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Yellow Color Combination Ideas:
What Color Goes With Yellow?

A yellow color combination can look warm and cheerful, but only as long as you combine it with the right colors - and in the right proportions.

When things go wrong with yellow palettes (and they frequently do), it's usually because the yellow was too intense or cloying ...

... or there was simply too much yellow in a room.

With that said, anything from sunny lemon to murky mustard can be the starting point to a wonderful yellow color combination. Check out the palettes below!

Yellow Color Combinations:
1. Cornish Beach Hut

Rose + white + pale straw yellow + deep rose + nautical blues

↑   This colorway is for a summery, 'British seaside' palette with plenty of Old World charm. Brighten up pale straw yellow with nautical blues, and add rose accents for warmth. Use a darker shade of blue as a 'soft black', for accents or trims. White gives this yellow color combination a clean, fresh feel.

Best wall colors to go with this palette: Cream, white, grayed pink or (if it's a sunny room) a light 'misty' blue.
Best wood stains: Any,  from blond (e.g. birch, pine, maple) to reddish tones (e.g. cherry) to deep browns.

2. Citrus Yellow

Lemon + red-orange + lime + yellow-orange + light neutrals

↑   Juicy citrus colors make great interior design color schemes for kitchens. Modern Italian kitchen color schemes often use citrus accents against a white marble backdrop.

If you wanted to cool down the warm, upbeat yellow/orange analogous hues, you could replace the (warm) lime green with a pale, cool aqua:

Best wall colors to go with this color combination: White, pastel yellow.
Best wood stain: Limed oak.

3. Mid-Century Yellow

Muted strawberry + hay greens + charcoal + deep lemon + pale primrose

↑   Note how feisty even a desaturated red looks in this pale neighborhood! You need  the deep, warm lemon & strawberry accents to breathe life into this yellow color palette and keep it from looking washed out. (Here's a simplified version of yellow-grey room color combinations!)

Best wall colors: Palest primrose, faint grayish green, white with a hint of neutral grey. Consider painting an accent wall in full-on lemon yellow, red, or dark(ish) hay green.
Best wood stains: Teak or walnut.

4. Somerset Morning

Pastel yellow + pistachio + sky blues + pale sage

↑   Perfect for a young child's room or a restful bedroom, this gentle pastel color scheme plays with the 'opposing' nature of yellow and blue on the 4-primary color wheel chart. You will need one darker shade, say, a deep blue or a dark leafy green, to give this room color scheme some profile and depth.

Best wall colors: Palest yellow or milky white.
Best wood stains: Light blond (e.g. birch) or honey-colored woods (e.g. rustic pine or oiled oak)

5. Night Sky

Deep plum + olive + acidic yellow + turquoise
+ warm yellow + purplish grey

↑   A yellow/plum complementary room color scheme for a 'modern rustic' Mediterranean kitchen or a bedroom with attitude (Roxanne did something like this in her master bedroom makeover.) A few scarlet and turquoise accents enliven the acidic, greenish yellow and its bright warm counterpart. Use the yellows sparingly. This takes some courage to use, but you'll hear a lot of "WOW" when you're done!

Best wall color: Slightly purplish grey.
Best wood stain: Any dark, cool, grayish brown.

6. Mustard Yellow

Blue-grey + deep Prussian blue + steel blue + mustard yellow + burgundy

↑   This is a tonal, triadic color scheme, a muddied version of the 3 primary colors (red, yellow, blue). It works best when you reserve the red for accents and give most of the space to the yellow & blue (they're 'opposing' colors on the Hering color wheel).

Best wall colors: Whipped cream, cool pale grey.
Best wood stains: Walnut, teak.

Finally, you could take the very same mustard yellow and turn it into red-yellow-green(ish) room color combinations like this one:

Coral + verdigris/turquoise + milky white + mustard yellow

↑   Pale coral and pretty much any blue or green looks good in a mustard yellow color combination - as long as the blue or green has a strong hint of turquoise in it. Use these two palettes to create an English retro feel. They're incredibly popular here in Britain, both for interiors and fashion.

Best wall colors: Cream, palest duck-egg blue/green.
Best wood stains: Oiled oak or a dark, grayish brown.

Yellow is also part of the following color combinations
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For more  yellow color ideas and information, click a thumbnail:

Plus, here's some additional color inspiration you may want to look at:

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