North-facing rooms can have even the most confident of decorators despairing. The light is dull, the shadows are persistent and colours turn inexplicably grey or green, or sometimes both at the same time. The instinct to reach for the brightest white paint on the shelf is understandable, but it will invariably lead you astray.
“Stop trying to make the room brighter,” says designer Max Humphrey. “One of the biggest mistakes is battling a dark room with stark white paint. Anything with a cold undertone can end up looking dull and lifeless when there isn’t much natural light.”
The problem is not the room – north-facing light is not a flaw to be corrected however much it might feel that way. And rather than fighting its qualities, you stand a far better chance of succeeding if you work with what the room naturally offers.
What follows is a practical guide to the colours that perform well in these conditions, along with the reasoning behind each.
Why north-facing rooms behave differently
As the sun rises (roughly) to the east and sets to the west in the northern hemisphere, a north-facing room only ever receives indirect natural light, which has very specific qualities.
It tends to feel slightly blue or grey in tone, and doesn't shift dramatically throughout the day the way south-facing light does. It is soft and diffuse – so the room never feels as if it glows – and whilst shadows aren’t sharp, they are persistent. These qualities have an almost inordinate impact on how colour appears.
Colours to approach with caution
Colours that look brilliant on a swatch can become unrecognisable in north-facing rooms. The most common offenders are pure, cool whites, which read as grey or lavender, and anything with a strong green undertones, which can look acidic and sickly. Similarly, very light greys and taupes without warmth feel strangely flat and institutional.
6 colours that work in north-facing rooms
1. A pale but warm stone
A chalky stone sits at the gentler end of what works in a north-facing room. The key is choosing something with warmth – yellowy or pinky undertones rather than a grey base, which inevitably looks like cement in north-facing light.
Look for paint described as "warm," "sandy" or "honey." It reads as near-white in brighter moments, and when the light drops, warm-white bulbs will really help bring out its best side.
2. An off-terracotta
The cool, blue-toned quality of north-facing light acts as a moderating influence on an earthy terracotta, taking the edge off what might, in south-facing light, look aggressively orange.
The version to choose is not the deep tones of terracotta pots, but something softer and dustier – more dried rose hip than fired clay. These colours, sometimes labelled as "blush terracotta," "faded coral" or "soft rust," carry enough warmth to counteract cool light without being too bright or energising. Under candlelight or low lamps in the evening, a terracotta is the cosiest of choices.
3. The right yellow
A bright, lemony yellow turns acid-green under cool light and makes the whole room feel slightly unwell. The right kind – an earthy, ochre-based gold with brown or orange undertones rather than green ones – introduces light that the room itself cannot generate.
"In north-facing rooms, yellow paint and décor can do so much in bringing warmth to a space often ignored by the sun," says Marianne Shillingford, creative director of Dulux. "One of my favourite ways to bring a bit of holiday heat to a room is by adding yellow to a ceiling, to create the illusion of poolside sun-soaked bliss. This is particularly effective in bedrooms, where you can blink open bleary eyes to a blanket of beautiful sunshine every morning. You can also line windows with yellow to give your rooms a buttercup-under-the-chin glow as the sun streams in.”
4. Greige
Instead of artificially lifting a north-facing room toward brightness, there is a case for just letting it stay dark. Greige – the meeting point of grey and beige – is one of the most sophisticated choices in this instance.
A cool greige will look closer to slate grey in north light, which may occasionally be the intention but is more often a disappointment. A warm, putty-like greige reads beautifully in low light and creates a continuity between light and shadow that softens both. Try it in narrow or enclosed spaces where colour might feel too assertive.
5. Sage
Green is a complicated colour family for north-facing rooms. Bright, saturated greens will look cold and glassy, and can make a room feel like the inside of a bottle. But sage, the grey-green that has become one of the defining colours of recent years, really sings in low light.
The version that works best in north-facing rooms is the drier, more powdery end of the sage spectrum. Avoid any sage that looks vivid on the sample card – if it's visible at such a small scale, it will become even more so on a wall.
6. Inky blue
The boldest recommendation on this list and one that requires the most conviction to commit to. A deep ink blue that sits somewhere between midnight, teal and black feels dramatic, enveloping and romantic in north-facing spaces. “Rooms with low light really shine when you use colour, depth and a bit of saturation,” says Max.
Dark paint absorbs light rather than reflecting it, so the quality of your light matters far less – there is no cool cast or grey shadow to speak of because the walls are absorbing it. The rooms best suited to this treatment are those used primarily in the evening, or those with a cosy atmosphere. It is less suitable for rooms where you need to see clearly to work.
Before you commit
Always test paint samples on at least an A4 patch – ideally larger – and live with them for a full 24-hour cycle. A colour that looks inviting at midday can shift considerably under a grey afternoon. This is doubly true of anything with complex undertones.
"Always use a colour swatch or paint sample," adds Emma Bestley, co-founder of YesColours. "Every room reacts to light differently – the space you're decorating may not be completely north-facing, it might have some east-facing light in there or you may use a lot of artificial light (or all the above). This is why testing the paint colours before committing to 'The One' is really important and we cannot stress this enough."
Painting essentials
Rachel Edwards is the Style & Interiors Editor for Country Living and House Beautiful, covering all things design and decoration, with a special interest in small space inspiration, vintage and antique shopping, and anything colour related. Her work has been extensively translated by Elle Japan and Elle Decor Spain. Rachel has spent over a decade in the furniture and homeware industry as a writer, FF&E designer, and for many years as Marketing Manager at cult design retailer, Skandium. She has a BA in French and Italian from Royal Holloway and an MA in Jounalism from Kingston University. Follow Rachel on Instagram @rachelaed
