Summer Popsicles....

anana Popsicles are the best flavor...in my humble opinion. Followed closely by Lime. Then Cherry, or Blue Raspberry if you can find them. Then Orange and Grape is definitely last. Actually to be fair, Rootbeer is probably my second fave, but since this post is going to parlay itself into a decor post, and I really don't like brown as a decor choice, I'm going to ignore my love of Rootbeer Popsicles for the our purposes here. (but they are darn tasty)


(making this particular box of popsicles my personal fave...)
Also (I realize I am on a tangent) there are these banana Popsicles that you can only get in Utah and Idaho that are creamy and delicious. They make them in chocolate too. I never understand why weird things like that are regional. Don't the people who make those Popsicles (I think they are made around Logan Utah) know that the good people of Arizona would love to buy their wares as well? I never understand random things like that...or how hard it is to get chocolate licorice here, but I digress...

So back to inspirational colors of summer, and for our first choice, in honor of banana, Yellow.

The other day on Design Star one of the girls was going on about "color theory" and that yellow is an aggressive color and you should never paint a room yellow because it isn't restful. I say poppycock. If you love yellow, paint a room yellow! I had a yellow front room and a yellow kitchen for years and I loved them. A friend of mine had a butter yellow all through her house and I thought it was VERY restful and peaceful. And currently half of my kitchen, front room and hall way are a odd yellow by Dunn Edwards called "Madera" and I think they are almost neutral and look lovely with the reds and greens. So if you like yellow, I say go for it!

Okay here are two rooms I love, which are really mostly white, but with that massive pop of yellow - it's just so HAPPY isn't it?

This is risky. But I really like it, and I like it with the pale green on the walls too. When we first moved into our 1952 home it had the UGLIEST insane asylum pink cabinets you've ever seen (in fact for some really weird reason the whole darn interior of the house was that color!) and I really could not afford to be changing out cabinets at first. But I agonized a little over what color to paint them. I thought white was just going to look darn ugly and the kitchen had virtually no natural light at all so going dark seemed like a bad option. Finally I settled on this Martha Stewart lemon yellow that I really loved. I painted the walls a slightly different yellow than the cabinets - the cabinets were just a tad bolder than the walls. I was pretty happy with the result. By the way, I love Dunn Edwards paint for the creaminess in application, and the lasting color - but a close second, and cheaper is Martha Stewart, which you used to have to get at Kmart or the Great Indoors, but which Home Depot just started carrying.

Crazy bold? Yes, but paired with the deep blues, it really works.

I am always a big fan of yellows paired with reds. Works every time.


Growing up my two favorite colors were yellow and green and my bedroom was yellow and green - LIME green and yellow. And guess what? That's kind of what I'm going for in my bedroom again. Which goes to show if you wait 20+ years your taste might circle back around to the same things again. Or I'm regressing. But don't you love them together?

There is a yellow here that really, really borders on orange, but I'm still calling it yellow. And it's really great.

love this with the raw wood. Also love that none of the chairs really match and the table is black. And the girl on Design Star said not restful? Craziness!


These are both very sophisticated with a good balance of neutrals (blacks and browns) along with the yellow. I like how on the one on top, you can tell that room is not very bright at any time during the day, but the yellow makes up for it. That's what I've noticed in my house. If you use yellow in a room that doesn't get a whole lot of natural sunlight, it sort of lets the sunshine in, naturally.

Okay that's it for today. Another summer day, another popsicle color.