Thank you, for your suggestions, I have toiled over this until it is literally making me sick. I have bought 7 to 8 sample paints. The furniture I bought was sitting in front of a light sandy cream with yellow base tint to it and furniture looked so totally different in store. Furniture was also, sitting accross from big plate glass windows with lots of light.

I get it home and I wanted to cry. Couldn't exchange it because I had ordered foot stool that couldn't be cancelled.

So I am stuck with this dark room and dark furniture, I just want to cry!

I do like the Georgian Green and I too am looking for something to lighting this cave, you feel like you are the only one with this problem, my friends think I am crazy, it's been 2 months and I am still looking for the right color. Of coarse they have a totally different set up, home that faces east and large windows.

Just for fun, thought I would attach a little video of room, I don't know if it will attach, but if it does, you can see how many colors I already have going on in my family room, just trying to come up with something, that looks good. It's maddening, the stripes are in verifications of SW Harmonic Tan, which has a green base under tone. It's left from trying to get rid of the Teal to start with, I liked, but it's really dull looking in my entryway, so I never went any farther. Behind love seat, again is that Manchester Tan, which there looks like pale yellow.

Again, thanks for your suggestions, I certainly will look at them closely.

Jean

Do you have a Sherwin Williams store in your area? They now employ interior designers who will suggest colors for your home. The fee is around $75 but it goes toward the purchase of the paint.

Yes, we do have a Sherwin Williams near us, but I have already someone from SW come out and it cost me $95.00, which I was happy to pay, but suggestions looked washed out and drab. She had me try Ancient Marble and Svelte Sage in a Satin. You can still see a little bit of the Svelte Sage SW 6146, that I covered up with my next sample, Manchester Tan, that actually looks almost white on my walls.

I was so in hopes that having someone come out would work, but I am still in a mess. Thank you though for your suggestion.

Do you have an aversion to opening your blinds? Appears to be quite a bit of light that wants to come in those windows. It's darker than a funeral parlor in there now.

The windows are wide open, the brighter it is outside the darker it gets inside, because we cause we have no indirect light. IT'S crazy.

I should have said no direct light, all we have is indirect light due to porches covering windows outside.

Yep I can recommend a specific color.

"Old Village Paint " - oldest paint company in the US nearly 200 years old and run by the same family for 6 or 7 generations. Their paint covers like crazy - should hide that teal in one coat (based upon using it all my life and my family using it for 150 years. ) Lasts forever -as in over a decade or two. Is practically bullet proof and washes great. This is the paint used by Colonial Williamsburg, Montpelier (James Madison's home), Library of Congress,,, pretty much all serious historical renovation and conservation projects in the east.

Nothing - not Benjamin Moore, not Sherwin, not California Paint - gets close to OVP in coverage per sq foot or in coverage per coat or in durability.

Old Corner Cupboard Yellowish White is the color that would work. Gets along with EVERYTHING - greens, blues, reds..... It is a light 18th century buff.

NO other company makes this color. I tried to find it locally -BM, Sherwin - and none do it.

White trim work still vibrates off it in contrast even though OCCYW is light.

In bright light is goes nearly creamy white. With no exterior light in a room it goes light yellowish. In rooms with poor light, it looks like pale pale pale butterscotch late in the day. It goes more light tanish if put against a strong deep blue and more yellowish with a strong deep green.

It comes in the buttermilk finish (not milk paint - latex formulated to have the buttermilk finish.) The paint is so dense though that it reflects 5 times as much light as a semi-gloss.

The only windows in this house are west, east and north with the east shaded by pine trees and covered porches. All walls (well the part of above the chair rail in 5 rooms and floor-to-ceiling elsewhere) all are or are going to be OCCYW. 2 gallons of OCCYW just did over 900 sq ft.

2nd color choice might be their "Picture Frame Cream". It is a very lightish creamy greenish-gray. Hard to describe. It would get along great with the greens in your room. You could lighten it even more by adding some of the Shading White if need be. Hard to describe the color - it is not tan but there are tannish tones. It is not green but there are green tones. It is not grey but there are grey tones.

Another possibility would be the "Steeple White" which isn't white but a creamy 18th century tan-yellowish that is very light. (That is latex and oil - not in the buttermilk) Definitely another color that no one else makes.

Old Village sells very small bottles of their paint for you to try. The oil and latex come in 4 oz, 1/2 pint, 1 pint, qt and gallons (not the oil though -it stops at qts.) The buttermilk paint comes in 2 oz, 4 oz, 1/2 pint, 1 pint, qt and gallons.

I would suggest calling them and ordering the paint charts and some small bottles. http://old-village.com/

Thank you for your suggestions, I sure will look at them.

Jean

GOt to thinking about it some more. The wall color matters but so does the furniture color and you are way way way dark.

Think about walking into an unlit area right after the sun has gone down or going into a dark place with a weak flashlight -you can see enough to avoid tripping but things are dim. Now which do you see more easily - the white sheet or the dark brown thing?

Dark colors absorb the light. Light colors reflect the light.

When I got up this AM just as dawn came, power was out. Looked in the living room (east windows, covered porch, lots of trees ......lousy light. I couldn't make out the deep cherry armoire as more than a dark mass. I could easily see the furniture (couch and a chair) that have cream-white upholstery.

Dark absorbs light, light reflects.

To maximize the light, you may also need to change the furniture colors. Even ready-made slipcovers would do until you can get some custom-made. The dark couch, dark chairs, dark painting, dark wood, dark stone all make it darker in there.

Take a photo of the room and put in your photo program and have the program make it greyscale (black and white.) you will see what I mean by the dark tones.

Think colors from the Georgian-Federal period (bright jewel tones) or the Edwardian period (light smokey rose, light bellflower blue etc) rather than the Victorian darkness.

I live in a rather dark house and have 5 lamps on timers that come on
around 4 pm and go off at 11 PM. The kitchen overhead light goes on in
the morning and stays on until I go to bed.

Besides the table lamps in your room, you might want to consider adding a torchiere lamp that shoots light up onto the ceiling. The light will bounce around and lighten the whole room. You can also add light by putting a picture light over a favorite painting or a spotlight tucked into a plant.

As for paint, you might want to look at the Ellen Kennon full spectrum paint line. Ellen Kennon will give you a phone consultation. I have used several of her paint colors and they are just lovely.

I am hoping that Lori Sawaya stops by this thread. I don't think that lighter furniture or even light paint is the solution to your problem.

I hope Lori stops by too!

Wall and furniture color will not solve the entire problem but will help and at least create the illusion of more light.

Outside of running up a ridiculous electric bill or putting a lots and lots more windows, only other thing I can think of it s Sun Tunnel if there is access to the roof from the room.

LEDs and CFL lightbulbs draw very little electrical power. One internet site estimates a CFL burning 5 hours a day costs $0.007 per day. And LEDs are even cheaper.

Ellen Kennon's Classic Cream. On the ceiling and walls. Your current trim color should work perfectly as is.

"We have a North facing room and I need a paint color for our family room, the brighter it gets outside the darker it gets inside."

:) This is something you don't truly understand unless you've lived it. North light is actually fairly well-balanced in terms of wavelengths (colors) altho it tends to be a snidge weightier in blue. North light never **beams** into windows or doors. It kinda just spills, trips, on its way to almost getting into the room.

And just because North light can be weightier in blue, that doesn't mean North light is literally blue. Stuff like blue North light will turn yellow paint colors green is not true. That's not how it works.

Artists LOVE the kind of light you have in your room. It's perfection from their point of view because the bundle of wavelengths it brings to the room is so well balanced and North light can easily be managed with artificial light.

I once had a home office that faced due North. The walls wore many colors, but the ceiling was always Classic Cream. Loved that space.

Your room is really very pretty and I'm sorry it is making you feel so bad. Please let us know if you try the Classic Cream or another color, and post photos!

Have you been able to decide on a color? My boys room faces north & I painted it bright, saturated apple green. It's not dreary, but it's not bright either. Our living room also received very little light (east) and is dreary most of the day. I'm planning to re-paint in something moody and embrace the cozy cave-like nature of the space.

I have the same kind of situation in my family room. Thankfully there is a large skylight in there so there is medium light during midday. I also put some lamps on the buffet in the darkest area farthest from the windows. Spent the last few months trying paint samples.. Like you said, colors look muddy and dark.

I finally painted the adjacent hallway in Niveous which is a cream color. Currently considering extending it into the family room. Or possibly Edgecomb Gray? I like a yellow green too but have not shopped that one yet. Painted the office facing south Gray Mirage and it looks very green, but its better than it was before in yellow and gives a more modern look to the space.

Please keep us posted!

Thanks to everyone, we are no where finished but we are getting there. We went with what is real close to BM Georgian, it was something I kept mixing up.

Picture below was the dark teal we had.

I am attaching what we have done and where we hope to go.

We will also be painting the fireplace and brick wall probably the Classic Cream, I think it will really lighten everything up and give us a new look.

Picture of the dinning room is my inspiration and that is why I painted the bottom of my entry white, because it will open up to dinning room.

My Picture below is not a good picture. Overall it is much lighter. Paint actually has a lot more yellow in the green, than my pictures. I was so afraid of it being dark, I have probably gone to light, most of the room looks like a soft sage. I may do a darker wash over the wall behind the couch.

As you can see I am still working on the wall behind the couch, I took down the dark picture and put up a mirror, I want to have shutters on both sides, but not sure if these are the ones. Shutters are turquoise and I am trying to decide if I should keep them, and do I want to paint them

white weather also, like the mirror or black or dark red, to pick up the red in room and dinning room. What do you think?

Thanks again, for your input.

for a room located on the north end of a home, the lightest you can tolerate is best. I would also recommend not choosing a flat light color (like a dull white, or gray), as there is no natural brightness in these colors. I'd try a yellow tone, which radiates a little more light.

Any blues that are saturated enough in a medium deep shade that goes in a north facing room? I was told to avoid muddy colors. What is that?? I assume greyed blues?

I was told to avoid muddy colors. What is that?? I assume greyed blues?

Correct. Usually, clearer, fresher, more chromatic colors work well with north light. The theory is you need the colorfulness/chromaticity to bust thru the dimness quality of north light.

With that said, you want to be careful to not go too sharp, too vivid, too colorful.