More Yves Klein Sightings

Maybe it's because my first decorating debacle was painting our living room Blue Tequila, but blue is not my favorite color. I know I'm in the minority, and I'm sure I'll have many opportunities to revisit that statement since turquoise is Pantone's color for the year, but for now I'm sticking to my story. Blue is sentimental. Flat. Candace Olsen. It just leaves me cold. There are exceptions to my personal ban on blue, though: Kelly Wearstler's Avalon Hotel, Raina's Newburyport Blue bedroom, and anything International Yves Klein Blue.

Brown Davis

Those of you who have been reading this blog forever know I am OBSESSED with Yves Klein and his badass blue. Everyone else can read these posts I wrote 800 million years ago here and here and here. It's because IYKB is otherwordly. Klein Blue's super special combination of pigments vibrate with an intensity that most skimpy, wimpy blues lack. Would I paint my entire home IYKB? Well, no. I want to visit outer space, not live there.

Christoph Theurer

A little touch of IYKB here and there would make me an intergalactic tourist, and that suits me just fine. I especially love Yves Klein's modern reinterpretation of classical sculptures, which are perennial favorites of well heeled collectors.

OWI

Look expensive? That would be because they are HELLACIOUSLY expensive. Guess what's also expensive?

Architectural Digest

A lucite coffee table chock full of Yves Klein Blue pixie dust. Oh, and this fancy pad belongs to Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, so YES. The globe is also an Yves Klein piece, because homedude is crazyballs rich, that's why.

Cote Maison via Lampshade

Chicago Home Mag

1st Dibs has one for $24,000. Come on, you know you want it...

Of course nothing tops the rarity of Klein's Anthropometres paintings, since they represent the imprint of an experience and are not reproducible. In other words, Klein greased up some sexy babes with IYKB paint and drug them around a piece of paper. I smell an art project coming on...

Walso Fernandez

Aaron Hom

An Yves Klein poster is really more in my price point.

Living Etc

Perhaps the best thing about IYKB is that it's just a color -- maybe Pantone 286, to be exact? Steal from the best. Get some shockingly blue paint and start spreading the sexy. Even that damn cardboard deer head looks better in Klein Blue.

OWI

Amanda Nisbet

Studio Ilse

Damian Russell

Or if you're a fancy beast, they make blue upholstery, too.

1st Dib owner Michael Bruno's Apartment

Greg Natale

Amie Weitzman

Cote Maison

And of course, sometimes just a dab will do you.

Whew, dudes, did you see all those pictures? This post was a labor of love. As in, I literally feel like I just squeezed out a giant blue baby. But my obsession with IYKB deserved the full treatment, so I'm just going to pat and coo and love this big blue spawn, because he's such a handsome boy. Yes he is. Now, go forth and paint something Klein Blue. Make mama proud.

Klein Blue 2, Electric Bugaloo

In my last post I extolled the virtues of all things Yves Klein and therefore, by the transitive property A=B and B=C, also all things blue, and also all things crazy but awesome. I'm a little weary of the robin's egg blue that was so popular for the last few years, and I just painted over my tequila blue living room (so I think you can gather how I feel about that), but this blue is all neon excitement -- more sapphire than powder, more sexy than sentimental, and definitely not for the faint of heart.

This girl gets it:

Comparing her wardrobe to a swatch of Klein's patented Blue, you can see that she's not entirely on the money, but her claim to wear nothing but IYKB is not without merit. And frankly, I think it does a lot for her complexion. And it's certainly better than the guy who looks like Paul Giamatti but isn't and only wears brown. Really? Brown? Do I even need to go into the associations there? It's too early in the morning.

Of course, this is an interior design blog (for lack of a better category), so I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't shower you with some home decor porn, and you know I live to serve you, my ladyfriends (and gay BFFs??? hellll-ooo? Are you there???).

Without further ado:

Starting it off with a bang are these gorgeous rooms designed by Andrew Suvlasky. Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me? I love the gender neutrality of this color. Not so masculine as to say, "I like hunting and tweed" and not so feminine as to say "I like birds and twee pastels, thank you very much." And when it's blue on blue on blue -- par example, the right picture -- it just feels saturated instead of hyperactive. Try that with any other pop color.

And, of course, Klein Blue does work beautifully as an accent color, too:

That IS a pornoramic view in this bedroom designed by Brown and Davis, but those seductive pillows and drapes almost outsexify it. Plus whoever photographed this interior did an amazing job. The double gourd lamp in turquoise is a bit strange, though...

Another room that strikes a blue note:

John Demsey's bachelor pad designed by Bibi Monnahan, via Habitually Chic. Check out the whole tour on her site because the guy has a great photography collection (as well as some chairs that Miss Karly would lurve). Again, there is some weird lamp action going on here, but I still think this is such a livable apartment, much more accessible than something done up all in beige like my uptight BF Patrick Bateman and his super sterile bachelor pad.

Of course, if you need some extra stimulation, you could go all the way, like this room designed for the Kip's Bay Showhouse by Christpher Maya:

Yes, it's a little patriotic for my taste, but I like the wall color and blue chair. I think it could lighten up and take itself a little less seriously, though, like this bubbly kitchen spied in Domino's quirky kitchen gallery:

All those balls make me giggle and the barstools are kind of killing me (anyone else offended by those ubiquitous pseudo-futuristic stools? Probably just me... as usual), but I do like the light 'n' freshness of the entire ensemble.

And finally, after the slew of blue and chrome combos, a reminder that electric blue looks fantastically sultry when paired with gold:

Ok, what would not look good in Italy's amazing Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo? But these modern works by Winston Roeth are spectacular in juxtaposition with cherubic white and gold. (via, once again, Habitually Chic) 

Funny, those paintings look familar, don't they? After all, Roeth wasn't the first artist to paint a monochrome canvas in what is essentially, ahem, Yves Klein Blue. But I suppose if you're in the business of painting monochromes, then you must be aware that what you're selling is not talent, but a concept, and Klein understood marketing better than anyone. 

Yves Klein was always good at anticipating trends (pretentiously called "movements" in art, but the great cultural critic Walter Benjamin realized early on that art is inevitably bound up in fashion), and he was always good at creating something out of nothing. Witness his "Leap Into the Void," where he markets his greatest product, ever: himself.

Oh, hell, whatever. Enough art history. I like blue. Not to go Seussian, but take the leap. You might, too.