Yes, north-facing rooms with dim light need bolderâ¦not darker, colors.

I'd put up more trim around the windows and crown moulding, and paint the walls something like this, BM Bryan Ochre

In an ochre with trim and crown moulding

I love your rug and chairs.

How about a pretty pale lavender on the gray side but with enough color?

A rich purple

A good brown

An autumn spice

I am super intrigued by the ochre and the purple, thank you thank you! Any thoughts on a teal? I have been pondering that as well, but was not sure if it would be too much blue tone.

The front of our house is north facing. I just went through 12 samples and noticed whatever sample I used turned gray. I think using a warmer undertone is the way to go. North facing spaces tend to make a lot of colors appear cooler. West, south, and east facing spaces tends to make colors appear warmer.

We have the same situation with North facing and lots of windows. I haven't had as much luck with picking colors. Tired of the white walls and knowing how long I can obsess about getting the "perfect" color, I looked at a few swatches and said let's try this. I LOVE it!!!

It's a dark beige to light brown (hence I don't even know how to describe colors). It's pretty during the day, and at night it takes on a sultry color.

I've got the rest of the house to pick out, so I'll take the advice here for the remainder of the house --- lots of North facing windows.

aloha, that sounds like my BM Lenox Tan I've (newly) got in my living room. As the day wears on, it gets very warm, radiates, and then in the evening and at night, it is sultry. What a great word to describe such colors!

Ljane, I too like the ochre and the purple best of the four above, but not quite THAT purple, which looks too grape-y to me. You'd need a sophisticated purple for sure. That's I think both purple and ochre work beautifully with both the navy and mustard. Check out BM Vintage Charm, which is a really beautify purple and a perfect depth for your north facing room. The ochre I think would give you that "sultry" look and feel in the evenings that aloha mentioned above.

Did a quick mockup with teal. I think the teal is a bit too "hot" for a bedroom. I don't think it works very well. Notice I did not add trim here. Big difference IMO!

BM Vintage Charm bedroom

You all are fantastic, thank you! I LOVE that color - Vintage Charm. The great thing is - the master bath - I planned to incorporate lots of mercury glass tones with champagne, etc... and this would work perfect! Aloha, I'm going to put up a few swatches of what you're describing too. Love the idea of sultry at night. And Tribbix, you are so right about adding the trim and crown molding, it makes a HUGE difference!

I've been trying to find a place to use Vintage Charm in my house! Maybe the laundry room! I too LOVE that color.

I also strongly believe that deeper colors NEED trim for contrast and to really make them do what they do best, real be a PART of the room design. And if you can get your hands on a mitre saw, it is not at all a difficult or expensive thing to do (although, might want to get someone to do crown moulding as the corners can be tricking there, but NOT on windows and doors.

Vintage Charm would be PERFECT, absolutely PERFECT with mercury glass!

Ochre and spice look the best. The bare windows are a little sad in themselves, so Tibbrix's idea of adding trim and treatments could change everything. I think pale lavender could turn very sad indeed. I love what you have so far.

Here it is in something that would be similar to the Vintage Charm, only I think the VC would be deeper, which would be good. I think this i too light.

Same color with the light adjusted. I really like this hue for your room.

So, if you go with purple, I think you want a purple that has less blue and more gray in it.

And finally, again messing with the light, I think this is pretty close to what Vintage Charm would look like.

I'm heading to the store this afternoon for samples with Vintage Charm being one of them. I'll follow-up once they are dry and on the wall. Linelle, you are completely right - windows are sad now... that will be 'phase 2'.

I'm heading to the store this afternoon for samples with Vintage Charm being one of them. I'll follow-up once they are dry and on the wall. Linelle, you are completely right - windows are sad now... that will be 'phase 2'.

Btw, the other thing I"d do is pull the area rug back just a bit so that it is half way between the front and back legs of the bench at the foot of your bed. I think that would tie the three things (bed, bench, rug) together.

I just want to echo those who are talking about northern exposures tending to gray out - and benefiting from saturated and warm colors.

Which is a problem for me with my north-facing house, as I really want to go more neutral and light and I'm not sure the lighting will play nice with my wants.

This post was edited by Steph2000 on Sat, Jan 3, 15 at 18:07

Perhaps this green?

Here is a link that might be useful: BM -- 2149-10 Newt Green

What about a more brownish purple?

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Steph, if you want to go more neutral in rooms that don't get a lot of natural light, use neutral colors, but in deeper hues. Tans are great and can work very well in a north facing room.

Agree w/NSM, re: also looking at browner purples.

Thanks, Tibbix. I'll definitely file that tip away. The problem is, of course, that I think I want to be so far on the neutral spectrum that I am actually in the off-whites and tone-on-tone ballpark. I'm not feeling optimistic about that working but I haven't started splotching yet...dreading the spotching....people who can't pick paint colors shouldn't be allowed to be so darn picky about the perfect hue! LOL

Can you lift your house and turn i 180 degrees to face south?

Lol.

Problem is, as you know, that light colors go dull in north facing rooms. It's one of those situations where you have to give up something to get something, so either give up energy for light colors, or give up light colors for energy.

And of course, lighting is SOOOOO important! Might even be wise to assess your lighting before you start looking at paint colors.

I have a west facing bedroom but the light I get is from an open under roof patio. I painted the bedroom Sherwin Williams Antique White which has some yellow in it. However, because itâÂÂs dark in there the paint reads more of a light slightly warm rich cream. ItâÂÂs very lovely and easy to mix any accessory colors with.

Thanks so much, Tibbrix and Jterrilynn. I feel like somehow I've managed to totally hijack Ljane's thread (sorry, Ljane!) while we all sit here in eager anticipation awaiting her Vintage Charm and assorted other splotching. I'm eager to hear how those experiments are going!

If history is a guide, you will see 100 posts from me in the future about paint color. Gawds, I am really hoping I can avoid that tiresome bit of board spam...