EXPLORING WALL COLOR: THE WARM TONES Yellow and Gold

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Standing in front of the display of hundreds of paint chips at your local paint or hardware store, is NOT the place to start when selecting paint colors for your home.   

 Paint is the most versatile element of your interior design and it is available in thousands of colors.  The paint color for your room should be the thing you choose last, after your carpet, curtains, upholstery and other fabrics have been selected. Once you have your fabrics decided, you can choose which of the many paint colors available might be best suited to your other furnishings.  It's much easier to find a paint color to compliment your decor than to find a fabric or sofa color that will go with your wall color.   By that time, you will have already decided a couple of things - whether you want your room to be in warm tones or cool tones.

THE WARM TONES

Yellows/Golds



Before putting a creamy gold on our first home's living room walls, the conversation with my husband went something like this: 

"We need some color in here" (me). 

"What's wrong with white walls?  White goes with everything". (him)

"Color would warm it up" (me)

"It will make it darker, white makes things lighter" (him)

"I think we should do soft yellow or gold on the walls" (me)

"Yellow? Gold? It will look small, white makes things look bigger" (him)

apartmenttherapy.com

I don't give up easily.  My next plan was to tear pages out of magazines

showing beautiful rooms with soft yellow or gold walls.  

The conversation:

"Honey, do you like this room?" (me)

"Yes, very much." (him)

"How about this room, do you like it?" (me)

"Yes, I do like it.  It looks really nice." (him)

"And this one?" (me)

"Very nice, too." (him)

"Honey, what color are the walls in these pictures?" (me)

"Okay.  Okay.  I see your point. We'll paint the walls." (him)

Arent visual aids wonderful?

Yellow

the name conjures up delicious thoughts of Cream, Honey, Butter, Lemon, Candlelight, Honeysuckle, Sunflower, Mustard, Topaz and Citron.

nothing warms a room faster



Benjamin Moore (Henderson Buff)

 Here are but a few of the yellow/gold  hues available through Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore (Seashell) a warm cream



Benjamin Moore (Chestertown Buff)

Restoration Hardware's 'butter' colors



Buttercream (Restoration Hardware)

Benjamin Moore (Putnam Ivory)

Brooke Gianetti



certapro-phoenix.com
Dunn Edwards (Caribou Heard)

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Benjamin Moore (Pismo Dune)



Glidden (Candleglow)

Glidden (Mayapple)

Yellow and Gold add warmth to a room.  The tones blend well with reds, greens and deep wood tones



yellow looks fresh as a daisy with white

Decorating a room with gold/yellow does not always translate to wall color.

This soft blue wall is the perfect backdrop for a gold headboard and linens

When selecting color, look at the darkest value on the paint color strip. If you can live with that, you will like the medium and lighter values, as well.

Benjamin Moore (Mystic Gold)

Maisondecor8

yellow and gold blend here with pastels and below with black

Embrace the architecture of your home. If you have a small house with small rooms, don't make the mistake of thinking your only option is white - trying to make it seem bigger. Yellow will lighten and brighten rooms where even white won't do the trick, and a rich warm color scheme will make it much more cozy and inviting. Darker walls recede, and room edges are less distinct. The opposite is also true of a larger room - painted in a lighter color it will expand and lighten. Warmer colors tend to advance and decrease the size of a room. Cool recede and increase. Although we are all interested in more real estate - I'd choose cozy and interesting over bland any day.



Benjamin Moore (Hawthorne Yellow)
Pottery Barn



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Color is very powerful. Being married to a psychologist, I'm aware of studies that credit certain colors as having mood changing properties.   Color can stir up emotions, induce hunger, make you comfortable or uncomfortable, be a calming influence, create coziness, warmth or intimacy.  Not only do individual colors have influence but varying tones of a color can produce difference feelings.  Yellow is considered bright, warm and cheerful, but a bright intense yellow can be a little jarring.  A creamy butter yellow can be warm and calming at the same time.

White is a good compliment

whether in a formal or a casual setting

red intensifies the warm factor

grey, black and taupe allow it to  pop

I love the yellow with this mid century room in taupe grey and black with yellow/gold accents



thrifty Decor Chick

yellow and gold can be masculine, contemporary or traditional




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housetohome.co.uk

Sheen is also a factor in choosing paint.  I like flat or matte on the walls.  It is less light reflective and draws less attention to the wall itself.  It frames furniture beautifully and doesn't add more reflection and shine to a room than is needed.  Today's flat paint is durable and cleanable, but whatever room I'm decorating, I always try to use the least amount of sheen I can.  Wood trim in a room is usually done in a semi-gloss.

When choosing yellow and gold, care should be taken to get the right color.  Yellow is notorious for changing as the light in your room changes throughout the day.   Green or orange tones can turn a beautiful color in daylight to a hateful hue later in the day.  If you think you have the color and sheen you want, buy some poster board and paint it with two coats of  the color.  Leave 2" margins around the outside so your color isn't influenced by whatever is on your walls now.  Tack them to your walls in different areas, and live with it for at least 24 hours so you can see it in natural and artificial light.  It is the best way to find a color you will love for years to come and avoid mistakes.

Keep in mind that the color you paint your wall is a backdrop for the room and does not need to match anything exactly so don't worry about finding the exact yellow of the little square in your upholstery fabric.  It is often more interesting if it doesn't match exactly.

And often quite beautiful if it contrasts completely.

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housebeautiful.com

Benjamin Moore (Showtime)


 Yellow and gold are some of my personal choices.  Someone once told me I had a yellow 'aura'.  When I asked her what that meant, she said 'joy'.  Yellow does that to me.  The right tone of yellow, or gold, that is.

Whatever your style, it is sure to be warm and welcoming with Yellow/Gold.

Please tell me about your experiences with color!



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