Paint Colours: 5 Hacks For Choosing The Right Paint Colour For Different Rooms In Your Home

Publish date: 2024-09-08

When I started doing up my north London flat last year, I knew I wanted to experiment with different paint colours. For years, I'd been surrounded by walls covered in ‘rental white’ (what I call that peculiar off-white shade that landlords apparently use to cover every rental property on the market), and I wanted to try something different. Colour has the power to not only transform a room, but our moods too, so the pristine, all-white minimalist interiors of Instagram were never an option for me.

But after countless trips to my local Homebase and almost bankrupting myself with tester pots, I realised I didn't have a clue where to start, and that choosing which colours to paint the different rooms in my home was a much more difficult – and intimidating – task than I thought. So, I called on the help of Tash Bradley, Director of Interior Design for Lick Home Décor, to help me decipher paint colours once and for all, and the results transformed my flat beyond recognition.

Here are the top paint colour hacks I learnt, with the before-and-after renovation photos to show just how transformative colour can be…

Contrary to popular belief, avoid white walls in small, dark rooms

“If you’ve got a small, dark room, you want to avoid going for anything too light because it highlights all of the shadows and makes the already small and dark room feel even smaller and darker – definitely don’t go for a bright white for instance,” says Tash. “I would recommend embracing the darkness and pair it with a dark colour. I would go for a dark, rich blue colour, like Lick’s Teal 03, Blue 07 or Blue 06. All of these colours absorb shadow and make a small dark room come into its own and give it character.”

Don't stop at the ceiling

“A trick I would always recommend for a small dark room is to always paint your skirting and doors the same dark blue colour as the walls,” says Tash. “That way you won’t notice the edges of the room, which will make it appear more spacious. Or, you could take it one step further and also paint your ceiling. Doing this will make the room totally expand.”

I took Tash's advice and opted for Teal 03 in my tiny bathroom which doesn't get any natural light, on the walls and the ceiling. As you can see from the before-and-afters (below), the white only accentuated the shadows, making the room feel dingy and closed-in. You can really see how the rich blue-green absorbs those shadows and not only makes the room feel bigger, but more on-trend too.

Consider the morning and evening light

Which direction your room faces will dictate how the light brings out the pigment in the colour. “East facing rooms get a beautiful blue light in the morning, and I think they look really pretty with a soft green, like Lick’s Green 09, Blue 15 or Blue 03,” says Tash. “If you want to go for a neutral, Lick’s Beige 03 and White 03 look gorgeous in an east facing room.”

“A west facing room gets the evening light which has much more of a red, warm tone,” she continues. “You’ve got two options here; either you balance out the warm tone with a slightly cooler tone like Lick’s Blue 01, or you can embrace the fact that the room gets warmer light and use a warm colour which will accentuate the tone of the paint. Lick’s Pink 03 or Pink 07 would be fabulous options. Another really good colour for a west facing room is Green 02 which is one of our best sellers.”

For my west-facing bedroom, I opted for Pink 07 on the walls, and the warm pink with soft grey undertones feels cosy and inviting, just what you need in a bedroom.

Go for grey undertones in sunny rooms

My living room is the biggest, brightest room in the flat, facing south west with large bay windows and high ceilings. “A south facing room gets lots of direct sunlight,” says Tash, “so I recommend balancing out the sunlight with a colour with a softer, grey tone. Try a soft white like White 02 or White 04, or if you want more colour, try Pink 01 or even a blue or a green.”

I decided to go for Pink 01 on the walls – a soft, silky pale pink which makes the room feel calm – and took inspiration from Tash's Instagram, and painted the ceiling in Teal 01. I love the drama this adds to the room, and having the vast expanse of ceiling in something other than white creates a contemporary, characterful feel.

If you have a north facing room, this is Tash's advice: “North facing rooms are tricky because they lack natural sunlights and don’t get bright, direct sunlight which gives the room a grey tone. North facing rooms need to be warmed up so you’ll want to choose a colour with a warm undertone of pink, yellow, or orange. Pink is a great colour to put in a north facing room, like Pink 07 or Pink 13 Nashville House.”

If you want to go bold, do it in the hallway

“A hallway is the first room that welcomes you home, and the trick is to have a bit of fun with it and bring your own personality into your hallway,” Tash explains. “The hallway guides you to the other rooms in your home, so it can have a moment of joy so embrace it and go for a wallpaper or go for a bright, jazzy colour. My hallway has three different types of green stripes! Wallpapering the hallway is very clever and going for a pattern design on the walls will open up a small hallway as your eye will follow the pattern.”

Opting for the Stripes 03 wallpaper in my hallway is one of the best decisions we made during the renovation. It's totally transformed the narrow, dark walls into something fun and inviting. Plus, as Tash says, the pattern has really opened up the hallway and made the whole flat flow together more succinctly.