I love yellow. But it’s the hardest color  to incorporate into a home, or to a lessor degree, into a landscape. Why? It overpowers everything around it. It SCREAMS for attention. A little goes a LONG way.

Plus,  it can be chilling, harsh, and even too obstinately cheerful in a childish way.

Although I love yellow in small amounts, particularly with gray, silver, cream, white, pink, and green, it makes my skin crawl if the hue is harsh or the amount excessive. Kind of like fingernails on a chalkboard. You know the feeling?

Perhaps this is why I no longer paint walls yellow. I never get the hue right. The color is too darned persistent. So instead, I allow my yellows to move around the home–a touch here, a touch there. Pillows, art, vases, plates, book covers. And flowers.

Because there are so many  yellows (from cold to almost hot, from a whisper to a scream) and ways to get yellow wrong,  it’s always inspiring to see its shocking vibrancy used effectively, even subtly with sophistication. Nature always gets it right. We can learn a lot from the way nature incorporates yellow. Take a look at these gorgeous examples.

“From the pure joy of summer sunlight to the rich saffron hue of a Buddhist monk’s robes, yellow is a color that cheers the heart. And it’s endless in variety, from the deliciously subtle (butter, honey, straw) to the unapologetically bold (lemon, papaya, mustard). Let’s discover yellow through the lens of nature.”

Read the full article, Nature’s Color Wisdom: Lessons on Yellow From the Great Outdoors, at Houzz.