what say you?
Sunday, February 6, 2011 at 10:19AM Yellow is a controversial color.
People are afraid of it.
They fear that they'll be swathing themselves in a college textbook highlighter shade.
They fear their retinas will be scarred and lead to permanent disfigurement.
But yet, yellow used correctly does something no other hue can.
It's vibrant, fresh, energetic, cheerful, and stylish.
It intensifies whatever it's paired with, as yellow is often the lightest and brightest shade in a palette, which helps the deeper, richer shades shine.
Take this rug:
The colors would not be nearly as fresh without some yellow to offset them.
I think I might need this rug for the studio.
This acidic yellow shade makes purple pop.
The addition of hot pink lends this coat a juicy, sun-ripened feel. And given that there's a 16 week wait for it at Boden, people are craving this combination for spring.
What say you? Have you had a retina-searing yellow experience?
Reader Comments (19)
i'm addicted to ochre, and am enjoying some pale ochre candle holders with ivory candles next to some pink and yellow tulips I bought at the grocery store, as I type this! =)
I truly adore yellow...all yellow. Turquoise, on the other hand......
I prefer golden toned yellows to the acidic variety.
I love yellow, but I find it a difficult color for me to wear. I use it in my decor quite frequently! :)
Yellow makes me look like my liver went on hiatus :( Blech.
And my MIL has like every room in her house painted in sunshine yellow..as was every room in my house when I moved in...
:(
It just isn't pretty to me for some reason.
I like white..nice pretty, bright clean white.
I admit it... yellowphobic is me. I'm blonde, and fair. I've been called "yellow"... as well as "cottonswab" and other such niceties. Yes, used properly yellow is magical. Van Gogh and Cezanne's yellow-power is absolute... I get it intellectually. However, call me "chicken," I can't wear many of the purest, true shades of yellow. Ochre is ochre, and gold is gold... neither are yellow. And they are blissful colors that even I will wear.
Oddly enough, I also don't find yellow to be gender neutral. To me it feels feminine. Call me odd.
I love yellow, especially sunshiny buttercream yellows that remind me of tulips and daffodils and bright spring days. It's one of the hardest colors to find in a yarn, or in a fiber though. Which is funny because it does make so many colors pop. I especially love yellows teamed with blues vs oranges.
I love yellow! And Boden! I'm wearing one of their skirts as we speak.
I say that I wish my colouring was more suited to yellow - it's gorgeous but not a brilliant thing in large quantities with my skin and hair. So, when I do see someone looking marvelous in it, I try to tell them in a not insane way and admire the look as much as I can.
Yellow and I have a love hate relationship. I love little bits of yellow, as accents and as a warmth or pop, also in rainbows. But yellow as a main color or by itself? Usually I will pass. It's not a flattering color on me in most iterations (I am very, very fair, a lot of really bright warm colors make me look ill). My husband painted the living room where he was living when I first moved in with him bright school-team golden yellow, accented with dark blue. It was like being in a preschool. HIDEOUS. Thankfully his color sense was his only real negative quality. ;) All of my photos from that space look funny, because the yellow turned everything in the room, including and especially people, yellow.
I think yellow is beautiful....on someone else. I can't pull it off at all. I have a warm creamy yellow on all my walls in the main part of the house, but it's definitely a lot more cream than yellow. I find it a hard color for most people to wear well and I steer clear of it in almost all cases. That said, I am sure you can do amazing things with it, and can't wait to see what you come up with for the next round of colorways!
I find that I love yellow -- when I see it paired with royal blue, it has a classic, Scandinavian feel. When I see it paired with pink like in the coat above, it seems so cheerful.
But yet... I don't think I own any yellow clothing!
Our Family room is a bright sunny yellow. I love it. It is also the color of one of our smaller bathrooms. I am a fan of yellow.
I also LOVE Boden BTW. Tunics rule!
I really like yellow, but it doesn't like me. I wear my yellow as accents or in socks!
I have a yellow undertone to my skin so I have to be very careful with yellow - I can use it as an accent color but anything in the yellow-orange-peach range can't be the primary color because it'll make me look like I have a liver problem. Blech.
However, if I got a commission for a yellow garment/item - and it's not for me - I'd knit it. :)
When I say I love yellow I mean soft yellow like butter not the color I pickled for my room when I was in High School and it was like trying to live up close and personal with a school bus. That cured me of yellow for fifteen or so years.
I like a little yellow. Mellow yellow with a sunshine brightness.
On the other hand, I LOVE the turquoise in the rug. Every room needs a little bit of turquoise!
I picked adore it, it's my youngest daughters very favorite color. She wants yellow everything.
I like it as a accent more than a solid though.
Coming in late to the party but wanted to throw my vote in for the "adore" column on yellow - as long as it's not that anemic looking pastel baby yellow. I like my yellow to be robust! Because of it's brightness, a little bit goes a long way, and I do prefer to use my yellows as an accent or a base, rather than as a single color in wearables. For home decorating, my favorite yellow for walls has always been a warm creamy saturated yellow, with white trim accents - it's a real light magnet while not insisting on taking center stage. Elsewhere in the decor, I prefer to see it used in moderation - the brighter the yellow, the smaller the amount of it that should be showing