Butter Yellow
Why everyone is going for pops of butter yellow in their homes this season
If you have an eye for interiors and caught episode one of Paapa Essiedu and Keeley Hawes’ new Channel 4 drama Falling, you may have spotted the delectably soft-yellow convent kitchen they have their first ‘moment’ in. We won’t say those buttery cabinets were a total scene stealer, but spiked with a hint of saffron, we did swoon over more than just the actors’ performances.
However, “kitchens are tricky ones. You want them to blend in, don’t you? You don’t want them to shout,” says Lara Clarke from Lara Clarke Interiors. “I’m not sure I would do a full kitchen in yellow, unless it was a small kitchen, because it could potentially date.” That said, “it can be beautiful in a pantry or utility room; it can really lift the room.”
In recent decades, yellows have been blandly held hostage in nurseries and school classrooms (yellow is thought to help boost learning and memory skills), but primrose tints are now thoroughly escaping into the rest of our homes, and even into the garden.
“Traditionally, if you look back at the history of interiors, yellow has been quite a prominent colour in drawing rooms,” notes Clarke. “People are coming back to those historical colours.”
“A lot of things trickle down from fashion in interiors, and I think it’s come from there,” she says of the trend. Butter yellow was all over the spring catwalks at Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Loewe and Chloé. “The reason people are loving it is because it’s a happy colour. People are moving away from cool colours and towards anything with a warm undertone that gives you that sense of joy in a space.”
A pop of yellow also has the ability to really perk you up. “If you have a yellow sofa, it puts a smile on your face, and people are craving that more in their interiors. They want it to be an expression of them, they walk into a room and it makes them feel happy,” says Clarke.
So where should you start if you’re hesitant about going full-on yellow? “Fabrics, because you can add and take away cushions and accessories,” says Clarke. “You could put a yellow trim on a curtain or a blind, which is a subtle way to introduce colour. For people that are a bit more brave, try it on woodwork.”
For those unafraid of going a little canary, and are keen to paint walls, Clarke is a particular fan of the “creamy buttery yellows, so Farrow & Ball Dorset Cream or Yellow Ground, really pretty colours. I’m actually doing a utility room in Madeleine by Little Greene, which is a really lovely colour. It’s that warm, not too-in-your-face yellow.”
Clarke says it is possible to take things “too far” if you’re not careful. “There’s obviously a huge trend on colour drenching at the minute, and I probably wouldn’t colour drench a room in yellow. That’s a step too far,” she notes.
Instead, try pairing a buttery yellow with “a really nice white” or “blues look really lovely with yellow,” rather than going all-out banana.
This will help keep it looking fresh for years to come. “If it’s overused in a room, yellow won’t look right, but subtle nods, or pairing with other colours, I don’t think that will ever date,” says Clarke.
Words by Ella Walker, Press Association
