Caribbean blues…

I envy those of you on the east coast, who can hop down to St. Barth and the other Caribbean islands with such ease. I’m not trying to sing the blues here, I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit this island that I have heard so much about over the years. But, from the west coast, it’s an effort to get to this little bit of paradise. Thankfully, the gorgeous shades of blue that welcomed us made it all worthwhile. 

Speaking of blues, and colors, did you know that Benjamin Moore has a “color catcher” app you can download to help you find paint colors to match colors in photos you take with your phone? I tried it out on some of my shots from this trip and found some beautiful shades, read on for the details.

But first of all, back to the trip, in case any of you west coast readers are thinking of doing a similar adventure… it seems the quickest route to the Caribbean from the west starts with a late night flight into the southeast or east coast that lands in the wee hours of the next morning {we flew into Charlotte, NC}. Once in Charlotte we zombied around the airport for a few hours, waiting for our connecting flight and trying to decide if we should try to sleep or just have a coffee and power through. In my fuzzy, sleep deprived state, I ended up doing a little of both. Next, we took a three hour flight to St. Martin {SXM} an island which is interestingly half French and half “Kingdom of the Netherlands”. This thickly populated island serves as a launching spot to the other islands. From here, travelers can take a high speed ferry or local puddle jumpers to St. Barth and other islands. 

We sailed across on a catamaran on which much of the crew would be staying during the regatta Mr. Splendid was sailing in, Le Voiles de St. Barth.

Now, back to the color! The Benjamin Moore “color catcher” app let’s you click on different spots in your images, and then shows you 5 paint swatches that best match the section of the photo you have clicked upon. For the image below, the best match for the banner is “blue daisy”, while the sky colors are somewhere in between “Athens blue” and  “watertown”.

 

Though travel weary, once we landed in St. Martin the balmy weather, palm trees and vibrant blues of this island culture started erasing memories of restlessness of the night before. Even the rusty pilings in the marina had wonderful blue patinas. The paint colors that are closest to these shades of blue are “Utah sky” and “clearest ocean”. I actually painted a back wall in my butlers pantry a shade of blue similar to this. I love how my white dishes stand out against the blue.

We had to time our departure from the marina to catch the hourly opening of the bridge which  is the gateway for boats to get out into the open sea. The Sint. Maarten Yacht Club {this is the Dutch spelling} is a popular place to spend a sunny afternoon, especially when the bridge goes up. The blue you see below is a part of the bridge and is a close match to “big country blue”, and that green pole to the left of the bridge support is a close match to “palm trees”. The shutters are a perfect match to “warm comfort”, the creamy awning is “adobe beige”, the roof is a bit more yellow that “cape cod cobble” and that sky is “Brazilian blue”. This could be a fun color combination for a kids bedroom or a playroom.

Once we were on the open seas we were greeted with beautiful, balmy weather and warm waves in the most exquisite shades of blue, these waters are appropriately a good match to the Benjamin Moore color “sailors sea blue”.

This shade is somewhere between “Caribbean azure” and “California blue”.

In this shot, the inner railing is “Nile blue”, the weathered teak grating on the deck is “solitude”, while the darker teak on the rail is “shaker gray”, and this shade of blue sea is a close match to “paddington blue”. This combo would be beautiful for a family room or any indoor/ outdoor space.

The weather can change quickly here and soon the waves got bigger and rougher, and the skies turned to a dusky gray lavender~blue. The higher, darker section of this sky is a pretty close match to “darkest grape”. The lower, lighter shade of sky in this shot looks like the Benjamin Moore shade called “iced lavendar”, these could be very soothing colors in a bedroom. The deep blue ocean is similar to “Adriatic Sea”, “stunning” and  “marine blue”, wouldn’t these tints be dramatic in a dining room or powder room?

Even the night sky, as we cruised into Gustavia offered more gorgeous shades, this more lit shade of the sea at night is a very close match to the Benjamin Moore shade called “dark royal blue”.