It's Not Always Easy to Make Decorating With Yellow Feel Sophisticated — But I'm a Color Expert and I Know How It's Done

Living room with white walls, concrete surfaces, four bright yellow armchairs arranged around a round timber coffee table and a pool table in the foreground.

Decorating with yellow in the home. To some — many, I suspect — it sounds terrifying. But the color has been popping up more and more in interiors of late, often disguised with names such as buttermilk or mimosa. Sunny and cheerful, decorating with yellow has obvious links to mood, and evokes a defined emotion; the hue is pure joy and positivity made visible. Then there’s it’s warmth, the shade connecting clearly to the glow of light itself and infusing a space with radiance.

The last thing I bought for my house was, helpfully, yellow. It’s a canary-coloured stool, and my eyes were drawn to it for its size and stature — it’s just so damn jaunty, and it adds such fun to the space. Wherein lies yellow’s superpower.