The House of Blues

When Robin Dow, CEO of Galahad Metals Inc. called me to help choose colours for his new house in West Vancouver, I immediately tried to talk him out of all the blue grays he showed me. In fact I’m pretty sure I can only take credit for one blue in the whole entire house, he chose the rest of them. I just consulted on where they would look the best and showed him all the options.

Photos by Maria Killam

I have seen way too many battleship gray houses in my time so I automatically steer away from the coldest blue grays in the deck that I suddenly found myself looking at during this consultation. Robin’s house is located very close to the water and this is the view from his living room. That is Stanley Park and you can see the city behind it. In actual fact the view relates really well to the colours we ended up with.

By the way the colour in the bedroom above is BM 1641 Blue Porcelain. I stood in there for 5 minutes when I toured the house afterwards I loved it so much. Robin picked it from the BM colour viewer on-line one evening when he was watching the sunset from his hotel room prior to taking possession of the house.

This is the living room with another sitting area on the other side of the arched opening which is where his home office will be located. He wanted the dark blue to start on the window wall but with so much light coming through I recommended he keep the darker colour on the fireplace wall. Otherwise it creates too much contrast when you are looking towards the windows. And is another reason why dark colours also work really well in darker spaces.

The accent wall is 2129-30 Blue Note and the lighter blue is 2134-50 Gull Wing Gray.

Here’s the view (above) into what will be Robin’s office.

HC-159 Phillipsburg Blue on the left and in the back bedroom and the rest of the hallway is 2134-50 Gull Wing Gray.

This is the kitchen dining area and it’s also 2134-50

The entry and stairwell you can see the darker blue (this view is still from the kitchen). There was a renovation still in process which is why you are seeing only strategically photographed walls.

This basement bedroom is HC-159.

And here’s another photo of the stunning view from the master bedroom!

The lesson of the day? Context is everything. Never judge a blue gray too harshly and don’t let your colour bias kill off an entire palette of colours. Robin said the part of the consult that was valuable to him was the process of walking through all the other possibilities that I presented. It helped him see that the colours he loved would work and this way he wasn’t making the decisions inside a vacuum.

Speaking of gray, Joni from Cote de Texas just dedicated an entire lengthy and always well-researched post to gray. Check it out here. My favourite photo from her post is this one:

Interior design by Gerrie Bremermann

Is gray the new brown or what? Are you in love with gray yet?

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me for on-line or in-person decorating and colour.

Related posts:

Colour is Context

What Everyone should know about Gray

White-on-Gray-on-White by Kelly Deck

New to this Blog? Click here ; Subscribe to my free Monthly Newsletter; Become a True Colour Expert