When we work with people who want to update the look of rooms, they’re sometimes surprised when we spend a lot of time asking about the room’s orientation and its natural light. This is actually critical to choosing a great set of paints for interior design. Natural light should have a big influence on paint choices, and light-responsive room painting strategies will almost always yield better results.
So, in this article, let’s briefly talk about why lighting and room orientation are so important in choosing paint colors.
How Natural Light Influences Paint Choices Among Top-Tier Painters
While the light that comes from indoor lighting is typically a very neutral white, that’s not the case with natural light from the sun. It’s naturally yellowish, but its hue can also change across a day, and is affected by the orientation of a room as well. All of these factors will subtly influence what your interior paint looks like, and how it’s perceived by people in the room.
Room Orientation
The direction a room faces, or where its biggest window is, will have a huge impact on the light getting into that room. South-facing rooms tend to get the most yellow sunlight, while the lighting for north-facing rooms tends to be a little bit bluer and cooler. East/west orientation is also a critical consideration, because that determines when the room will receive the most sunlight. East-facing rooms get their sunlight in the morning, while west-facing rooms are lit in the late afternoon and evening.
Choosing Colors
So, whenever a room is going to get a lot of sunlight at some point in the day, it’s critical to choose colors that work well with that light.
South or west-facing rooms will benefit from a warmer color scheme that will work with the brighter, yellower sunlight they’ll see. West-facing rooms, in particular, may end up getting borderline red light from the setting sun. Make sure you pick appropriate colors. For example, a blue room getting a lot of evening twilight could turn almost purple in the reddish light!
On the other hand, north and east-facing rooms get a bit less light, and it tends to be a bit cooler. These are going to be better for both cool color schemes, as well as greens and other ‘nature colors.’
Don’t Overlook Your Windows!
Of course, that sunlight isn’t entering your home unfiltered. It’s passing through windows, which can also affect the color. For example, double- or triple-pane high efficiency windows will lessen the light levels a bit, compared to single-pane windows. Or worse, dirty windows can give a yellow/brown tinge to the room which is unpleasant.
If you’re planning your colors around natural light, be sure to keep your windows clean so that you get the right effect!
C.E.T. Painting Are Your Westchester County Interior Painting Experts
C.E.T. Painting has been a top Westchester painting contractor since 2004, with a long history of satisfied customers in our past. For great paint choices based in light-responsive room painting strategies, just contact us for a consultation!