Getting a "light and bright" feel in a north-facing room, or any room with limited natural light is all but impossible. a light color, even warm, is not going to achieve it.

so, rather than going for the impossible light and bright, go for the warm and wonderful with some energy. Pick a warm saturated color. Also get some colorful artwork for the walls.

If that were my room, I'd paint it a warm, somewhat deep neutral, and I"d paint the ceiling an off white to create a contrast between the crown moulding and the ceiling.

And get some good artificial uplighting in there.

Tibb, you are good. I like your first one much better than what the OP has now.

Gotgo, choosing colors is so hard. I have been living with a color in my living room that isn't quite right for years.

ty, dedtired.

I like the last one as well

OP, I'm keeping it up for a while in case you would like me to try difference colors, so let me know. Very easy to switch the colors.

Thank you for doing that tibbrix! These are some great ideas and when I repaint I will definitely go with a medium color. I just have to live with this decision for a while and somehow make it work. Colorful artwork - definitely. I'm going to try different color temperature and CRI lightbulbs tonight to see if it will help. I'm kicking myself for not asking for guidance before the paint went up!

Notice how much colder and drab the purple walls/gray ceiling seem compared to the other mockups with warm colors.

Just as you can't fight bright light, you also can't fight low light, so you have to embrace it and work with it. I have a low-light living room. I painted the walls BM White Sand when I bought the house. By February, I had terrible cabin fever and couldn't wait to move my living room to my porch. A couple of years ago, I repainted the LR in BM Lenox Tan (it has a pine ceiling) and now I never want to leave! No cabin fever and I don't even move out to the porch in the warmer months! I love being in my LR! A bit too much, in fact!

I have a north facing room, might be northeastern, and used a white with no black. It is a BM color called Crisp Linen from their Color Stories full spectrum line. The room looks and feels fresh and bright, not grayed or dull, even with no artificial light on. It has red and yellow in it. There might be too much yellow for some people, as that is not popular with colors today, but I like warm whites and love it. The cleaner LED lights remove some of the yellow. I use 2700K for warmer soft lighting.

Nevertheless, I'd look for a light color without black in it.

I have a room with a wall of north facing windows and two west facing. windows. It's painted Sherwin Williams Creamy, and I totally love it.

Also, I agree with snookums re my new 2700K LED light bulbs; they cast a very warm light.

I am just as bad at picking colors, however, I really think if you add art, pillows, a throw and accessories the wall color might not be the focal point in the room.

Is part of the disconnect just because there is not a lot of contrast between the walls and trim? I think that painted trim looks really sharp up against a color with intensity. I have stained woodwork (somewhat the dreaded orange oak!) and it looks much richer up against color as well.

I don't think it looks that bad. In fact I think it looks quite nice. I made a bad color choice for my guest bedroom after doing what I thought was due diligence--got big paint chips, looked at the wall under a variety of light conditions, etc. In the end, what I thought was a pinkish tan read watered down pepto bismol. Dad painted the room for me while I was at work, so there was no redoing it. That was my first post here on the forum! I wanted to "tone it down." I learned to just embrace it and go with it. I was trying to "contrast" it with other colors, but I found out that if I used similar colors and mixed them up with pattern and texture, the pepto bismol calmed down. I think your room will look MUCH better with stuff on the walls and more furnishings and window treatments, etc. Right now it just stands out to you like a sore thumb because there is nothing else in there. To me, it looks nice.

I like the color you show in the later shots (orange walls, beige ceiling; blue walls; orange ceiling, orange walls, beige ceiling). If you pull those blinds all the way open, it will let in more light. The color seems to help as well.

I really think when you get art work up, drapes/ curtains, lamps and end tables you will like your paint color much better. Do you have hardwood floors or carpeting? A pretty colored rug (if you have hardwood) or a colored ottoman/throw/pillows if you have carpeting, to give a contrasting color......my rooms are all light colors with contrasting darker furniture.

I'm with Lisa, I like it and think it will look great with all your items in it.

I too think all that room needs is some art, pillows and curtains in your preferred colours. The wall colour is heartlessly plain right now with the couch but when you get some trinkets scattered around it will just look backgroundy.

For future reference, I think your couch has chocolate/taupe (pink) undertones and I believe the contrast with the pink of the couch is driving your walls to feel green.

Once you get more stuff scattered in there the wall/couch contrast won't be as stark and you'll be fine and the walls won't feel green at all.

I actually wouldn't do a gold as it will make your couch look almost purple! And personally I wouldn't try for a creamy pink off white for your walls if you didn't like the feeling of peach before.

You all have been so
helpful, thank you!! Right now a wall color I don't love is all I see
but I'm comforted (thanks to you all!) that decor could pull it together till we repaint. I
pinkmountain I love that you just made the color work. That is the
perfect story and my mantra: Someone made pepto bismol work - I can do
this! And robo (z6a), the couch is a "brown-grey" so your comment about the contrast makes perfect sense. I'm motivated now to just move along and have fun decorating. :)

I think your walls look fine. It will all come together with accessories and paintings, etc.

At least your husband is doing the work and your not paying someone.

I have painters here and have decided that I do not like the ceilings that I had them repaint this morning. I am going to keep the color on my kitchen/family room ceiling (looks more like the 1st mock-up that tibbrix posted) even though I am not completely happy with that, but having them darken the ceilings in the dining room and living area...at my expense! :( I will use the flat that matches my walls - BM Decatur Buff.

The way to make a color "work" that you don't like is to match it with similar colors from nearby in the color wheel. As Robo points out, similar colors can draw out, (or hide) aspects of the color that you don't like. A contrasting color from the color wheel will just make the color you don't like "pop" out in your face even more, which is what is happening right now with the dark couch being the only thing in there. I kept throwing blue things into my pepto bismol room to distract me from the color and it just made it look worse, it "popped" instead of fading into the background. When I added brown, burgundy, tan, pink, peach, coral, yellow, gold, barn red, rouge, pink, cream, green . . . the pepto bismol faded away.

Your wall color looked different in every one of your photos and I liked each one of them. I would go bold with large pieces of artwork on one wall and a gallery of smaller pieces on another wall. Be brave about color, but buy only pieces you really relate to, not just to make the wall color work. You say you have a large window so I would think about getting drapes for that and your smaller window, making sure they work color-wise with your couch and flooring/carpet/area rug. However, the molding might look better if it was painted a brighter white since it almost seems to blend into the wall color.

Personally, I like the white you selected. I can see that faint green you mention, but really, when you start to put your art work up, and hang your draperies and all of your other accent pieces, that white will fade into the background, giving you that warm feeling you were hoping for. :-)

I'm not going to go as far as saying its a bad color. But it's sort of blah in that space.

Rooms receiving light from the north, and west, need darker more saturated colors.

To me, it looks like any old apartment that has white walls everywhere.

I'm not sure if I'm seeing green in the paint so much as a warm glow from your lighting. You might try a 3000K light bulb before you do any more painting.

Tibb's choices give you an idea of how color plays. You should pick from the colors you like to live with. Too many people pick whites and light beige because they expect them to be safe, neutral and bright. They are just as much colors as darker choices and have just as much impact. Don't be afraid of color and don't count on walls to illuminate your reading material. If you want color, use it -- maybe buy another lamp or use a higher lumen or dayight rather than warm white bulb. If you want a light neutral, you could do a lighter greige. In SW colors that includes Accesible Beige or Agreeable Grey and others. That would be more of a tone on tone or monochromatic look in the room -- which would mean you would need soms accent colors in art, rug, pillows or other accessories. Try to look at the big picture as well as the paint on the wall.

I think white walls give rooms a blank background that allow you to incorporate color. Start accessorizing your room!

I doubt many colors look perfect until you add some art, lamps and other decor to the space. I think the right lighting will help a great deal. I would go for a nice warm glow from lamps. No overhead lighting unless it is on a dimmer. It is so much better when you have lighting scattered across the space. I am a lamp lover and feel lighting such as lamp lighting helps make any room looks better.

BTW, I like the color you chose. I also notice it looks nicer and more appealing during your daytime photos. What kind of lighting is used in the night time photos? Did you use a flash? Is there only overhead lighting in the the night time photos?

I love the color on your walls. It looks fresh and sophisticated to my eye. If you really dislike green I can see why it would bother you to see a bit of a green cast, but I like it :) I agree with those who've suggested livening up the room with art and accessories before considering repainting. Good luck!