Brave Ulysses cruised the same midnight blue sea as we do today, brightened by that very same "rosy-fingered dawn" Homer described millennia ago.

Approaching the Côte d’Azur, we see the same limestone walls and azure skies that Matisse once painted, as well as the exact taupe-and-pearly pebbles that Brigitte Bardot squeezed between her toes while turning heads on Saint-Tropez.

The United Kingdom’s John Munford has been defining and refining traditional style on yachts for the past 25 years. His color palettes are mostly inspired by the boats themselves; their inner truths. Materials and craftsmanship comprise his basic inspiration, and in this he is an acknowledged master.

Top Left photo: Modern furniture begs for non-traditional color schemes. Black and silver are perfect complements to contemporary yacht décor. Bottom Left  photo: On Saramour, Aiello International Design picks rust/pistachio cues ironically from an antique carpet. Fabric swatches from the new Perennials collection. (Click images to enlarge)

Munford is currently working on four other projects from 125 to 221 feet. Like his 155-foot (47-meter) Katrion, now called NOA VII, the smallest of Munford’s projects will be sharp, tailored and comfortably modern with pear wood on the bulkheads and dark brown wengé wood floors for contrast.

Designer Candace Langan of Newport, Rhode Island, takes many a color combination from water and shells. Her color scheme for retro-style 105-foot (32-meter) Cassiopeia is a symphony in blue and white. "The wood is teak, stained a pretty color," says Langan, "and there’s an ivory carpet, which is a nightmare for the crew but it always looks great. Also in the salon are two sofas in a pretty, deep, solid blue and a pair of chairs in a blue-and-white print.

"Below, all the staterooms are blue and white but lighter in tone," Langan adds. "We had fun with guest heads. The owners had a ceramic umbrella stand they found in Italy, and that was the inspiration to have the sinks hand painted in blue and white."The owner also had a Chinese urn lamp that was blue, white and coral, and that scheme was picked up in the pillows in the salon and the accessories in the dining area, including the linens," Langan says.

Known as "The Beige Lady," Sally Sirkin Lewis is the creative force behind home furnishings firm J. Robert Scott. Lewis’ much-heralded design pact with Benetti Yachts has yet to bear fruit, but even now she is independently furnishing 75 percent of a 200-foot yacht under construction in Italy.

"This particular yacht," says Lewis from her Los Angeles, California, office, "is very contemporary with a little Asian influence and many original carvings. There’s a lot of ivory and shagreen (sharkskin), as well as combinations of taupes, blacks, browns and stainless steel. Some of the textures affecting the colors are hand-loomed silk, boucles, chenille and triple moss fringes."

Left photo: The regal red and gold of Sea Hawk’s VIP stateroom and Right photo: the view into the owner’s sitting area show the diverse colors that can be paired with a rich, traditional cherry interior. (Click images to enlarge)

On the other hand, the entire palette of 147-foot (45-meter) Silver Fox is shades of black. The inspiration came not from the horizon, but from within the client’s sensibility—in this case, a handsome, silver-haired man who loves black.

"There was not a room that didn’t have black in it," Bonville says, "but when you look at the rooms, they are entirely different—some are soft, some are powerful. In the master stateroom, even though the carpet is black, the feminine influence of the owner’s wife is quite evident in the rug’s black silk swirls; it’s very, very sexy with some of that thirties movie-star glamour.

"Black happens to have been that client’s happy color, and my inspiration is always the owner. Each person has a color that makes him or her feel most comfortable, that’s particularly soothing or calming for whatever reason, and I play up on that," Bonville says. "If you ask a client to simply describe the most perfect room on the most wonderful night of his or her life, and what color it is, that color is their comfort color. When they walk into any room done in that color they feel great.

"Just changing textures changes the colors, so even if you do a room in one primary color—say black—altering the texture and the way light reflects off those textures is enough to change the tone," Bonville adds. "On Silver Fox, we did a lot of combining of leathers, embossed leathers, suedes, as well as some rich, shiny silks, nubby silks and silk velvets, all in the same charcoal gray." It’s a monochromatic scheme that looks anything but.

From pearl and blue, to sand, teak, moss, coral and the glamorous noire that evolved from 1930s film, the right color combinations extend and complete our deepest experiences at sea and on land.