Well, we’re well overdue for another Mad About Hue round up. This time around, we’re talking all about one of my recent major color crushes: Navy Blue. I’ve been really drawn to all things Navy lately and I’ve always been a big fan of bold Navy walls. Actually, over the past week or so, I’ve been trying to connivence my BFF, Tiffany, to paint their nursery walls navy. If she has a girl, she wants to go with the ever so awesome coral and navy motiff. The room has a lot of light and I think it would look awesome with the white trim – girl or boy! Come on everyone, leave a comment and tell her to take the plunge, haha. No pressure, Tiff ; )

One of the major things I love about Navy Blue is how versatile it is. You can match it with yellow, lime green, coral, pink, black and white… the options are endless. Here are a few fun fact about navy blue:

• Navy blue got it’s name from the uniforms worn by the British Royal Navy.
• The first recorded use of “Navy Blue” as a color name was in 1840.
• The tone of Navy Blue was formulated as a Crayola color in 1958 and is actually a little brighter than the traditional Navy Blue.

Bringing navy blue in a room, whether it be through an accent chair, art or a big statement like wall color, can instantly add a soothing boldness to any room. Yeah, “soothing boldness” totally sounds like an oxymoron, but that’s the power of Navy. If you’re looking to add a subtle hint or bold hit of Navy Blue to your home, here are some of my current favorite pieces:

1 Enamel Navy Frame // 2 Melamine Ikat Dinner Plate
3 Bungalow 5 Isabella Side Table (sold out! boo!) Here’s a similar one.
4 Amy Gourd Glass Lamps // 5 Ink Blot Pillow
6 Buck Up Buttercup Print // 7 Study Wingback Chair

Top images from here, here and here.

We haven’t done a Mad About Hue post in a while (actually, since our inaugural sunshine yellow edition), but since Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, I thought it would be fun to put together a candy apple red edition. My senior project in college was a study on colors, and ever since, I’ve been really interested in the meanings and psychological effects of colors. Being an interior design enthusiast, this makes things even more fun, because if chosen carefully, the colors in a room can completely determine the overall mood.

Red, being the highest arch of the rainbow, can make a huge impact on a room’s decor – even if it’s just a touch here or there. Studies have shown that the color red encourages action and willpower – possibly making it a nice color to use in a home office if you need a little motivation to get the ball rolling on projects. (If you’re a high stress personality, though, you should know it can also cause an increase in blood pressure!) Here are a few other fun facts about red:

• Red (followed by pink) is the color most commonly associated with love and is the symbolic color of the heart.
• In graphic design, red is commonly used to attract people’s attention – especially for logos. Think Verizon, Coca-Cola, Chick-Fil-A, Red Bull, Canon, CNN, etc.
• Red can make you hungry – meaning it’s good for a kitchen. Or not, depending on the type of food you’re craving. Haha!
• In Russia, the word for red, Кра́сный, comes from the same root as the word for “beautiful”.
• There are at least 23 shades of red Crayons.
• The color red actually doesn’t make bulls mad… they’re color blind.

A pop of red in a room can go a long way in the statement department. If you’re looking to add a pop of red to your home, here are some of my favorite pieces…

1. The Best Is Yet to Come / 2. Solaria Salad Plate / 3. Classic Rain Boots
4. Wall Mirror / 5. Latte Bowls / 6. Newgate Wall Clock
7. Pleated Toss Pillow / 8. KitchenAid Mixer

Red is a great color for drawing attention to an area of your home or making a statement in an otherwise unassuming color palette. Using it smartly can completely change the look and feel of entire areas, and knowing how it can affect you can really help you find the perfect place for it.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Top images from Windsor Smith, House and Home and Design Sponge.

Out of the entire color wheel, yellow is the happiest color of them all. When I think “yellow”, my mind goes to happy things like sunshine, fresh-squeezed lemonade, sunflowers, the Yellow Brick Road on The Wizard of Oz, New York City taxis and the old school “Mellow Yellow” Gap commercial.

Yellow is known to have the ability to stimulate the nervous system, activate memory and encourage communication. Here are a few other fun facts about yellow:

• In the early 1900′s, taxi entrepreneur John D. Hertz painted his taxi cabs yellow based on a University of Chicago study saying that yellow is the color most easily seen at a distance.
• The color yellow has been known to increase the body’s metabolism.
• Pencils were originally painted yellow (back in the late 1800′s) because the best graphite came from China – where the color yellow represented royalty and respect. The manufacturers in the US painted the pencils yellow to show that their pencils were made from top-of-the-line graphite from China.
• Author Leatricce Eiseman says the color car you drive says a lot about your personality. For instance, if you drive a sunshine yellow car, that means you have a sunny disposition and are young at heart. If you drive a gold/yellow car, you’re warm and intelligent.
• The Green Lantern is scared of the color yellow. Greg was a big comic geek when he was a kid, so he thought we should throw this one in here!

Taxi cabs and the Green Lantern aside, adding yellow to any living space can add an instant dash of energy and warmth. In the past, I never used much yellow around the house. However, recentely I’ve started to notice myself gravitating toward yellow accessories here and there, like these awesome yellow dining room chairs I Instagrammed a while few weeks ago – which I’m still crushing on, by the way. If you’re looking to add a ray of sunshine to your abode, here’s some of my favorite sunny house-related pieces…

1. You Make Me Happy Print / 2. Yellow-Framed Mirror / 3. Yellow Garden Hose
4. Yellow Mini Cake Stand / 5. Caravan Dresser / 6. Masala Sheet Set
7. Numbers Birchwood Tray / 8. kMix 2-Slice Toaster

How about you? Or should I say “hue”, haha. Okay, no. That’s going a little too far. Are you a fan of yellow? Do you like it in little doses or big pops of color? Thirteen years later, does the Mellow Yellow Gap commercial still run through your mind?

Images from here.