Top Row:
1. Light accents in a kitchen from The Yvestown Blog.
2. Why not paint a furniture find in the lightest of colors? From pinjacolada.
3. I love how the subtle hues in the bedding complement, and don't compete with, the bold art. From Interior Magasinet.
4. These subtly colored cups from Leif remind me of dyeing easter eggs as a child.
5. Subtle shades soothe a marriage of old and new. From The Yvestown Blog.
Bottom Row:
6. Etsy shop nellianna sells pastel colored textile-covered cords that you can use in DIY lighting projects.
7. This beautiful print by James Welling reminds me of sorbet.
8. Pastels keep a textured living room light and airy. Photo by Fryd Og Design via My Scandinavian Home.
9. Ana Antunes' softly-hued living room.
10. From Hay, a rug that's as beautiful as a piece of art.
(Images: as credited above)
The Ultimate Used Furniture Cleaning Kit
Ana Creates a Community at Home
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Z2 iPod Dock and Wi...
10 Low-Budget Pantry Items Everyone Should Have
Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
LOVE the pastels. Our kitchen has pale yellow and green walls, a round pine table with white Ikea chairs, lots of other white, and pastel accents. It needs to be modernized but even as is, we love it.
I like pale, muted colors as well. I think as long as you have a good balance in the room, they look light and fresh instead of cloying.
Ahhhh!
I love all of these. Pastel shades are so calming and comforting to me.
The Leif cups look good ditto the green lamp. Seems one or two pastels + grey or white will work; not pink, blue which will always say "Baby's room". Pastel green & yellow I like; at least it's a change from the white & screaming bright orange that's been so prevalent.
2 weeks ago I would NEVER thought to do this in my kitchen, but as budget dictates, I used an 'on hand' paint color called 'Applesauce'. It reflected on itself a barely there pink which goes beautifully with the exposed brick & original 40's sink & cupboards. I absolutely *love* the effect. I am a fan of barely-there pastels now!
My kitchen's breakfast area has pale yellow wallpaper with cherries and foliage, and the rest of the room is white cabinets (with green trim) and yellow walls. (Counters are original gray cracked-ice Formica.) Every single person who visits comments on how cheerful the room is. I like it because it's warm in winter, it's sunny on a rainy day, it's not too serious.
I can see why pastels would be a hard sell these days in the kitchen -- they can be too tender to accompany the mania for brutal and industrial surfaces like granite and steel. And people seem to be accepting this dictate that a "real" kitchen, a showplace kitchen, has to be all-neutral or all-white or tons of metal. Bah. I refuse to live in an age where "pretty" is a bad word.
It is often assumed that pastels require soft grey or alot of white to set them off. Try pastels with rich colours. I've got a deep gold brown wall colour (ralph lauren prince) looks fab with yellow, pink, mint and lavender.