Interior color scheme: using yellow in interior design

Psychology of color

Colors have a strong influence on people, and this is due to an associative series. To explain your own attitude to yellow, it is enough to remember where we see it most often. And Mother Nature loves it very much.

Yellow is the sun’s rays, dandelion fields, sand dunes, ripe bananas, exotic birds and fish. It exudes warmth, attracts attention, and in its brightest shades literally screams and is impudent. This is the difficulty of using yellow in interiors: it will never agree to play a secondary role and, if in excess, will quickly become boring, or even reduce the design concept to bad taste.

Psychologists have discovered interesting properties of this color:

• invigorates, inspires optimism and sets you up for productive work;
• promotes concentration and memorization of large amounts of information;
• makes any room seem lighter, warmer and more comfortable, visually pushes the walls apart and raises the ceilings.

Sociable, active, expressive, self-confident people, whose lives are filled with movement and bright emotions, feel good in yellow rooms. But for melancholy, calm and thoughtful natures, yellow walls will put pressure on the psyche, irritate and even provoke headaches.

The photo shows a stylish living room, where the yellow color of the walls is repeated in furniture and decorative elements and successfully contrasts with black details

What shades are used in the interior?

The perception of yellow in interior design surprisingly strongly depends on the temperature and saturation of the shade. Pale, cool tones fill the room with air and help to create restrained, stylish rooms. Warm light yellow shades bring warmth and coziness, bright and dark ones – dynamics and color.

Along with red and blue, yellow is one of the basic colors of the color palette, it cannot be obtained by mixing. At the same time, adding red pigment “warms up” yellow and brings it closer to orange, and blue makes it colder and greener.

A variety of shades are used in the interior, mainly natural ones:

• sunny;
• sand;
• lemon;
• canary;
• banana;
• golden;
• cream;
• honey;
• straw;
• corn;
• woody;
• amber;
• mustard;
• saffron;
• curry.

In the photo, fuchsia-colored sofa cushions and the same bouquet emphasize the rich greenish-yellow shade of the walls and furniture

What goes with yellow?

It would be best to start the list of successful options with white, because light yellow interior details look very harmonious against its background. Such a tandem allows you to fill the room with light and air, and expand the space as much as possible. This is especially important for cramped rooms with small windows and unsuccessful geometry. Properly placed light yellow accents allow you to visually move the wall and raise the ceiling.

The opposite option is a combination of yellow with black, as well as with different shades of gray, from ash and mouse to graphite and wet asphalt. There is a general pattern here: the more saturated the background, the brighter the yellow details should be. For example, the use of canary-yellow furniture and decor together with black gloss is a classic of the high-tech style, and light gray and pale yellow tones have firmly established themselves in Scandinavian interiors.

Yellow and any shades of blue look very lively and optimistic together. Using this combination and a white background, you can decorate a room in a marine style – this is a trend that has not lost its relevance for years.

Saturated blue tones, such as indigo, night sky or Prussian blue, are especially successful in combining with warm bright yellow details, and light ones (denim blue, cornflower blue, Niagara, turquoise) – with cool pale yellow.

Interiors in yellow-green tones are closest to nature, and it is better that both tones are as natural, fresh, slightly muted as possible (straw and olive, lemon and light green, honey and pistachio). You can often find them together in rooms decorated in eco-style. Living plants and natural materials such as wood, cork, stone, bamboo, rattan add a special charm to such rooms.

Combining equally rich, “straight” shades of yellow and green is not the best idea; it will be very difficult not to go beyond the bounds of good taste.

Restrained, delicate tones are probably most often used in classic interiors furnished with brown or burgundy furniture. The lighter it is, the more delicate the shades of yellow should be, and in combination with bog oak or natural leather, a deep saffron color will also look advantageous.

The photo shows a living room in a classic style, decorated in muted dark yellow tones and furnished with brown leather furniture

One of the most fashionable and non-trivial color alliances is a combination of yellow with violet or lilac. Such techniques are typical for the already mentioned pop art and fusion. And if you add delicate light yellow notes to the lilac-pink range, you will get a fertile basis for developing Provencal interiors.

The most difficult thing is to successfully combine yellow wall color in the interior with other bright, expressive and self-sufficient colors, such as red, orange or pink. They will most likely “fight” with each other and destroy the entire design concept in the process. But the devil is in the details – well-chosen shades and a neutral background will help to implement even the most daring idea.

How does it look in the decoration?

If we consider yellow as the basis of the design concept, that is, to paint all the walls with it, then let it be calm, discreet shade. Even a convinced optimist or an exalted nature will not find joy in whole days spent in a canary or banana reality.

When the soul asks for bright colors, and there is also a desire to zone the space or adjust the geometry of the room, it is better to make only one wall or its fragment yellow, and then play up this solution in furniture, curtains and decorative items.

It is not necessary to use solid coloring – vertical or horizontal stripes will do. In the first case, you will solve the problem of a low ceiling, and in the second – a too narrow room, more like a corridor.

Speaking of the ceiling: it can be painted in some light shade of yellow or install appropriate stretch ceilings to enhance the feeling of lightness and warmth, but you need to be careful – this technique is appropriate only in spacious rooms with ceilings no lower than 2.7 m.

Yellow floor finishing is an easy to implement and successful idea for almost any living space, including a limited one, but the smaller the area, the lighter and more natural the tone should be.

In the photo, a bright yellow stretch ceiling in the living room is successfully combined with the same wall decor

Yellow as an accent

Bright shades of this color are easiest to fit into the interior as accents. These can be wall decorations: paintings, panels, installations. Yellow lampshades and shades look interesting, with the help of which you can turn a chandelier, sconce, night lamp or floor lamp into a highlight of the interior.

You can go further and buy yellow furniture or paint several items in this rich color, for example, kitchen chairs, a chest of drawers in the hallway or a coffee table in the living room.

The photo shows a living room with yellow armchairs and sofa cushions, which repeat the shades present in the painting

Yellow curtains are another example of a large, expressive accent. But they do not have to be like that entirely, but, for example, consist of several contrasting panels or have bright details.

Continuing with the theme of textiles, let’s focus on carpets – they can be plain or with an ornament that repeats a shade of yellow already used somewhere, for example, in doors or furniture. The same principle applies to sofa cushions and armchair covers.

And, perhaps, the most universal accents are small and mobile, with which it is easy to “scatter” yellowness around the room in artistic disorder. These can be floor and table vases, figurines, plates, bowls, jugs and anything else.

What styles is it suitable for?

The richness of shades of yellow opens the way for it to almost any design direction:

• in classic, baroque, gothic and Renaissance is dominated by warm, rich and saturated shades, similar to gold;
• in rustic styles such as Provence, country and shabby chic, pale, as if shabby and faded tones will be appropriate;
• in modern trends such as minimalism, loft, hi-tech and avant-garde, bright “artificial” shades of yellow reveal their full potential;
• in natural styles rich in natural textures – in Japanese, Moroccan, Egyptian, boho – the same natural tones (straw, sand, curry) are used.

In general, it is quite difficult to imagine a direction for which absolutely all shades of yellow would be alien. This is an amazingly versatile color, and if desired, it can be incorporated into any design concept.

Examples in room interiors

The living room probably gives this color the widest scope for expression. Pale yellow tones are ideal for walls, more saturated ones are for furnishings and decor. Since this room is the “face” of the house, feel free to choose all sorts of yellow accessories for it: rugs, flowerpots, paintings, pillows, floor lamps.

A bedroom in yellow tones, especially bright ones, is a dubious decision. This is the color of intelligence, physical activity and seething energy, and in the bedroom both the brain and the body should relax. Although, many people like pleasant pastel shades of yellow and do not interfere with a restful sleep.

A child’s room is traditionally decorated in bright, cheerful tones, especially if we are talking not about a baby, but about a tomboyish preschooler. So some juicy yellow elements will be quite appropriate, but you shouldn’t paint the walls completely in this color – it will excite the child and prevent him from getting ready for rest in the evenings.

The kitchen is truly the ideal haven for any shade of yellow, not just the acidic ones favored by fans of high-tech and minimalism. Many products have a natural yellowish color (cereals, beans, butter, fruits and vegetables), and an interior in “edible” tones has a positive effect on appetite and inspires delicious cooking.

The bathroom is another suitable platform for yellow. Entering such a room early in the morning, you will instantly wake up, recharge with energy and positivity and tune in to a productive working day. However, it is better to dilute the yellowness with a white or light gray background.

Surely there are people who would never dare to use yellow in the design of their home. At the same time, there are devoted fans of this sunny life-affirming color, ready to surround themselves with it to the maximum. If you are one of them – go for it!