Seeing Yellow – part 2

Last week, I described how dandelion distress dissolved into a fond childhood memory and promised to share another memory this week. While growing up in the 1960s with my two younger sisters, Mom and Dad designed and built a large addition onto our tiny  country home.  Each of us was given our own room and permitted to choose the paint color for our walls.  My sisters went with the trendy colors of Pepto-Bismol pink and orange.  I felt very chic in choosing Chartreuse green (I learned today that it’s named after a french liqueur!) I couldn’t locate a photo of my bedroom today, but here’s a picture of me in a chartreuse jumper that I made for 4-H in 1972.

Those were the good old colorful days. When I was 7, it was wonderful to do my own thing, and Mom happily painted the walls without a thought (as far as I know) of what visitors might think.

I still enjoy choosing paint colors for our rooms. When we moved into this house in 2005, the first order of business was to paint the drab master bedroom in a shade of green, not chartreuse, but an earthy sage.  My husband has also obliged me by painting other bedrooms in Greek Blue and Honey Gold.  During our 12 years here, we’ve changed the wallpaper in our den and gradually replaced kitchen paper with raspberry and cream paint.

I went through a phase when I wanted to get rid of the red French toile wallpaper in our dining room, but it grew on me again after some friends complimented the look.  Our living room has remained yellow since we moved in, even after I had the opportunity to choose something different a few years ago when some cracks in our drywall needed repair. At that time, we were both happy with the bright look of our white woodwork, yellow paint, and white sheer curtains with red floral window toppers.  We had the room repainted in the same sunny yellow and continued to enjoy spending time in our living room.

When it was time to wash the old, more-gray-than-white sheers this year, Dave and I determined that they needed to go to the curb instead of the washer. I was ready for something different, something a bit more contemporary that would still let in lots of light.  We hung two-tone curtains that are black on top with tan sheer panels in all six windows and were happy with the change.

Then one evening when Dave was out of town and I had the remote, I turned to HGTV. I’m barely familiar with the network, but recognized the Property Brothers working with a couple who were renovating a house to sell it so they could purchase a a dream home for their family.  As Drew and Jonathan escorted the man and his fiance inside a prospective home, the first words from her mouth were “Oh! All that yellow would have to go!” All three men agreed with her, of course.  The home was beautiful, but there was a lot of yellow.  And then, what I have known would happen if I started watching home improvement shows happened.

As the on-screen couple contemplated their options, the biggest drawback to this house was the yellow paint.  As I sat in my lovely room, I felt a bit insulted and began to think that maybe I didn’t like yellow walls anymore.  It suddenly seemed obvious to me that my room had too many colors, two many patterns, too much clutter, and on it went.  The next morning I spent a couple hours cleaning, de-cluttering and rearranging until I liked the room again.  But it wasn’t until Mom visited and approved of the way the living room looks with the new curtains that I completely recovered from my Yellow Paint Discontent.

Perhaps more people should paint their rooms yellow. According to Apartment Therapy’s article  “Five Happy Colors to Boost Your Mood”, yellow is #1 and all three of the colors that my sisters and I chose for our bedrooms are in the top 5!  Check out the pictures in the post; the first one reminds me of my living room. Go with greige if it makes you happy. I’ll keep my yellow.