Goodbye, yellow living room. A love letter of sorts : Annie Elliott Design

Dear Living Room,

I love you.

But I haven’t always.

You’re not easy, you know. When we bought this house at the end of 2004, I didn’t know what to do with you. You’re north-facing. You’re almost square. You have a corner fireplace – and you know how tricky those can be.

1980s picture of boys smoking — Glens Falls, New York, circa 1980. My brother James (aka Jimmy Riot, look him up on YouTube ;) ) is second from right

You have a single, gigantic window, Living Room. And you have two double-width doorways. You have no obvious furniture arrangement, no obvious wall color.

Red living room with black mid-century chairs — My living room, third paint color

I struggled mightily as I tried to figure out what paint color would work best for you. I tried 5 colors in 3 years, isn’t that right? I’ve written about that epic journey before.

White living room with black furniture — My living room, fourth or fifth color in 2007. I’m convinced I’ve lost a color somewhere…

But from the moment in 2011 when I put Benjamin Moore’s 343 Sunrays on your hundred-year-old walls, I knew we’d found the answer. It shouldn’t have taken so long, to be honest. Yellow is my favorite color. Yellow warms up a north-facing room. STRONG yellow maintains its integrity when the weak, gray-tinged light finally makes an appearance.

Yellow living room with blue sofa — Me in my much-adored bright yellow living room, 2011 or so

In so many houses, the living room is underused.

Not so with you, Living Room! Our daughters flop down here when they get home from school, phones in hand for their permissible screen time before homework. I work here sometimes, feet on the coffee table, laptop in, well, my lap. John reads the paper in here. You’re where we have drinks with friends before dinner. Christmas happens here.

Your cheerful yellow walls made us want to spend time with you, Living Room. Yellow cracked the code. Yellow was the answer.

Yellow room — Detail of the yellow living room, with English engraving, English chair and sideboard, and true-blue American map of Glens Falls, NY

So if I love your brilliant yellow walls so much, why oh why am I changing them?

It’s as simple as this: I needed a change.

I will defend saturated wall colors until the end of time. But for me, right now, I want something softer. Something less aggressive. I wanted to see if you could be happy, inviting, and warm with a lighter, more subtle color on your walls.

Blue sofa with art wall — The yellow living room with a good gallery wall — finally! — and a new rug. See, the new rug with the saturated yellow walls…too intense

And guess what, my dear Living Room? You can! Look good in a softer, strategically selected color. Such as blush. A pinky, peachy blush. Possibly darker than the blush so popular right now, because I did learn my lesson: super light colors wash out in your northern light.

Oriental rug — Blush (oh all right: pink) paint samples with the new rug and ideas for new upholstery

You’ll look pretty great in blush, Living Room. Don’t you think? Grannie’s sideboard and round table will look even prettier. I have a new (to me) vintage painting with shades of mustard…that will look terrific against your walls (I’ve always loved dark yellow and light pink together.) And then maybe new furniture, so the blush walls will be the only pink in the room. No more pink furniture – too feminine.

So farewell, yellow, and welcome, blush.

You’ll see, Living Room. I’ll do you proud.

Love,
Annie

Annie Elliott’s work has appeared in publications from Washingtonian Magazine to The Wall Street Journal. Bossy color is a full-service design firm based in Washington, D.C.