Just Not Yellow...

I admit it. I gave in to peer pressure.

I’ve heard all along that if you want a bright, sunny kitchen, you ought to paint it yellow. Yellow, the no-fail bright happy kitchen color. So we bought a Martha Stewart color called Foxglove. I mean, you can’t go wrong with a color called Foxglove, right? (See where the mental train of thought was going? You can’t go wrong with yellow because they tell you so…)

So why does the wall I painted behind where my new fridge is going tomorrow, remind me vaguely of my high school gym? I get no warm and bright feeling walking in there, just this really weird mental reference to high school and the gym. If anyone lives really close to Sugar-Salem High in Sugar City, Idaho, and wants to pop over and see if the gym is a bright happy kitchen yellow color, that would be awesome, and would solve this little mystery for me. :D 

Needless to say, our kitchen will not stay yellow.  (And I’m SO not trying to insult you if your kitchen happens to be yellow.) Instead, I need a color that suits me better.

Our tastes tend to run pretty modern, so if you have a really cool idea for a kitchen color that does NOT somehow resemble any part of my high school (I’d like to forget about it, if it’s all the same), post the name for me to check out, ok? I’d love some help here. The cabinets are white and the countertops (for now) are white as well.

All the rest of the place seems to be coming along. Tomorrow I’ll snap a pic of the office/scrap room. 3 walls in Carrick Bend, and the window wall in this really GREAT green color called Pressed Leaves. Now THAT is a color you can’t go wrong with.

Okay, I’m sweaty and paint-y and tired. (Was that TMI?) Off to shower and head for bed.

But looking for good, modern kitchen paint that has worked for you…  what about like a burnt orange color? I’m fairly certain nothing at my high school was burnt orange…

Comments

[Megan]

Had to laugh at your yellow story. Mine is also funny. We moved into my grandma's house, who LOVED yellow...every wall was a bright warm yellow. It took me a few weeks to decide that it was somewhere around move-in day that my husband's mood had taken a decided turn-for-the-worse. turns out the yellow was driving him batty and we didn't even realize it. A nice coat of a beautiful color similar to your carrick bend solved our mood issues. As I was painting, I found myself humming the tune:"We all live in a yellow submarine..." cracked myself up when I realized what I was humming!
to your choice for a kitchen, a pretty COOl yellow, like a young lemon would be a good choice. My pure white kitchen is shot with blood red; a very cool contrast. I LOVE it.

[Patti]

It took us 3 times to find the right colour for our kitchen... it is yellow lol that is too funny! I acutally found the perfect colour in a calendar, so I took it into HD, and scanned the colour. Painted my cupboards brick red to go with wall accents, and I'm a happy with that room. I love visiting behr.com for colour inspirations(with wall colours as well as scrapbooking) let us know what you choose! I love burnt orange!!

[Carol]

Oh no - not the gym color! I have this kinda yucky feeling just imagining it. I am glad you discovered this before you painted the whole room. My favorite is cream or ivory. I know - boring! Well I'm sure you will find a perfectly stunning color. xo

[Tenny]

love the burnt orange idea. my fave is the color of the nissan Xterra(the suv). I think you could do something dark that's an earth tone to bring out the white in the cabinets, then maybe a flecked tan corian countertop(or granite!!). we'll be redoing our kitchen in about a month, so i'm curious about this. i thought of yellow walls too:)

[Danielle]

I so love orange in a kitchen...my girlfriend just redid hers and chose pumpkin patch for her walls..it is by Behr. It looks warm and inviting, but also echos her fun loving spirit.She had it narrowed down to 3 colors--carrot stick and sweet mandarin, and I think they are all part of the same hue family. She even had her colors mixed and Behr sent her samples of each. Best of luck--I am looking forward to seeing what you choose.

[Lisa Truesdell]

we're going yellow in the living room.. but barely. it's called barley and is almost more off white...

i think a sea glass aqua would be awesome in your kitchen.. modern & serene..

[marci lambert]

hi jessica,
i just painted my kitchen "island sand" (ralph lauren). sort of a caramel color. the kitchen was a sort of burnt orange/pumpkin color, which was great but we were just tired of it (after five years). good luck!!

[Rachel]

Our kitchen is peach, I wanted to change it to a green color like your blog and go with a BG Urban Couture color scheme. :) But, DH said no way.

[pam]

you could always try a glaze over the yellow.

[michele]

deary, i'm the QUEEN of yellow!! lol what you needed was ms buttercream. seriously. or if you want something darker, harvest gold (sherwin williams) - do you remember my dining room? that's the color. and our kitchen is one tone lighter on the card ... jersey cream, i think?

a nice burnt orange color? i'll have to consult my files ... ;o) sorry these colors aren't treating you well.

[Katherine aka scrapyardkath]

We like modern too and our house is black & white with a few brown, sort of organic, foreign touches. For the kitchen I like just plain white & black, with accents in red. The walls, cabinets frige & stove are a soft white with a beige tile floor. Only the dishwasher is black and the counters are fake formica dark granite pattern.I have black and white small appliances. Our bed & bath are white with purples & guest bath is white with greens.

I have high ceilings with a lot of room above the upper cupboards, so I have a lot of 'stuff' up there, like greenery, a few red flowers, pasta in glass jars, oil bottles, not too original. My daughter says it looks like an restaurant. I liked that!

[Keianna]

Our kitchen is a soft cream, with red accents. Cream walls are warm and inviting and open themselves up to accent colors with more flair.

[Catherine Bodine]

I don't have a paint suggestion but it was just this week at a candle lit party that a female police officer told us that houses with yellow kitchen have the highest rate of domestic violence. Maybe it's just a coincidence but I'm never going to paint my kitchen yellow now.

[Marla]

So another gal who loves color! YAY!!! My kitchen happens to be a cobalt blue...yep cobalt. We have some walls white for contrast but it works well for us (although some folks think we're crazy and ask if we actually painted it). My dining room is inca orange...a dark burnt orange. I love it! And before you think I'm in a rainbow house...we have really cool artwork with all of the colors. We're the modern type as well. Love me some color. Good luck with your selection!!!

[Holly]

This post made me laugh!
I have a yellow kitchen (of my own doing) and absolutely HATE it. I'm going to paint it a dark red. Good luck finding a color you like!