The Magic of Color: Slate Blue
Color. Our world is saturated with it, from the bright yellow of fresh daffodils to the dark rusty red of an exposed brick wall; color can change the whole look of a room.
In Designer Monthly's The Magic of Color, we look at a different color each month. As you learn in the first Unit of the Sheffield Complete Course in Interior Design, a designer has available an infinite range of hues, both natural and man-made. When painting, you can combine colors to form other colors, in an endless array of shades. Manufacturers of everything from throw pillows to lampshades can also produce this vast palette. And then you must also consider the artwork that will hang in the rooms you design.
Welcome to the world of color. Everywhere we turn, there it is the deep indigo blue of a favorite old sweater, the glossy green of rhododendron leaves in a rainstorm, the rich brown of the soil as you begin to plant your spring flowers. We hope you'll join us each month on this exciting journey, as we take a close look at a color we love.
When you think of "slate" chances are that first off, you think of the stone and not the color. Slate is most popularly used outdoors, with slate paving stones lending an air of elegance to an outdoor area, making a patio more sophisticated than wood or brick will. It's also popular because of its texture; it isn't as rough as brick, for example, and yet has a rippled effect as well that lends texture to flooring.
Slate, the stone, is also used in some indoor flooring. It can be great in a front hall or kitchen, where high traffic means you want something that cleans up easily.
The color of slate is equally elegant, and it's versatile, too. Compare these two photos. In the first, shown above, we see slate used in the leather covering the easy chair and ottoman in the foreground, and it's picked up again in the pattern on the sofa and the throw pillow.
Sheffield Top Tip: The use of slate here keeps the room from being too heavily pastel, and it brings in a more sophisticated mood to the room. This tone is balanced by the more rustic brick fireplace you can see to the left of the room. This room, then, is comfortable enough for a family to tumble into at the end of the day, but it's sophisticated enough for entertaining guests.
In the next photo we see a switch. Here, the fireplace facing is done in slate tile with plaster sides complete with molding. It would be hard to find a more elegant-looking fireplace than this one; it looks as if it belongs in a gracious older home.
But the furniture in this room balances this sophistication, keeping the room from becoming stuffy or looking "over done." The slate sofa, of course, continues to emphasize the elegance, but this is undercut by the plaid sofa, the floral window valence, and the rustic carved duck by the fireplace.
These elements are brought together by the repetition of the slate, found in the stripe on the sofa, the flowers on the valence, and the painting over the fireplace.
If you don't want to use slate as the dominant color in a room but you'd like to play with it a bit, try a pair of checked slate sheets for a tidy, masculine look in a guest room.
Slate works nicely with other shades of blue, and it also works well when complemented by deep red or, as you can see in the living room photos, by pastel pinks and yellows.
A little slate – whether in stone flooring or the softest upholstered furniture – can go a long way to making your home more sophisticated.
Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our interior design and wedding and event planning distance education courses.
Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter and receive updates when there are new design articles on this website.
Back to Sheffield Designer Monthly
