By Donna Frasca

My gosh it’s been way too long since I’ve cooked up a Color Recipe. So today, I’d like to talk a bit about yellow. Should you use yellow in your home? Do you even like yellow? What are the best yellows to use in your home? Here’s a few things to consider about this very happy hue.

The more I look at the picture of this egg I’m finding it really a bit disgusting but the color was so amazing. Look past the grossness of the egg and concentrate on the gorgeous, rich yellow-gold that you see.

I live in the outskirts of Charlotte, North Carolina where the sun is usually very pronounced in the sky and just about everyday is a sunny one. This for the most part this is perfect but not if you want yellow as a wall color in your home.

Yellow is one of the colors that I rarely use here because of its brightness. It’s like adding sugar to honey – it’s just too much color based on our lighting conditions here. Now if you lived in Pittsburgh for example, (I did for 15 years) yellow-gold may be the perfect hue for you!

I actually used a gold (Gold Buff, Behr) in my home when I lived in Pittsburgh and it was absolutely, possa-tootly the most beautiful paint color you can put on your walls. The bright hue inside compensated for the lack and very gray days outside. Well, here’s a picture so you can see for yourself.

designed by Donna Frasca
Pittsburgh home

What does this all mean? The point I’m trying to make here is that if you live in the South where the sun is ample and the windows are large in our homes, this color will be way too much! You however, can use it in smaller amounts such as a playroom or bonus room where the windows are smaller therefor letting less natural light in.

Now, this is where is gets strange. Knowing this, guess what color I put in my own home when I moved from Pittsburgh to Charlotte? You guessed it! Gold Buff and on a sunny day, looks so very bright like this:

With an accent color by the fireplace (which has a dark green mantle) very similar to this-

I would NEVER do this in a clients home for all the reasons that I’ve just stated here. So why, as a Color Specialist, did I do it in my own home? Because I love these colors and they make me feel good. They make my decor and accessories really stand out and “pop” as they say and it just makes my home extremely cozy and warm. I must say that on the very sunny summer days, it is so very sunny side up in my house but “that’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh I like it, uh-huh uh-huh.”

In all seriousness, if you want to use yellow or gold in your home, I have my top 5 most beautiful hues that I know looks just right in our Southern homes. Email me for an appointment to get “eggsactly” what paint color you want for your home at DecoratingbyDonna@mac.com

Don’t forget to please visit my main color blog, Decorating by Donna. See you there!