It’s time for part three of our miniseries on painting rooms!
We started in the east, then moved to the west, and the order of operations was by design (pun sort of intended) – we’ve studied our warms and our cools and now we’re ready to tackle the trickier spot!
Of course, calling it trickier is subjective – the north and south elements don’t necessarily have much in common, and here’s why:
Assuming you’re reading this from the northern hemisphere, as the sun rolls across the sky, it’s doing so south of your home. This means that direct sunlight will be captured near the ground by the windows, but only so on the south side – on the north end, the light will have a cooler hue and will wash out your paint scheme a little.
What does this mean for our design ideas?
Let’s start with north-facing rooms. These are your “chill” spaces. Cooler natural light means that summery, fresh colours that have a warm hue are an excellent counter-action: if they wash out a little, so what? Such is life! They’ll still be warm and welcoming, even if cooler light filters in. Remember: the more natural light that streams in, the brighter a colour you can get away with. If this is a room you’d prefer to keep cool, something gentle in that blue-green-purple spectrum can provide a lovely accent for your space. But here’s the other thing, and this is pretty darned important: off-white works. And sure, off-white works with everything, but this holds especially true with the north and south facing rooms, where neutrality is most coveted.
When it comes to south-facing rooms, you must consider that you’re dealing with some degree of warm light year-round. This means that a gentle-to-vibrant warm tone will get ramped up in a significant way through the daylight hours! This also makes softer or more neutral choices pop with the warm glow of the afternoon, all the same, while granting a mellow overtone in the early hours.
Fun fact: if you paint a smaller south room the same colour as the ceiling, the optics will make it appear a little larger.
At the end of the day (or the beginning – get it? ‘Cause of the – nah, you get it), the best colour you can provide to the house is the one that makes you feel most at home. We hope that this series has given you some insight into your next colour project!
