Yellow is tough. For my guest room I envisioned a certain yellow. In the store I chose what I thought was perfect. On my walls it translated to mind-numbing blinding yellow. Consider sponge-painting over it in cream or toning it down as you suggested with white. Just make sure you end up with enough paint to complete the room--chances are you'll never get the same color again.

Right now I'm in the same boat--looking for a pale yellow for my kitchen. I brought home two color samples from Benjamin Moore. Both looked perfectly reasonable in the store. On the walls they appear almost neon.

Back to the drawing board.

Heres' an interesting link. Read what she has to say about yellow. It's hard to use or to find the right shade!!

I painted my kitchen yellow and after past experience knew that I had to go a lot paler than I wanted in order for it to come out looking good.

Here is a link that might be useful: colors

I painted a bathroom yellow once against a decorator's advice. I knew yellow was a hard color and my decorator said 90% of people who think they want yellow actually want a yellow-tinged white, beige or tan - which means they should be looking at the off-whites, beiges and tans at the paint store, not the yellows.

I thought I would outsmart her and bought a bath towel of the shade of yellow I wanted and tried it out in various lights and various parts of the room. I loved it! So I went to the paint store and got a match to the towel colour (from the yellow section) but when I put it on the walls I hated it!

I should have listened to her after all.

In the end, I went with a non-yellowy, neutral [boring] beige but I hate painting bathrooms more than I wanted to try out (and possibly fail with) another color.

Anyway, my main point is check out the off-whites, beiges and tans for a yellowy one.

Good luck!

Yellow is my favorite color for the kitchen. But I know which yellow I like, and have used it in about 3 kitchens so far.
It reads a light yellow ochre, which is an earth tone, not one of the chrome yellows, which tend to be harsh on the eye.

I've even mixed glaze in it so I could sponge it on over a white wall in a tiny room, and the effect made the walls seem to disappear in pure sunlight. The room was 8 x 9, my study on the west side of the house, and the effect was perfect for me. In fact, you were not aware that the yellow did not cover every inch of space, but the eye was not stopped by a solid mass of yellow color.

This shade was the Behr THREADED GOLD. It is now on our back porch which will become part of the kitchen when we knock out the connecting wall. This picture gives you a hint of the color--and it is not overpowering although we have Lexan covered windows on south/east/north sides of this space.

and this photo showing the old porch siding painted in that color over a white undercoat. Taken before the water heater was removed.

And the same THREADED GOLD was used in two other kitchens in my past, but the photos are no longer on my computer.
I will try to link you to my Webshots album which shows a really tiny kitchen painted with it in the house I rented from a friend...It is photo #106 near the end of the album. The wall is that color, the semigloss paint on the potrack/storage thingy I built is that paint, and the background of the plaster faux tile at the bottom is also that color. The other woodwork is all oilbased white paint.

Here is a link that might be useful: River House yellow kitchen features.

Thank you everyone for the very helpful responses.

Dian57, it's good to know I'm not the only one struggling with this. Good luck with your color choice.

Rafor, I really appreciate the link to the "Color Me Happy" website. Wow, I wish I could have her come to my house. I didn't find a specific blog about yellow but she has so much helpful information about choosing color. I know I'll want to spend hours reading on that site.

Two Munkeys, thanks for your advice. I will look at the beiges as well since my valance has other colors that might work.

Moccasinlanding, thank you for posting the photos of the Behr Threaded Gold color. It looks beautiful. I am fortunate to have a fan deck of the old Behr colors. Unfortunately, Threaded gold looks a little too pink to go with my valance fabric but I will look for a color with that same intensity.

Thanks again everyone. I'll let you know what color we end up with.

Finally found the page where yellow is discussed! It took me forever.

Here is a link that might be useful: yellows

Anyone know of a yellow that would read close to this color? I love this look and it goes with what I am doing, but I'm frightened of yellows. Everything I have painted yellow I have ended up hating because the color is just not right. I'm painting this week before I install cabinets so I don't have time (or desire) to repaint if it is not right. Any color suggestions? It is a fairly bright space with a lot of light, cabinets will be white and black with wood and stainless steel countertops.

Forgot to add the link:

Here is a link that might be useful: Yellow Kitc hen

I've just painted my kitchen Benjamin Moore Hawthorne (HC-4). I would never have picked it because it wasn't yellow enough but it's beautiful on the walls.

We are building a house and are putting some "wood" on the walls in a guest bedroom so we painted them with Benjamen Moore Weston Flax HC-5 before putting up (in case they expand and wanted to be sure the color was there). I loved the color but my husband said he felt like he was meeting "Big Bird" in the room. I now have an interior designer helping me with colors throughout my house so she has now picked Benjamen Moore HC#35-Powell Bluff. To me, it looks more beige but she and my husband agrees that there is "yellow" there! Guess I have been outnumbered so we will use it! Good Luck! It is overwhelming!