Choosing interior colours: tips from a painter

A colour fan looks simple, until you actually have to pick a colour from it. What looked like a warm grey in the shop suddenly turns green or purple on your wall. That is because light, the size of the room and the materials around it strongly affect how a colour looks. In this article you will read how to choose colours that suit your home and that you will still like in a few years' time.

1. Light is everything

The same colour looks different in every room. A north-facing room gets cool, even light, making colours look a little bluer and darker. Warm tones such as off-white with a hint of yellow or soft terracotta often work well there. A south-facing room gets warm light that warms colours up, so cooler tones work well there instead.

Artificial light plays a part too. Warm white light in the evening makes a colour more yellow, cool light makes it starker. So always look at a colour both by day and in the evening. In the deep, narrow homes of Amsterdam and the Zaanstreek, where light often comes from only two sides, that is extra important.

2. Space and mood

Light colours make a room look bigger, dark colours make it more intimate. That does not mean a small room always has to be white: a dark wall in a study or bedroom can actually feel cosy and sheltered. A ceiling slightly lighter than the walls makes the room seem taller, a dark ceiling brings the space down.

Also think about what the room needs to do. In a kitchen or study you want energy and clarity, in a bedroom calm. A stairwell is a special case: it connects the floors and is often dark. In a characterful stairwell in Amsterdam, Oranje Kwast chose a timeless combination of green and white together with the residents, see the project stairwell in Amsterdam. More on the approach can be found under painting a stairwell.

3. Combining colours

A calm interior comes about when colours throughout the home go together. You do not have to use the same colour everywhere, but do choose a family of tones that work well side by side. A few pointers:

• choose a base colour that returns in several rooms
• use an accent colour on a single wall or a door
• match the colour to the floor, furniture and frames
• keep ceilings and mouldings in a calm, light tone

Do not forget the woodwork. Doors, skirting boards and frames in the same tone as the wall give a modern, calm look, while a contrasting colour brings out the details.

4. Doing a colour sample

Never judge a colour on a small swatch alone. Have a tester pot mixed and paint a decent patch on the wall, preferably on two walls with different light. Look at it for a few days, at different times. You will find that your opinion sometimes changes quite a bit.

Bear in mind that the sheen level plays a part too: a colour in satin looks a little lighter and livelier than the same colour in matt. That is one of the things that often goes wrong when people choose a colour themselves. More pitfalls can be read in common painting mistakes.

5. Doing it yourself or having it done

Many people can paint one room in a light colour themselves. With dark colours, crisp colour divisions, tall stairwells and ceilings it gets harder: there you see every lap mark and every crooked line. Whether doing it yourself is worth it for you can be read in painting yourself or hiring a painter.

If you have it done, our painter thinks along about colour and choice of paint during the free advice session and works with premium brands that cover evenly. More on the approach can be read under interior painting in Zaandam and on the page about interior painting.

In practice this topic belongs with interior painting and commercial painting. There you can read about the approach and the options, or request a free, no-obligation quote straight away.

Further reading: Window frames: paint or replace?, How to recognise wood rot in window frames, Painting for an owners' association: how it works.

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