Blue and white is a winning color combination for your space.

With spring and summer heading our way, you may have an eye toward brightening up your decor. One great way to do that is with color, and one fabulous on-trend color combination is blue and white. Blue and white conjure up images of the Mediterranean (especially of Greece), Cape Cod, and other desirous coastal locations. Adding blue and white can add a bright, cheeriness to your home and give it a relaxed air that’s both welcoming to visitors and makes for a  wonderful oasis for you.

Need to get inspired? Read on for some suggestions for adding blue and white decor elements to your space for a little color inflection. There’s no reason to reinvent the color wheel–instead, choose a color combination that has been a mainstay for thousands of years!

Blue and White Decor Ideas

1. Diamond Pattern Vase via Layla Grace

Add some sophistication with this lovely geometric-patterned vase.

2. Geometric Tablecloth via Zara Home

Here is another bold geometric design with a mind to form and function for your table.

3. Floral Pouf via CB2

With a hint of retro and a nod to modern styling, this pouf will add stylish comfort to your living room or other room.

4. Towel/Throw via Holly’s House

Is this a towel or a throw? We don’t really care because it’s awesomely bold in blue and white.

5. Wall Beads Wall Hanging via koromiko

Don’t be afraid to add color through wall hangings and other decorative accents.

6. Prisha Rug via Lulu and Georgia

This rug is simply gorgeous and will provide the ultra-chic bohemian yet elegant vibe for your space.

7. Platter via Horchow

One way to colorful accents is with serving dishes, and this hostess dish serves up some pattern and color in one.

8. Atlantic Armchair via Wayfair

Add splashes of blue and white by adding an accent chair to your existing living spaces.

9. Brewster Table Lamp via Circa Lighting

Lighting is another creative way to add color without making a big investment.

10. Japanese Print Towel Collection via Viva Terra

Inspired by traditional Japanese Komen prints, we love these printed cotton hand towels. Add them to the kitchen or bathroom for a pop of blue and white.

11. Wall Art via AllModern

Don’t forget about the walls–wall art is a great way to add visual interest to any space.

12. Bamboo Baskets via Graham and Greene

Sometimes you can creatively add color in easy ways– like with these striking bamboo baskets.

13. Paisley Tracing Wallpaper via Anthropologie

And finally, if you want to add some blue and white in a big way, then do with wallpaper or another wall covering.

Related on EcoSalon

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Spring Home Décor Ideas Inspired by Pantone’s Top 10 Colors for 2016
5 Yellow Kitchen Decor Ideas for the Color Adventurous!

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Greet spring dressed in tie dye prints that echo the hues of sea and sky.

Along with this spring’s big print trend comes a new wave of classic tie dye patterns, this time with a bend toward nature and all her glory. Tie dye in rich shades of blue echo the sea and the sky, taking you from spring into summer. Easy-to-wear, pair with closet classics like a loose-fitting white shirt.

Shabd Element Leggings
Pair these water print element tights by Shabd with a flowy white shirt for the ultimate summery look. Dress them down with TOMS or add a pair of chunky white wedge heels for a more casual evening elegance. Designer Shabd Simon-Alexander dyes all her fabric by hand in her NYC studio, and the entire line is made in New York’s Garment District.
$88, Juno & Jove 

Mujus Billy Earrings
These earrings by Mujus are the perfect complement to blue tie-dye prints. They’re made from small slices of tagua nut seeds – which are also known as vegetable ivory and are fallen seeds from a palm tree that grows in the Amazon. Local communities harvest the seeds without any damage to the rainforest and dry them for eight months before they’re made into jewelry.
$29, Mujus 

Frei Parachute Dress
The cream and gray stripe material of this dress is specially dip dyed by hand in indigo, making each piece completely unique. It’s made in Chicago using plant dyes and 100% organic cotton, sourced from mills that support farmers in the U.S. and abroad who do not use harsh pesticides on their crops.
On sale for $216, Embodies 

Anchored Blue Bracelet by Light Gives Heat
This bracelet is made using recycled paper SUUBI beads with large light blue seed beads in between. The beads are set on a wire, which allows the bracelet to wrap around the wrist for a perfect fit, or be used as a choker or anklet. Each SUUBI product is 100% unique, hand-crafted by the Suubi women in Uganda and made of recycled paper.
$15, Light Gives Heat 

Workshop Naturally Dyed Silk Scarf
This gorgeous naturally dyed 100% silk scarf will lend a light airiness to any outfit. Pair it with a long flowy dress or denim and a perfect white tee. Workshop is a shop, studio, gallery, classroom and garden housed in a hundred-year-old building in Chicago.
$90, Workshop (available in late spring)

Envirosax Surfrider Tote
Envirosax reusable bags hold 44 lbs of weight, are water resistant and roll down so they can easily be carried everywhere. This limited edition style will not only reduce plastic bag usage but help to save marine animals as well with a 50 cent donation for every set sold made to the Surfrider Foundation’s Rise Above Plastics Campaign, which aims to reduce single-use plastics in the marine environment through education and advocacy.
$27.95 (for set of three), Bright and Bold 

The post On Trend: Dipped in the Colors of Sea & Sky appeared first on EcoSalon.

Maria Moyer goes from being a brand strategist to artist while still following a sustainable map.

What happens when you pick a road and stick to it? You get good at one thing and are ready for another. So goes the life highway of Wink Communication founder Maria Moyer. We’ve been big fans of Moyer for some time having discovered her work through an inspiring New York Times article on the Bureau of Friends back in 2009.

Successfully weaving sustainability and social issues into her work as a brand strategist at Wink, Moyer is now ready to examine the life aquatic with an art exhibit titled Blue, dedicated to the complexities of ocean based on her bi-coastal life in California and New York. The collection will be open to the public September 8th, at ROGAN in New York City and her pieces can be seen indefinitely  at BDDW.

“The collection is really a moment of reflection for me,” says Moyer, who has always lived by the ocean, having grown up in Southern California.

She says on her site that her childhood permitted frequent access to ocean landscapes and creatures, citing even at age 11, “while other kids played with dolls and Lego sets,” Moyer had an opportunity—under the watchful eye of a professor—to dissect a beached 18-foot squid. Years later, while her friends bought Eurail passes for trips abroad, she ventured farther into the Pacific, backpacking through remote areas of the Hawaiian Islands.

Susan Casey, O Magazine Editor-in-Chief and bestselling author of The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean and The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks, says Moyer’s work is a “gorgeous blend of sensitivity and sensibility; she never fails to spot the beauty of the natural world—even if it’s hidden 20,000 leagues beneath the sea. But it’s one thing to identify the sublime essence of, say, zooplankton or roses, and another thing to translate it into exquisite forms. For Maria, the former invariably leads to the latter.  There is no better word I can think of to describe her unique mix of whimsy, sophistication, and science than: delightful.”

While you can currently see some of Moyer’s art at BDDW in New York City, on September 7th, Bowery based fashion label ROGAN will host an invite only “cultural cross-roads of surf, fashion, arts and music in NYC creating a movement inspired by city and ocean.” ROGAN has invited friends to collaborate and create one-of-a-kind pieces and limited edition capsule collections for ROGAN VS. LOOMSTATE-SRF CTY, to be sold exclusively at the ROGAN store. The Blue collection will open to the public on September 8th, with 10% of all sales benefiting Waves for Water.

Julie Gilhart (with Anna Wintour) wearing Moyer’s Circle and Swirl necklace.

We were lucky to catch up with Moyer this week to ask a few questions about her collection and the inspiration behind it.

Here’s what she had to say.

One part of your life deals with helping others to set communication strategy and to develop clear messages (Wink Communication), the other asks you to create and tell the world who YOU are and what’s important to you through your art. Is this a challenge for you, or do they compliment each other?

I’m so glad you asked this question. It’s a good one. The answer: Both. Trying to do both is both a challenge AND these roles compliment each other. I want to be good at both. Making porcelain objects or creating things from wood is a great joy. It’s also intellectually and physically challenging. At the same time, it is somewhat solitary and a little self-absorbing as I persist in getting an idea across, or in my attempt to get a specific result from the material. On the other hand, my consulting practice is highly collaborative and in service to a person or an organization, many of whom are in pursuit of a greater good themselves. My work with Yves Behar, for example. Both compliment each other as they are the social and solitary parts of me. The challenge is time management. Isn’t it always?

“Untitled,” Unglazed stoneware frames (this piece contains 12 frames), sand, feathers, a eucalyptus leaf, a skate egg case, seaweed, and surf wax remnants.

Your Southern California childhood had a direct effect on your appreciation for ocean. Of all aspects of life lived by the ocean, why go for promoting “the tiny plants and animals at the foundation of the Earth’s food chain?”

Have you seen photos of plankton under a microscope? They are gorgeous. I will have a life-time of inspiration from them alone. Many of them come with a silica-based armor (not unlike porcelain) that protects them from predators – a most complex and miraculous architecture. If their beauty doesn’t get your attention, the facts might: Phytoplankton, including algae, sink more carbon than our Earth’s forests and they are also, as you said, a huge part of the world’s food chain. Beauty and power.
To know them is to LOVE them.

Temporary Bliss Bird Vessel (and necklace). Stoneware, unglazed porcelain and (azo, chromium and lead-free) leather cord. Available at BDDW in NYC.

What’s your favorite piece and why?

More than the resulting object itself, the process of making them is what makes something a favorite. It’s tough to choose between them. I’m very excited about a recent group that I call ‘vacuoles.’ They are in the “Blue” collection that I just (today) finished installing at Rogan in NYC. I also love and might not be able to part with an untitled wall installation at Rogan; it’s a bi-coastal archive of beach ephemera; a personal, natural-history journal. A lot of wonderful people in my life were involved in making this work. I had to get friends from all over to contribute sand from ‘my’ beaches. And I love a piece at BDDW that is a bird vessel.

Temporary Bliss Bird Vessel. Stoneware, unglazed porcelain and (azo, chromium and lead-free) leather cord. Available at BDDW in NYC.

Here’s a preview of more art from Blue at ROGAN as well as what you can find at BDDW.

Diatom. Unglazed porcelain. Approximately 6″ diameter.

Porcelain Breast Plate, (azo, chromium and lead free) leather cord.

Box of Hours. Stoneware and porcelain.

Blue Tab Necklace for ROGAN. Porcelain dipped in blue wash, (azo, chromium and lead free) leather cord. Various size and shapes.

Top image by Leslie Williamson

The post Maria Moyer Dives Deep Into the Blue and Surfaces With an Exhibit appeared first on EcoSalon.

Plunge into a gorgeous case of the blues as the Chromatic Theology series continues.

Each post in this series explores an individual hue, but the characteristics of the topic color can be translated into tints and shades. Keep in mind that the effects and emotions we discuss are most prominent and intense in pure, saturated color. To some extent, the distinctive attributes of blue will be present in color variations – navy, cerulean, peacock, indigo, blueberry, aegean, etc. 

BLUE is the coldest color (for more on warm and cool colors – devour this post). Blue demonstrates intense relaxation, denoting simplicity, purity, dignity, and truth. This hue is frequently coupled with intellectual activity; blue is contemplative, thought provoking, and meditative. Saturated or bright, blue can be lively without tension. Blue reflects the calm expansiveness and subtle movement of the sky and ocean. Light tints (robins egg and ice blue) express soothing tranquility balanced with quiet optimism. Darker shades (deep navy and indigo) frequently have a dignified and undeniable presence – sophisticated, heavy, and potentially depressing; these dark shades of blue are often associated with authority, having official implications. Pair regal shades of deep blue with crisp light neutrals to infuse a hint of optimism.

Come back next week for a dose of glamor and drama – violet.

Want to get acquainted with the rest of the rainbow? Feast your baby blues (or sultry hazels) on the rest of the series with these previous posts.

(Photographs from Lonny, A Punch of Color, Michael Eastman, and A Perfect Gray.)

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