Not-So-Mellow Yellow

The living room was looking a little blah. We chose neutral gray paint for the room because

1. Erik has always wanted a gray room. It's true!
2. I find it easier to decorate a neutral room.
3. Gray is a nice contrast to our camel-colored sofas.
4. Bold paint colors are great for bedrooms, bathrooms, and bonus rooms (like our "table room"), but the living room and kitchen rack up so many hours of use that painting them a stubborn color (one that doesn't play nicely with all the other colors) seems totally impractical. I like the walls to match everything.

Think about it. It's like you can only own one pair of jeans and you buy them in some color you love, like burnt orange, or barn red, or lavender. They may look great with a few shirts, but you can't really wear them every day and feel good about it. No, you're better off with a classic pair of blue jeans that you can wear with every color of the rainbow. Right? Right.

But I didn't paint my walls dungaree blue. That's not a neutral on a wall, really. I painted one of my rooms that color, actually. Anyway, you get my point. I hope. So I painted them gray. Dolphin Fin. We call it Phinfin. My friend Mandi calls it Fin Squared. She's quite enamored with the color.

But oh, the color. The room is just what I envisioned, but it's so neutral that it looks a little too much like the GAP, or like a European's wardrobe. So I did some research (in that I Googled "Gray Living Rooms") and the ones that really caught my eye were those that incorporated Yellow.

Image found here

Image found at Elle Decor

(The last photo won't load for me, so just click the link for now and check out this pretty living room designed by EKB.

I'm already on my way to this goal with the fabric I used to make new pillow covers for the room.

They're a bit more yellow in real life. Read all about how I made them here.

I have a photo of a daisy in a yellow room that was taken by our wedding photographer. I had it blown up to a 12x18 and plan to use it in a frame arrangement. And I want to pull in more yellow in a few other places too. Maybe a blanket, basket, other art? We'll see. Perhaps a little of the blue as well. It's nice to represent Erik's Swedish side.