If you’ve ever scrolled through interior designer Mark D. Sikes’ blog or Instagram, stepped foot into one of his rooms, flipped through his book Beautiful: All-American Decorating and Timeless Style or shopped his M.D. S. Stripes collection, you know that there is really only one color combination that makes his pulse quicken: cool and beautiful blue and white. He tells us why here.

“I have loved blue and white for as long as I can remember. It might have something to do with growing up in a house — actually, several houses over the years — that was almost entirely blue and white. When I look back at photographs of myself as a child, I’m always in a blue-white striped tee or a blue shirt and navy blazer. I lived in a blue-and-white world and I still do, I guess. As a decorator I love to use blue and white in my projects. Whether it’s a blue-and-white floral fabric, a blue-and-white striped Dhurrie rug, a blue-and-white hand-painted chinoiserie wall paper, or a piece of 18th-century blue-and-white porcelain. Add any of these to any room, and it’s suddenly happier and full of life. It doesn’t matter where you live, what particular style you like, if you are old or young, male or a female, I’ve truly never met anyone who didn’t like blue and white. If you are looking for something you can always count on, take my word, it will always be blue and white.” — Mark D. Sikes