Get ready to meet a colour so vibrant it makes all other colours feel inadequate.
This shade of blue is so vivid that all other blues pale in comparison. An incredible electric blue born and raised in Marrakech, this colour is so bold it leaves other brights feeling faint. I used to think that the Algarve’s sky was piercingly blue and its bougainvillea shockingly pink, but that was before I met Majorelle Blue. Are you brave enough to welcome it into your home? Aah, go on, I dare you! You will be glad you did, because it will immediately wake up all your senses and have you bursting with energy. So, as the temperature starts to rise this June, turn your house into an ultra-cool Moroccan palace with a drenching of Majorelle Blue.
In 1924, renowned French artist Jacques Majorelle constructed his largest artwork to date, Le Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech, Morocco. He went totally over the top and painted his whole villa, all his garden walls, fountains and features his new favourite colour: a very intense shade of blue. Before his death, he patented the colour, calling it Bleu Majorelle. In the century since his death, the shade has inspired interior designers, artists and architects all over the world. The fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who made Marrakech his home and purchased Le Jardin Majorelle in the 1980s, found the place an endless source of inspiration and was fond of saying, “Morocco taught me colour”.
Although he named it after himself, Jacques Majorelle didn’t exactly invent the colour. While Majorelle Blue became a well-known shade, it wasn’t technically a new colour in the sense of a chemically synthesised pigment. He had simply given a name to a specific blue hue that he used. He had fallen in love with the vivid blue they’d been using in Morocco for centuries – the shade used in traditional Moroccan tiles and around the windows of kasbahs.
Jacques Majorelle’s inspiration can also be traced back to the dazzling Ultramarine Blue of the Middle Ages. Ultramarine was a pigment made by grinding Lapis Lazuli, a rare and luminous blue mineral found only in one particular mountain range in Afghanistan. Ultramarine Blue is the most expensive pigment ever created, thanks to its rarity and the labour-intensive process of grinding the mineral into paint. Once it was introduced to Europe, it quickly became pricier than gold. In art and interiors, it was soon a symbol of royalty and divinity, reserved for the robes of the Virgin Mary and other holy figures. An artist would often charge for the pigment separately on the invoice so that the patron could choose how much ultramarine they wanted to pay for.
I’m not one for tourist hotspots and, despite being British, I do not love a queue, but when I visited Marrakesh, I did actually join the line to get into Le Jardin Majorelle. I had walked from the city’s main square, where snake charmers compete with street vendors and monkeys to see who can get the most attention from foreigners, and arrived very hot and bothered. But the moment I stepped into Le Jardin, I was immediately cooled. Yes, the colours were so bold they took my breath away, but there was something strangely soothing about them at the same time. Although it’s bang in the middle of town, the place felt more like rural Morocco, the blues and yellows and pinks as clean and sharp as the landscape of the Atlas Mountains. I loved the way the architecture blends Art Deco and Moorish design. It looked as stylish today as it must have done 100 years ago.
My husband wasn’t so impressed, the colours did not appeal to his conservative tastes at all. He’s fond of grey and black, so he found a shady corner and spent a happy hour Googling places that might possibly serve alcohol in Marrakech!
Back in Portugal, I see lots of blues that remind me of Le Jardin Majorelle. The other day, I was driving through Porches and found myself getting out of the car on a roundabout because I was so taken with the vibrant blue of the Olaria Pequena pottery against the inky blue of the sky. And just yesterday, I took a hundred photos of some dazzling blue and yellow tiles on a house in Lagos.
The thing about Majorelle is that, despite the fact that it is undoubtedly the strongest colour ever, it’s not aggressive or domineering. It’s actually rather kind and plays nicely with other bright colours. You can put something lime or yellow against it and both colours will pop. It also works with lots of different aesthetics. It can look modern and even sophisticated, paired with white and silver, or warmly boho with woven geometric textiles and lots of natural wood.
So, as we officially go into summer and get ready to welcome in the hottest months of the year (about time, eh? This spring has got to be one of the worst on record), give your house a treat and experiment with the coolest colour on the wheel. If you’re too faint-hearted to cover your walls in Majorelle, a little sprinkling in the form of plant pots, tiles or cushions will work wonders for your interior. And if you’re too scared to let it inside at all, your garden, balcony or terrace will definitely benefit from a bit of Majorelle magic!
