shades can bring warmth to a room scheme, while the paler blues can create a softly harmonious look that is almost neutral. Blues that contain an amount of red are warmer than those containing yellow.

Blue is a relaxing colour, suggesting harmony and peace, which makes it a good choice for a bedroom or study. Its natural relationship to water makes it a popular choice for a bathroom. It is also a suitable choice in rooms that with full sun as it has a low reflectance value that diffuses bright sun.

Throughout history, blue has been widely used as the dyes were easily obtained. The indigo plant produces a blue of depth and character. Woad is another plant-based dye used by the ancient Britons to colour cloth and their bodies! The most costly blue was obtained by crushing the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli and was used in paintings of a religious nature and frescoes during the Renaissance.

As an exercise, can you identify a Scandinavian blue, a Persian blue, a French blue, a Shaker blue, or a Wedgewood blue? By identifying these blues you can create many different colour schemes. Think of the effect you wish to create – blue is coolest with greens, warmest with peach, terracotta, primrose or buttery yellows, crispest with white, boldest with reds, heavenly with metallics and softly placid with baby-cheek pink – and use this as the basis of your colour scheme.

Decorating with blues...

Always try out your colours using a Resene testpot in the area you plan to paint before you start your painting project – that’s the best way to confirm the colour looks right before you start painting. You can also can order drawdowns online.

Resene has changed the way it measures and creates electronic colours – read more

Resene Paints (Australia) Limited – www.resene.com