The photo of delectable Greek food in a traditional blue-and-white setting in my last blog made me think about this wonderful colour scheme and all the delicious ways it is applied. If you search our catalogue with the phrase “blue in interior decoration”, the results reveal its ongoing popularity. Here are a few of my favourite titles.

Decorating with Blue and White shows the colour scheme applied to every style of décor, including Mediterranean. In a country kitchen, soft blue and white appears in checks on comfy armchairs with large striped ottomans. It is echoed in kitchen accessories like polka-dot mugs and enameled cookware.

Bathroom blues are expressed in glass tiles and pretty towels. Outdoor blues include the deep cobalt painted on a Moroccan door and traditional tiles around a pool.

350 Inspiring Ways to Decorate with Blue is a 2011 title from House Beautiful in a convenient paper-back size which makes it easy to browse on the C-train. Designers share their favourite paint colours and sources and talk about why the colour resonates with them.

You see blues from the sea and sky, as well as dusky navy and indigo. Sometimes blue dominates the room; in other spaces, it is used as an accent. As you would expect from House Beautiful, most of the décor is traditional or contemporary classic.

Although Blue & White Living by Stephanie Hoppen was published in 1998, many of the classic blue-and-white combinations remain fresh today. A large living room by John Stefanidis features furniture slip covered in blue-and-white ticking. Blue ikat cushions line a long bench in this light-filled room.

These books are bound to leave you singing the blues.

-Jane

Zesty eggplant stew, a dish of olives and fresh lemons against a backdrop of cobalt blue. That’s the delectable cover of The Country Cooking of Greece by Diane Kochilas. She is a chef and owner of a cooking school in Ikaria who also writes a weekly food column for Greece’s largest newspaper.

Kochilas provides more than just recipes; she takes you for a tour of the culture and people. You meet the mussel man who owns a popular taverna and cultivates mussels in “the rich, sweet-salty waters of the Thermaikos Gulf”. You learn about Greek oregano, the kalamata olive harvest and Santorini tomatoes that flourish unexpectedly in the chalky, volcanic soil of the island.

She writes an ode to the classic Greek salad which melds the amazing flavours of simple fresh ingredients. I can’t wait to try the Cretan beet salad with yogurt and walnuts. Pistachio-crusted feta and ouzo-glazed duck breast are calling my name.

I like that the recipes are as much about method as ingredients and that many of the recipes have an uncomplicated list of ingredients consistent with country home cooking.

The cover lured me in with a visual feast and the book lived up to its cover.

- Jane

Next blog:This beautiful blue-and-white tablescape reminds me of all the lovely decorating books that embrace the blues.