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Ah, yellow: the color of the sun, smiley faces, lemons and hopeful ribbons tied around trees. It seems so innocently cheerful and full of energy. But as color and paint expert Barbara Jacobs points out, yellow can be fickle: “It’s easy to pick a yellow that on a paint chip looks fresh and happy, only to find that a room painted with that same color quickly becomes grating, and can even produce headaches and the feeling of tiredness.”
So what’s a yellow-lover to do? Use the lower chroma, less vivid yellows, says Jacobs. “Saturated yellow is fine, but not too bright. If you want a stronger yellow hue, make it a deeper version. It can border on gold-to-brown. Try to keep it just on the warm side, the delicate balance between a green-yellow and an orange-yellow,” she says. On walls, creamy yellows can create a golden ambiance without the negative qualities. Jacobs recommends using the stronger, more stimulating colors on accents. A yellow vase, planter, slipcover or pillow can add a lot of vibrancy without the irritation. |
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—Jane Lockhart, Get Color!
Check out how she uses yellow to bring the beach home» |
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| The south of France glows golden with sunshine, mustard-colored walls and those amazing sunflowers that so many artists tried to capture. Contrast that with fields of lavender and you have an amazing natural color palette that is very popular today in French country and other styles. Provence, where van Gogh, Manet and Monet painted, is famous not just for its sunflowers but for its trademark geometric and floral textiles, which are rich in the yellows, blues and lavenders of the region. Used in curtains, pillows and table linens, the fabrics are a field of color. Rustic Provencal pottery is also sunlit and brings a welcome glow to any room. |
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“Yellow should be treated like sunlight. You want it around for the happiness it produces, but you don’t want it to be overpowering,” says color expert Rosemary Sadez Friedmann, ASID, author of Mystery of Color. A yellow kitchen might look bright and cheerful, for instance, but there will be more arguing between cooks, she says. “I imagine, too, that movie stars throw more tantrums in yellow dressing rooms.”
But energetic yellow would do fine in a workout room, particularly if aerobics were involved, she says. “It’s also a good color for a game room, study or office because it helps to keep you attentive.” In fact, yellow is said to be admired by intellectuals, perhaps because it stimulates the memory. So who knows? A splash of yellow in every room, says Friedmann, might help you remember where you left your keys, eyeglasses or the neighbor’s phone number. |
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 Yellow can be surprisingly powerful. Surrounding yourself with a favorite shade of yellow, for example, encourages you to be more realistic, to keep an open mind and allow solutions to unfold, says Dewey Sadka, color consultant and author of The Dewey Color System: Choose Your Colors, Change Your Life. Even just a smidgen of a less-favorite shade of yellow, used on pillows or accessories, will help you relax and enjoy life more, he says.
And the truth is, yellow is not going to go away. “In décor, the yellow shades are up-and-coming colors. Expect to see more and more of them,” Sadka says. His suggestion: Combine yellows with the current hot purples to create a trendy, spiritually uplifting room. Since purple and yellow are analogous colors, across from each other on the color wheel, each of Sadka’s yellow color chips works well with the purple color to its right. “Imagine, for example, painting the walls a softer shade of split pea, slipcovering your couch in an off-white with grape throw pillows and a violet fabric throw across the back,” he says. The result: sophisticated and powerful.
For more on harnessing yellow’s power, read on» |
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| Anne Krueger is the editor of HGTV.com’s Decorating newsletter. She has written for In Style, This Old House, Martha Stewart Living and The New York Times. |
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