What colours work best in a north-facing room?
In a north-facing room, start with colours that have some warmth in them, at medium strength or deeper, and leave the pale cool greys in the shop. North light is steady and slightly blue, so it tends to push cool colours colder and make thin ones look flat. There is no one correct colour. There is a correct way to test one, though, and it takes about a week.
That advice appears in most decorating guides. It helps to know why it works, because then you can make your own choices instead of copying a list.
Why north light looks the way it does
In Britain the sun passes to the south of us, so a north-facing window mostly sees sky rather than sun. As the Met Office explains, gases in the atmosphere scatter short blue wavelengths far more than long ones, and that is why the sky looks blue. A north room is lit by that scattered light. Wikipedia's summary of north light gives diffused daylight a colour temperature of about 5500 to 6500K, and points out two other properties: it is less bright than direct sun, and it stays at a consistent angle and colour through the day.
That consistency is why artists have long liked working by it. A north room is a poor place for a timid colour, but a good place for a colour you actually like, because it will look much the same at 10am and 3pm.
Illustration by Ochre Line. The chip is our own invention, not a tin you can buy.
Check the room is really north-facing
A phone compass, held flat against the window glass, will settle it. Plenty of rooms described as north-facing are north-east or north-west, and those get a real helping of sun at one end of the day. Around midsummer, even a true north window may catch a little: the sun rises as far north of east as it can at the solstice and sets as far north of west. Do not plan a colour around that, but do not be surprised by a stripe of gold on a June evening either.
Also look at what is outside. A pale rendered wall opposite bounces light in. A big dark evergreen or a neighbouring extension takes it away, and a window into a green garden will tint the room in summer far more than most people expect.
Colours that tend to behave
Think about the underlying bias rather than the colour's name. Greys, greens and even whites can lean warm or cool, and paint cards usually hide it. Hold a sample against a sheet of plain white printer paper. The comparison will show whether it leans yellow and red, or blue and green.
- Earthy yellows and ochres. They give back what the light lacks. This article's chip, Toast Rack, sits here. It looks toasted in a south room and merely comfortable in a north one, which is the point.
- Clay pinks and plaster shades. A pink that looks sugary in sun often settles down in north light and reads as a soft earth colour.
- Warm greens. Olive and moss tones, with visible yellow in them, hold together better here than clean mint or sage with a blue lean.
- Deep inky blues. Yes, it is a cool colour. At full depth it reads as rich and intentional rather than chilly, especially with warm lamps and wood nearby.
What usually disappoints is the pale, cool, slightly grey shade chosen in the hope of keeping the room bright. It takes on blue and loses what little interest it had.
White is not a neutral choice
A brilliant white under cool sky can look like a fridge. A slightly warmer off-white is usually friendlier, as long as it is not so yellow that it reads as old. It is worth painting the sample beside the existing window frame and ceiling, because any white shows up its neighbours. If you need more help deciding how far to go, our piece on small rooms looks at how walls and ceilings work together.
Does a brighter paint make a dark room brighter?
Only a little. Paint can only return the light that reaches it. Light reflectance value, or LRV, describes the share of visible light a surface reflects. Designing Buildings gives the definition and one designer's guide sets out the usual scale from 0 for black to 100 for white. Many manufacturers publish the figure for each colour.
A high LRV really does return more light into a room. It will not make a dim room feel sunny, though, and in low light very pale colours can look stark. Many people end up happier with a room that is honestly a little dark and handsomely coloured than with one that is pale and flat. Choosing a deeper colour is also a commitment to good lamps.
Half the day is lamplight
From October to March, most of the hours you spend in a north-facing sitting room will be after dark. Bulbs matter as much as paint. Colour temperature is measured in kelvin, and this US energy-efficiency organisation's guide sums up the pattern: a lower number gives warm, yellow light, a higher one gives cooler, bluer light, and around 2700K is the usual suggestion for living rooms and bedrooms. The kelvin figure is normally printed on the bulb box here too.
Several small lamps at sitting height will also flatter a colour more than a single ceiling light. Check every bulb in the room before you paint samples. Mixed bulbs can make a good colour look wrong.
A test that takes a week
- Pick three colours, including one that frightens you slightly.
- Give each two coats on a sheet of lining paper at least A3 in size, with no white border. Prepare the wall later; for now you are only judging colour.
- Stick the sheets on the wall beside the window and the wall opposite it. The wall with the window will always look darker, because you see it against the glare.
- Look at them on a grey morning, on a bright afternoon and at night with the lamps on. Move them around. Note which you are still glad to see after several days.
- Check the finish as well. Sheen changes how much of the sky a wall reflects, as our finishes guide explains, so test in the finish you will actually use.
Then trust the sheet you keep walking back to, even if it is not the one you expected.