I like more neutral yellows. I am using BM Windham Cream. It reads yellowish when on the wall. BM Vellum is a lovely color with more depth. And BM Yellow Cream. BM Straw is also a nice color. Those are my personal favorites.

I think Doonie and I are on similar pages. My kitchen walls are BM Soleil. The adjacent hallway area is BM Ylang Ylang. Both of these colors are from the BM Affinity series and are palish yellows. (Soleil is more yellowy than Ylang Ylang which is more creamy. . . but still yellow). Although I had really wanted a yellow that was more mustardy in color, I chose these yellows because I found them to work much better with the gray undertones in my White Dove cabs and gray tiles in my Calacatta Gold mosaic backsplash.

If I didn't have oak cabinets, there'd be a mustardy gold in my kitchen, a historic color.

I used a Lowe's Eddie Bauer color "slice" it's a glowing golden ochre yellow with a hint of orange.

It's pretty intense, but I wanted a true Victorian yellow .
Casey

I needed a 1920's yellow and after about a million false starts, finally went for Waverly's Antique Yellow (made up in BM paint) for walls and ceiling:

We're going to use BM Affinity's Handmade in our hall bathroom. It's a beigey-yellow with a (slight) peach undertone (which we think/hope will work very well with the coral peach travertine that we will be using on the floor). Not too yellow at all.

Shout out to sombreuil_mongrel--love your "Slice" yellow walls! Gorgeous color. :-)

IÂm using BM Soft Beige which is an easy going yellow shade and coordinating China white on some of the ceilings and a few walls with coordinating Asbury Sand, and BM Beeswax (more orange) in dining room. I like the soft beige (yellow) fine but my all time favorite yellow has a little more orange in it; itÂs Baers Cut Squash, a beautifully rich dimensional yellow shade that is yummy. Right now I have whatÂs left of the higher snack bar back side painted in cut squash and have used this color in other homes.

This is very educational, thank you! I didn't know that certain yellows are considered historic.
Part of my indecision is due to the fact that the adjacent living room is a light yellow, so if I go with yellow in the kitchen it means I'll have to change the color in the LR, too. (I didn't choose that yellow - it was here when we moved in). So it means more change...

Should also mention that the hallway adjacent to the Kitchen is BM Monroe Bisque, which is a great neutral. If you're familiar with it could you describe its undertones to me? (Would help me narrow down my choices).

Going up on the kitchen walls today is BM Roasted Sesame Seed.

{{!gwi}}

We used Ralph Lauren Golden Finch in our kitchen, it's the yellow of a Sunflower. In the living room we used Behr Warm Muffin and that's a more golden yellow.

Warm Muffin:

Gold Finch (kitchen is still a work in progress)

BM Bronzed beige is a great color. It is on the border of the greens & golds but reads very warm, yellow tan almost. We had it in our open living, kitchen dining room at our previous place and we are putting it in an open TV/stairwell space in our current house. I really wanted yellow in the kitchen, but our cabinets were stained cherry, our floors oak and our granite (whatever it was) didn't answer to yellow. We received compliments and requests for info about the Bronzed Beige color from so many. With the white and the laminate soapstone I can't imagine pure yellow working that well and I might avoid the more peach/orange yellows but all depends on colors in room AND lighting.

Sit down at different times of day with the recommended yellow samples in your room and look at it against the cabinet color, the counters, back splash and any other key features in rooms that you can visually connect to from the kitchen. I've learned that you can't always get the exact color you want, you have to work with the fixed features in the room to find what compliments them.

Great to hear about everyone's favorite yellow. I think I should bookmark this discussion for future reference.

Take a look at Mark Twain House yellow and Molera garden yellow and de Cornando amber

Here is a link that might be useful: some historic yellows

We had a room painted SW Afterglow. Perfect orangey yellow that was bright but very livable.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I can't agree with Sparklekitty more about working with samples. This is true for any paint color, but especially with yellow! Painters and designers will tell you that yellow is a very hard color to get "right." In my own kitchen remodel, I think I tried out at least a dozen samples of yellow before making my final choice. I painted sample boards of 11" x 14" in size and temporarily mounted them on an open wall space. Some samples I was able to reject immediately in that fashion -- much to my disappointment because most of my top choices were ditched first! The remainder samples that survived the first round, I left in place to check how they looked at all times of day, at night, in natural light and with various artificial lighting schemes. But I moved the samples around as well, checking them not only against the walls but also against the cabs, countertops, backsplash and appliances. This went on for about close to a week, during which time I also solicited sample preferences from the workers. After all was said and done and I had settled on the color , I still wasn't even 100% certain I had chosen the "right" yellow! But, clearly BM Soleil "works" in my kitchen, I do really like it, and no one who enters ever questions the choice.

I can't agree with Sparklekitty more about working with samples. This is true for any paint color, but especially with yellow! Painters and designers will tell you that yellow is a very hard color to get "right." In my own kitchen remodel, I think I tried out at least a dozen samples of yellow before making my final choice. I painted sample boards of 11" x 14" in size and temporarily mounted them on an open wall space. Some samples I was able to reject immediately in that fashion -- much to my disappointment because most of my top choices were ditched first! The remainder samples that survived the first round, I left in place to check how they looked at all times of day, at night, in natural light and with various artificial lighting schemes. But I moved the samples around as well, checking them not only against the walls but also against the cabs, countertops, backsplash and appliances. This went on for about close to a week, during which time I also solicited sample preferences from the workers. After all was said and done and I had settled on the color , I still wasn't even 100% certain I had chosen the "right" yellow! But, clearly BM Soleil "works" in my kitchen, I do really like it, and no one who enters ever questions the choice.

I have oak cabinets and oak floors and Venetian Gold Granite. We plan to paint the cabinets White Dove by BM. Our current wall color is Pittsfield Buff by BM and we like it very much. It is a warm goldish yellow.

We used Sherwin Williams Historic Color Birdseye Maple. I was a little afraid at first because I didn't think I wanted yellow but it turned out lovely. It was chosen by a decorator so I can't take credit, but I did hire her so maybe I could (lol).

Here is a link that might be useful: Historic Colors

LOL My siding color is Bronzed Beige, although I'm considering a switch over to Sulfur Yellow, the next darker shade on the same card.

Glad to see people using yellow. On a recent episode of Design Star of the the "designers" talked about how much people hate being in a yellow room. Good advise about the sample boards.

Can't contribute to the paint discussion but we have yellow in the dining room and living room (Nobilis wallpaper in a damask pattern) and it is just amazing to see how the color changes as the sun moves around the house from the east facing dining room in the morning to the south and west facing living room in the afternoon. That room just glows late in the day. Our master bedroom is also yellow --striped wallpaper -- more of an egg yolk yellow. The room faces east and it is lovely in the morning. Yellow is a wonderful color especially for colder climes like ours -- upstate NY. And it is a wonderful backdrop for paintings.

debrak,

I saw that same episode. My girls and I had to laugh when they called yellow an "aggressive" color.

I used BM Creme Fraiche on all the walls in my entire apartment and love it! Ceilings are super white. I considered lemon drop for the walls, but it was too dark/bright yellow for me. Creme Fraiche makes dark areas less dark, and makes the apartment bright when there is sunlight. Below are some photos. In some angles it looks very yellow, and in the kitchen you can barely make out the yellow because other elements are so prominent. I was looking for something closer to cream but my contractor and DH liked this color, and I am happy that they made the call. I really like the color! Here are some photos.

You can see it as bright yellow here -

Here it looks lighter -

Kitchen walls and ceiling are Creme Fraiche -

I had a color consultant help me (I'm painting 11+ rooms and hallways and I wanted saturated colors in a hurry). She helped me narrow it down to 2 to 4 colors per room. We went thru many BM yellows and ended with 2155-50 Suntan Yellow (a bit orangy) and HC-4 Hawthorne Yellow. She told me to try it in a few places on the walls (2' x 3') and feather the edges. After a few weeks we're going with hawthorne yellow - painting on Tues. (we have medium cherry cabinets, typhoon bordeaux granite, red range and natural oak floors). Red in the dining room (4 variatons still on the wall), lilac in the sitting room (samples go up tomorrow), green and yellow in the office - you can view all these rooms while standing in one room. I have a dark blue for a half bath and haven't decided on a few other rooms.

Just had to add -- I read this great tip somewhere on the decorating forum.

The message essentially was that, not only is it important to test swatches, but it is important to test the color by painting the inside of a box --five surfaces that will reflect off each other -- because in the actual room, that is what happens. The light bounces from wall to wall and the intensity of the color increases because of these multiple reflections. Therefore just looking at a single placard of the color won't show you the intensity you will get when you paint four walls.

OP here. It's so true that yellow changes throughout the day; the yellow in our living room is warm and inviting during the evening, like candle light. But at 3pm is my least favorite time of day to be in that room! It just looks dull. I agree that it does make a nice backdrop for pictures.

I love yellow in a kitchen, but DH put his foot down because it is in our bedroom, the hall, and the stairwell leading to the basement. What can I say? Yellow is such a fresh sunshiney, cheery color.

I have Behr's Opal Cream, and it is a soft yellow, almost buttery. Here are a couple of pics of my stairwell. The first is the stairwell lit, and the second unlit.

My favorite yellow in my old kitchen was Moonlight by
Benjamin Moore.

It's funny, because when we painted our sunporch last year I fell in love with BM Lemon Drops... until we painted a sample on the wall. I too, thought it was too lemony. I actually ended up loving the next color down on its card, Lemon Sorbet. It's warm and sunny without the lemon.

If I had known we'd be redoing the kitchen, I'd have picked something else to go out there, especially after seeing boxerpups' pic. (Moonlight is in the exact same position on the very next card)

These were taken at the same time, but you can still see how the color changes depending on the light.