Mellow yellow. If you're looking for a take on a French Normandy country home, yellow might be your color. "This room was designed to emulate what a kitchen might look like in the countryside of France," says Jo Ann Alston, principal at J. Stephens Interiors. "The mustard yellow is very indicative of a French color palette, and the hand-done plaster technique on the walls, with the overglaze of a faux-finish technique, makes the walls look aged.""Using just one color in the room allows for other features to shine such as the wonderful wrought iron light fixtures, the copper hood, and the slate floor," she says. "The oak board and Chinese slate floor is a take off on the beautiful herringbone wood floors that you sometimes see in French homes."