When we renovated our last house—a mid-century cottage—I painted our west-facing porch yellow, and it was the best thing we did to the house. When the sun was shining, it was cheerful and bright, but it was at night when it really made us happy. Yellow is not really considered a warm color, but with the right atmosphere LightingChoosing warm undertones is, in my opinion, unparalleled.
Now we’re in our current renovation, and I’ve been eager to recreate the fun we had with our bright yellow room, but nowhere seems to fit in our three-year effort. However, we just finished converting the dated, damp kitchen into a guest room, and guess who? Painting It’s yellow!
Painting any room yellow can seem like a gamble, and you have to really match the pigments and undertones in each room, depending on the type of natural light throughout the day. But if we’ve seen anything over the past few years that we shouldn’t be decorating for guests, or even potential buyers down the road, we should use bold. Think paint In our homes because, quite simply, they are ours, we are lucky to have them, and they should make us happy.
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Choosing the right paint brand and color
(Image credit: Future/Amy Reeves)
After almost six years of constant renovations (on two different houses) I have every paint swatch, sample and tester known to man. While there are certain home components that you can buy cheaply, I really don’t think you can, or should, with paint. And that’s not to say that all high-end brands have worked for me. In fact, I got burned while painting our open plan space and regret it every time I try to wipe the scratch marks away.
As our room was fresh lime plaster we needed a paint that would allow the walls to breathe. Unlike cavity walls, solid stone walls need to allow moisture to move in and out properly to avoid dampness. This includes everything from mortar, plaster and paint finishes.
The room itself used to be our kitchen and had previously been painted a very pale yellow which made everything look quite…sick? The tone for natural light from the east and south facing windows was all wrong and only brought out cool tones throughout the day.
We chose Edward Bulmer’s Naples Yellow Because it’s one of the few emulsion paints suitable for lime plaster and because it was a compromise between my partner and I – I wanted a warm yellow that just looked cozy with the lamp and they wanted a sunny color that reflected the beautiful morning light they got in the room. The room will also become my home office once I set up my desk, so something that wakes me up and inspires productivity and creativity was a must.
‘Yellow is a powerful tool in color theory, naturally associated with optimism and energy,’ explains the interior designer. Paula Morrison. ‘British natural light can notoriously lean towards cold and grey, but an earthy, historic shade like Naples Yellow acts as a surrogate sun, radiating heat during the day and transforming into a rich, cocooning mustard under artificial light at night.’
To prepare the lime for painting, I used a 10:2 ratio of water to paint as a ‘mist coat’ and applied all the paint by hand with a natural bristle brush. Although you can use some rollers, I found a brush to be a little quicker and easier to apply paint to a rough texture. However, I foolishly thought it was a good idea to put real coats on the room during the heatwave, when our village was the hottest in the UK at 38ºC. It took me about four days because I would overheat really quickly from moving so much and needed to take a lot of breaks. Never again!
Matching complementary colors
(Image credit: Future/Amy Reeves)
Yellow is a bold color, especially for a spare room, and pairing it with pale colors for wood trim or Furniture Just doesn’t work.
‘Yellow is incredibly versatile and I’d have so much fun pairing it with pinks, greens, blues and warm oranges – think a delightful summer garden in full bloom with roses, lavender blues, fresh greens and pops of orange. Nature rarely gets the color wrong,’ advises the insider Wendy Morrison.
‘Personally, black is probably the only color I’ll use quite a bit with bright yellow,’ she continues. ‘But color is very personal, and everyone responds differently. Layering is key with textures, patterns, florals and precious pieces to create warmth, depth and personality.’
We chose a red-undertone brown, Marmello by Farrow and BallAs such our window trim is painted in a high gloss to match the extreme matte of the lime plastered walls. In my opinion, it looks delicious, and if I could paint my whole house this color, I would.
From here, I paired terracotta bedding and dark-toned furniture that, like the rest of our home, walks the line between cottage-y and mid-century.
What is it like to live with him?
(Image credit: Future/Amy Reeves)
Well, as we only painted it a few weeks ago, it’s hard to say if we’ll regret it or not but right now I really like it. I’m so glad we went for it and chose to paint the ceiling yellow as well. If we had gone with the traditional white color the low ceiling might have looked even lower.
Like our dark red bathroom, I thought visitors wouldn’t like this room at all, but we’ve had some really good feedback. I think it’s a nice change to have something different or bolder, especially for a spare room. That being said, my mother has warned that she’ll bring her sunglasses next time, which I can’t tell if I’ll take as an insult.
I can’t wait to get some things on the wall to lean into the texture of the lime plaster and the brightness of the paint color.
Get the look
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Embroidered flower vase cushion
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