Latest news with #TanyaStone
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Los Angeles Times
The New Rules for Decorating With Butter Yellow
LA Times Studios may earn commission from purchases made through our links. Step inside almost any well-designed home right now and you'll catch mood feels brighter, a little more open. Look closer and you'll see it's not just the daylight or the mix of furniture. It's a soft, almost nostalgic color (butter yellow) that's turning up on walls, in textiles, and even ceramics. Not quite pastel, never garish, butter yellow sits in that Goldilocks zone: bright enough to bring the sun indoors, soft enough to play well with the new wave of grounding neutrals and tactile finishes that have come to define the year's most inviting homes. Pinterest boards, Instagram carousels, and design blogs have quietly driven the color's comeback. For years, yellow sat at the bottom of most saved palettes. People scrolled past, wary of its baggage. Then softer yellows started showing up on trending boards. Warm, custardy, sunlit. Less retro, more retreat. Pinterest tracked a jump in searches for 'butter yellow bedroom' and 'yellow kitchen ideas' over the last year. Not the harsh, school-bus shades of the past. What people wanted was light. Something to cut through gray and blue. The kind of yellow that works in a Paris apartment or a California bungalow. The saves kept climbing. Designers took notice. Mood boards and saved pins started trickling into real projects. 'Pinterest sets the mood for so many people,' noted color consultant Lisa Ford. 'When you see a room that looks forgiving and lived-in, it's easier to picture it at home.' Instagram followed suit, with yellow velvet sofas and plastered yellow walls racking up likes. In a year that's prioritized emotional color choices, it's not surprising that butter yellow has quietly risen to the top of the palette. Designers are calling it 'emotional architecture'... the kind of color that soothes and uplifts. Color psychologists note that butter yellow, when softened, signals hope and reassurance. It's the color of your favorite childhood blanket or a good slice of homemade cake, and rooms dressed in shades like butter yellow can genuinely lift the mood, ease anxiety, and help people feel connected. But this shift didn't happen overnight, says designer Tanya Stone, who explains that for years, yellow in interior design was largely avoided. 'People thought of the fading, staining, and yellowing materials you'd see over time. Even a touch of sunlight would amplify yellow undertones in all the wrong ways.' The pivot, Stone says, is about how you use it. Designers have caught on in different ways. Some use butter yellow in bold strokes, others in quiet accents. The Archers, a Los Angeles design studio, are known for restraint. 'The goal isn't to dominate a space but to make it sing quietly,' they say. 'Butter yellow, used well, is a mood-lifter that doesn't feel forced.' Think: a painted cabinet, a single swoop of velvet, a wash of yellow on the inside of a bookshelf. Brigette Romanek goes for impact. She brought a lemon-curd yellow wall into a powder room and paired it with honed marble, warm brass, and vintage ceramics. The result glows all day. 'It's the one color that makes every other shade in the room feel more alive,' Romanek says. For her, yellow is a counterpoint to rich woods and layered neutrals. Justina Blakeney, founder of The Jungalow, uses butter yellow as the 'unexpected neutral.' It shows up on velvet armchairs, thrifted finds, or a row of pottery. Your yellows don't have to match; they just need the right company. Then there's Jake Arnold, who's known for subtlety. In a Brooklyn brownstone, he ran a buttery runner up the main stair and paired it with pale oak and clay-plastered walls. 'Let yellow be the softest voice in the room,' Arnold says. 'Then give it something tactile to play against. That's when yellow becomes grounding, not loud.' Even up-and-coming designers are embracing the trend. Banner Day Interiors in San Francisco drenched a guest room in matte butter yellow, then layered in vintage rattan and oversized linen drapes, with just a hint of sage. The result is a space that always feels welcoming, never hot or cold. There are some simple rules. Stone is clear: 'The trick to working with yellow today is restraint. Avoid pairing it with too many primary colors, which can tip the look into 'preschool or fast food chain' territory. Stick with tonal layers, warm whites, sandy neutrals, and materials like wood, linen, velvet, or stone. These let yellow shine without overpowering.' Butter yellow is flexible. It works for minimalists. A single pillow, a sculptural lamp, or a run of tile. It thrives with maximalists too, holding its own against patterned wallpapers and lush velvet. In classic homes, yellow revives a dining room, especially with crisp white trim and old brass. For coastal or bohemian rooms, it blends with sky blue, sand, driftwood. The feeling is always the sunny, and quietly joyful. You don't have to repaint a whole room to see the effect. Try a butter yellow table lamp, a velvet chair that catches the afternoon sun, a throw draped over the foot of the bed. Sometimes, a single linen pillow or a chunky knit blanket is enough to shift the mood. This shade glows best when it's mixed in with natural textures like rattan or a bit of matte tile. And most designers would agree to skip the glossy finishes. The color feels richest in a matte or chalky version, nothing too slick. Yellow softens up next to stormy blue or a hint of terracotta, and something old, like a weathered vase or vintage frame, can bring out its warmth. Butter yellow's appeal right now is all about emotion. A color that lingers, even after the sun goes down.
Otago Daily Times
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Towering challenge
Aoife Sheehan after a previous Sky Tower Challenge. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Ahead of her third Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge in Auckland this Saturday, Queenstown firey Aoife Sheehan can't wait to bust out another 1103 steps wearing about 25kg of full kit including breathing apparatus. And she's determined to register another personal best. She and Tanya Stone, back for a fourth time, are the only Queenstown brigade vollies in this 21st event which, each year, raises more than $1million for Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand. The 31-year-old — who's also an airport firey and St John first responder — took about 25 minutes in her first year then about 18 minutes last year. "This year I want to get sub-16, sub-15 would be brilliant. "It's my job to be, like, fit and healthy and strong, so, yeah, it's just another marker." Sheehan's been training with a weighted vest up Bob's Peak's Tiki Trail, up the Man St carpark stairs and on a gym StairMaster. She's also got fit doing regular gut-busting combat challenges — she went to the worlds in Tennessee, in the United States, last October, with two other local fireys, and has qualified again to go to Texas, in the US, this October. The challenge is also "a really nice social event". "But then knowing we're fundraising for something that directly affects people I know, it just means the world." Participants, she says, are encouraged to raise about $1700 each. She'd got to about $900 last week ahead of a morning tea fundraiser she's putting on for fellow airport staff this week.
