Blue and Brown: Outdated?
By Christa TerryAh, blue and brown. It’s a color combo I got to know while dealing with weddings, from teal and mocha to ice blue and chocolate. I’ll admit that at first I hated it because it always came off as so babyish. Then I realized that it wasn’t the combination that felt immature, but rather the specific blues and browns that are so often seen in wedding color schemes and on bridesmaid totes and shower invitations. Change the hues, and you’ve peaked my interest.
Of course, some would rightly say that this color pairing has been done to death and back again, so let’s leave it where it belongs, i.e., in history’s pages. I say that if you like it, feel free to surround yourself in it, and screw the haters. It all depends on whether you’re a slave to the latest trends — and there is nothing wrong with that! — or looking to create a living space you could see yourself occupying for at least a few years before you change it up.
If you are a fan of brown and blue, the good news is that it’s still available on everything from bedding sets to shower curtains to lighting accessories to to dog collars. And, of course, in all sorts of other places as well.
My favorite brown and blue interiors are those that are wickedly unbalanced, with either scads more blue (like this one) or an overload of brown. Yay, accent pieces and showstopping furniture!
It works either way, as you can see, especially when you’re working with a very icy light blue.
Bright blue in the furniture is an unexpected touch. I like how the two blue leather pieces are the same shade, but don’t quite match up the same way components in a set might. (via)
So what do you think? Is brown and blue so dated as to be dead? Or will it live on in more mature incarnations?
July 27th, 2009 at 10:27 am
I don’t like brown, except in wood, but I love blue, so I hate the trend, because it means whenever I find something I love in blue, it’s trimmed in brown or has brown coordinating pieces.
It’s not like it’s a color combination you’d see in nature, either. Ocean blue and the creamy tan of sand, or sky blue and the clean white of clouds…but where in nature are the dark browns with intense blues we see in these photos?
July 27th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Damn — I have a lot of blue and brown in my house, just because I love natural wood, and I love blue. It wasn’t an attempt to be trendy. All of my bathrooms have dark wood vanities, and the walls are painted a mid-tone aqua. My living room has wood floors, brown sofas (I was trying to be practical), and we went with a slate blue (with a touch of green — it’s basically a dark muted aqua) for the living room and dining room, with accents of cream to keep the room from being too dark.
Ah well, if I ever get tired of it, it IS just paint.
July 28th, 2009 at 8:38 am
but where in nature are the dark browns with intense blues we see in these photos?
Bald eagle against a robin’s egg blue sky?
February 4th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
“It’s not like it’s a color combination you’d see in nature, either”
I don’t know where you live, but where I’m from, you see this combo all the time. Bare trees in the winter silhouetted against the sky, embankments of rivers with the water passing by, blue birds or blue flowers on branches, I could go on and on.
I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, but blue and brown are two very prominent colors in nature, so your statement that it wasn’t found there just seemed incorrect to me.
February 5th, 2010 at 7:54 am
Thanks for calling me out on that, Klee! And here’s me, living right by the beach… brown sand, blue(ish) water, both right next to the sky. Funny what you don’t notice for seeing it all the time.