SOURCE: Pamela Lynn Interiors
After lots of deliberation and sleepless nights you finally select a paint colour. You hire a painter, bring home the paint and start to believe you’re getting closer to your dream home. And before the first wall is complete you start to worry. As the paint is applied you look on in horror as you realize you’ve made a mistake.
If this sounds familiar you’re not alone. I’ve been to a lot of homes over the years to help homeowners who need to fix paint selections that didn’t live up to their expectations. And the most common reason you don’t like that paint colour is lighting.
How Does Lighting Affect Paint?
SOURCE: Pamela Lynn Interiors
There are three factors when it comes to lighting that will have an impact on your colour choices – natural light, artificial light and LRV of the paint.
Natural Lighting
The orientation of a room determines a lot about how paint is perceived. Have you ever had a paint colour that you loved at certain times of day while the rest of the time you hated it? That’s likely due to the direction and amount of natural light coming into the space. Here’s how your room’s orientation affects your space and can have an impact on your paint selections:
North Facing Rooms – this light is cool and can make a room feel cold. A northern exposure can give a room a gray cast that will leave your colour feeling dull and drab. Depending on how many windows you have it could still feel like a very bright space but the light that comes in will be a cooler light.
When painting a north facing room go for a paint colour that has a lot of warmth. This will offset the cool light and make it feel more comfortable.
South Facing Rooms – Conversely, a southern facing exposure is going to be very bright and warm. This is the exposure that most homeowners want because who doesn’t want to be bathed in warm light?!
The issue with this type of room is that it can actually receive too much light and wash out the paint colour. If you love a colour that tends towards the cooler end of things (cool blue, green or gray) it will work well in this exposure because the strong yellow light will help to warm up a cooler paint colour. You can also go for deeper, more saturated colours in southern facing rooms because the immense amount of light will brighten everything up.
East Facing Rooms – this exposure changes throughout the day and you’ll go from bright light in the morning to a cooler and more subtle light in the afternoon. The light is not overly warm at any time of the day so selecting a warmer paint colour can be the better choice.
West Facing Rooms – this is an ideal space for anyone that spends more time in their west facing room in the later afternoon. This is when the light will feel most strong and most warm.
Western facing rooms have a slightly cooler morning light that intensifies as the day progresses. By mid afternoon you’ll be saturated in light and it will feel warm and cozy. You can use either a warm or cool paint colour in this type of exposure.
Artificial Lighting
SOURCE: Pamela Lynn Interiors
This refers to all the sources of light within your home – overhead light, lamps and sconces. Most of us are living in spaces with inadequate amounts of lighting. Every room should have a combination of lighting that includes all three light sources – ambient, task and accent lighting.
The paint colour you select will be affected by your lighting conditions so if you have poor lighting it may be affecting how you feel about your space. This is obviously more true in the evening when we rely on artificial lighting.
Rooms that don’t have enough lighting tend to feel dull and the paint colours can become muted. One of the most common issues in an underlit room is that there may be shadows collecting in corners that give a dull appearance to the space. Read this post to learn more about the three types of lighting you need.
Understanding LRV of Paint Colours
If you’ve visited the website of a large paint manufacturing company you may have seen mention of a paint colour’s LRV. This stands for Light Reflectivity Value and it refers to how much light a paint colour will reflect.
LRV is measured on a scale from 0 to 100 with 0 being black and 100 being white. These numbers tell us how light or dark the colour is in comparison to other colours. It also helps us understand how much light will be reflected or absorbed by the paint colours we choose.
How LRV Affects Paint Colours
The reason you should be aware of this is because it can make a difference when you’re selecting from a group of similar paint colours. For example a group of tan paint colours may look similar but their LRV will tell the full story.
Most mid-toned taupe colours have an LRV of 30-60 so it stands to reason that the higher the number the lighter it will be. It won’t be the only factor but it could help you eliminate some of your options if you know what you want the end result to be.
Let’s look at some of Benjamin Moore’s most popular taupe paint colours. Grant Beige, Smokey Taupe and Briarwood look very similar and they could be similar once painted.
Grant Beige has an LRV or 55.81, Smokey Taupe is 54.53 and Briarwood has an LRV of 31.8. That means Briarwood will absorb more of the room’s light than the other two options. All three of these paint colours could give a similar look to a room but the change in light is something to note.
If you’re wondering where to find the LRV of the colours you’re considering you can visit the manufacturer’s websites. Each paint colour’s LRV is listed
I hope this helps you to understand some of the ways that lighting plays a major role in how your paint colours appear once painted.
If you feel just as overwhelmed as before it could be time for a colour consultation. Reach out to me and let’s discuss how a consultation can help you nail the perfect paint colours in just a day.
If you know your design style but you struggle with which paint to use, take a look at my Made-For-You paint palettes. They take the guesswork out and give you the confidence to get started.
