What colour for a dark north-facing bedroom?

4 years ago

Hi there

I have been researching what colour to paint a small-ish third bedroom. It faces north and gets very limited daylight. The people who lived here before us chose this as the only room to paint in a cool-toned pale lilac/blue colour, when the rest of the house is painted in cream tones! (WHY????)

I keep seeing conflicting advice - I know that painting it white is a no-no (too cold, too stark), and I'm a fan of dramatic dark colours but I do hesitate when the rest of our (rented) bungalow is painted in neutral tones. Would dark colours feel like re-entering a womb?! I have a young child coming to stay next year and I think very dark tones would scare her :-) But I'm happy to be convinced otherwise.

Can anybody recommend a warm grey?

Some sites say to use warm tones (eg peach / cinnamon) but others - quite rightly, I feel - say that such colours can be very hard to live with.

Just found another site that said to use an off-white with a small amount of green in it... to my mind, that would be so wrong!

All advice gratefully accepted...

Featured Answer

Maree Persen
Original Author

3 years ago

Well, nearly a year has gone by since I last visited Houzz! In case anybody else with my problem should be searching for a solution, I'm happy to say we scored with Dulux 'Egyptian Cotton' which is a stone-coloured tone. Honestly, we tried so many different shades of creams / greys etc. For this very gloomy room, Egyptian Cotton was a winner! Exactly the right level of warmth without being peachy or yelllow.

(I am aware the painted furniture is not an ideal combination with this colour, and that the mirror is too big! - The mirror was picked up second-hand for £10 and this is a spare room that barely gets used, at the end of a hallway... I just wanted to make it look better than it did)

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Comments (8)

tamp75
4 years ago
I think a soft green is very calming for a bedroom. Lots of options to choose from - more along the sage / moss colourway rather than a mint which would be cold.
Maree Persen thanked tamp75
minipie
4 years ago
We found choosing colours for a N facing bedroom the hardest! The colours that looked best in there were beigey - for example Joa’s white by Farrow & Ball. The trouble is I don’t really like those colours! In the end we chose Setting Plaster which I dislike in S facing rooms (too peachy) but looks nice in N facing as it gets a more greyed tone.

The other options that looked good were yellow based greens (not bluey greens) such as Vert de Terre, strong warm yellows like Sudbury Yellow (but that’s a bit dominant) or deep warm blues like Hague Blue.
Maree Persen thanked minipie
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Thanks Kathy, think we will go with Gentle Fawn. Tried Nutmeg White and Almond White but they looked a bit grey looking so hoping Gentle Fawn will be warmer looking. Too many choices! Am having a beige carpet, so just have to choose curtain colour now. The window wall will be pink so don’t know which colour to match or whether to introduce a third colour and try and match it with duvet cover. .I quite like a soft green colour but may be too cool in north facing room? Pam x
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Dulux and other colour charts have an LRV (Light Reflectance Value) number for each colour which is a percentage. Brilliant white would be about 98% you can download the charts to get an idea but remember that the colour you see on your monitor may not be the same as the real clour of the paint unless it is calibrated in the orrect colour space. The LRVs however, will help to give you some direction. Also consider mirrors to lighten the room as it going to have wardrobes in it.
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I do agree with minipie but to some extent it also depends on how you use the room. Do you read, work/study, tv, sleep in, work shifts etc. Ours is dual aspect, south and west, and it can get really hot even with the curtains shut but we just plug a fan in on those nights although I appreciate some may be bothered by the noise. It also depends on the aspect, it sounds terrible, but our street view is much nicer/more interesting than our garden :) On occasion it can also be a bit noisy but you may live in a rural area etc (Although saying that we have a housemartins nest outside our spare room windows and some other very noisy birds nesting in the garden who wake you up very early!) it obviously also depends on the window/s size and whether you have trees etc blocking light rather than just the quality of light etc
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I would look at Jitney or Oxford Stone F&B. I have used both recently. Jitney is darker and can look like a pale terracotta brownish pinky colour. very interesting and hard to define. Oxford Stone is slightly lighter and a really lovely taupey neutral. This is Jitney below and Oxford Stone below that.
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Maree Persen
Original Author
4 years ago
Thanks @tamp75 and @minipie - I will definitely go out and get some sample pots to test your recommendations. So great to have advice from real people with the same issues!
Juliet Docherty
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I don't understand what 'would be hard to live with' means to be honest. I also agree that advice on this subject is totally contradictory, which doesn't help. The colour of light in a North facing room is quite blue, so anything like a pale grey with a blue tinge will look even bluer. Some people like that, but I personally wouldn't, I find cold rooms depressing. If you want a neutral, then you go across the wheel and select one that is a bit warmer and has some red or orange in and that will create a colour that when combined with the blue light is a neutral. Joa's White, Dimity or colours like that, will look quite neutral in a North facing room. Another option is to go for a more saturated colour such as a yellow, as this can break through the greyness. If you go for a pale colour, then anything like a creamy green could look sickly, so a more definite green would work. If you go for a pale neutral then red based ones will help. I tried about twenty in my kitchen and drove myself nuts! 'Joanna' by Little Greene is a brilliant neutral with a tinge of red in it, that may be worth a look.
Maree Persen thanked Juliet Docherty
Sarah U-S
4 years ago
We had similar dilemmas but then stumbled on f&b James White. It’s an odd one to describe - has a slight limey tinge to it, but not at all cold. We’re now several years in and I still love it. It’s light, calm and goes with everything. It’s a colour that f&b used to recommend for north facing rooms.
Nicola Thomson
2 years ago
Hi colour happy, I just picked up a sample of joanna and slaked lime deep to match pleat in a north facing lounge. Did you opt for Joanna? Any thoughts if slaked line deep would be too dark? Cheers, Nic
Juliet Docherty
2 years ago
Joanna is a good colour, but there's a Fired Earth colour called Wax Myrtle which is similar to Joanna but a tinge warmer. I've only recently discovered it and have it in my tricky dining room. It works well with blues.

What colour for a dark north-facing bedroom?

Maree Persen
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tamp75

minipie

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What colour for a dark north-facing bedroom?

Maree PersenOriginal Author

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