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From the editor - June 2010

My hands-down, no-contest favourite colour is bright, sunshiny yellow.

When I was 13, I bought a poster for my bedroom of a girl in a muslin frock walking among daffodils. It was all soft focus and swirls of yellow and I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world. I lay in bed and thought about how to incorporate that glorious, happy colour into my life.

At 20, I asked my friend Leigh if, when I got married, she would be my bridesmaid� wearing yellow. She mocked me mercilessly � �Yellow? Really? I suppose you want me to wear gingham too?� But four years later she put on a yellow silk dress and followed me down the aisle.

Then there was the shiny yellow ball dress I sewed myself, the fluffy yellow pants my babies wore, my daughter�s braids laced with buttercups for a dress-up day� and so on. I can make myself happy just thinking about the yellow spots in my life.

However � a bit like my soft spot for Dolly Parton songs � my love of yellow is something I have learned to restrict to small doses. Because, as style experts and many, many friends have pointed out to me over the years, yellow has a downside. It is in-your-face and look-at-me. It is the colour of Pak �n Save, McDonald�s and road signs; the very essence of cheap and cheerful. There is nothing subtle about yellow.

For that reason I�ve never been game to use bright yellow in my home. When I started decorating my first home in the 80s, everyone was ripping out Harvest Gold ovens and benchtops. Yellow loathing was at its height. My house, like everyone else�s, was done in neutrals.

Today yellow is still deeply suspect in many fashion circles (google �celebrity fashion disasters� and you�re swamped with yellow dresses) but I see sunshine on the horizon in interior design. A few weeks back, when we started talking to our clever style experts, Tracey Strange and Claudia Kozub, about what the cover and flooring feature should look like in this issue, I ventured a vote for my favourite colour. �What about yellow?� I said. �It�s so cheerful going into winter��

No one laughed. No one mocked. Tracey and Claudia worked their magic� and in this issue we have a very classy cover and flooring feature shot through with warm, optimistic, friendly yellow. Makes me happy just thinking about it.

Hope the yellow works for you too but, if it doesn�t, please don�t hold back from telling me so. I have learned to take it over the years.