“I’d like yellow.”

“Not just yellow; a very gay yellow. Something bright and sunshine-y. I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you’ll send one of your men to the grocer for a pound of their best butter, and match that exactly, you can’t go wrong!” Myrna Loy as Mrs. Blandings, 1948

If you were around for the first post you might remember this snippet of Mrs. Blandings’s soliloquy on the colors of her dream house. There is nothing trickier in design than one human being trying to describe a color to another. As the crazy swatches went up I was saying to my patient painters, “Well, this one, but a little warmer.” or “I like this, but it’s too bright, but I don’t want it whiter.” And, like Mr. PeDelford, they would gravely nod as though they were listening and say, “Mrs. Blandings, we need a color by Friday.” Or Monday. Or whatever false deadline they thought they could use to make me just plain decide.

So the home brew paid off and the color is, indeed, gay. Something bright and sunshine-y. A pound of the very best.
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20 thoughts on ““I’d like yellow.”

  1. Lovely! Anytime I think of yellow I always remember Nancy Lancaster’s description of “butta yella”. This is definitely it.

  2. My favorite part of the movie! Mrs. Blandings picked the PERFECT color. The house fairly sings.
    Congratulations on the home mix!

  3. Oh, my, you are all so kind. I do like it – and if finally feels all mine. Thank you, truly, for your enthusiasm.

  4. You must feel very happy when you drive up to your house. It is lovely! We don’t have many yellow houses around Atlanta, but they would certainly fit in.

  5. I forgot to say that I painted my Parent’s big old home very nearly that same shade back in 1972. We had a new home, and this grand old charmer became available and we bought it. I had been a horrible ochre color for years. I picked the color because I was painting it. (with approval) I think I was 15… Anyway, 3 paint jobs later, it still sits at the top of their hill in proud butter yellow-ness. As long as it is in our family, it will remain so. People say, “oh, yes, the lovely yellow home”. The shutters have been brown, Park bench green, white and black, but the house remains yellow. After nearly 40 years, it still looks great.

  6. Mrs. Blandings,
    As a native New Englander, I LOVE a yellow house with white and black trim. Success with yellow is all about the pigment and you achieved it. BRAVO!!

  7. There is a lovely little town south of Boston called Hingham where one of my favorite homes is located–it is on Main St but the lot has a rise to it so it sits like a majestic lady upon a hill and she is yellow with black shutters! Thank you for reminding me of her!

  8. It’s like Butter, only better! Bravo! I could be happy in a house that gorgeous:)!!!

  9. OK, I think it is obvious that you have a following. When is the virtual house tour? Sign me up first…please.

  10. I love your blog!

    (sorry for resurrecting an old entry)

    I grew up in a yellow house in Jax, FL – courtesy of Sears' "Forsythia" paint. So many people would stop and ask for the paint color, my dad had copies made of the formulation so he could hand it out!

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