Don't underestimate the UV in foggy climates. It can actually be higher than one thinks. Looking down at plants is very different than viewing them at eye level. I have a bed that I view more often looking down from above, out of my kitchen window, than I do while passing by to work in my front or furthermost back yards. This is the triangular bed viewed as standing in my neighbor's yard on the left side of it: This is the same bed viewed from above, although the coleonema (which surrounds the lamppost) isn't in bloom here: Everything I plant in this bed is planned to look good from above. I have 15 separate beds and this is the only one I treat this way. I have fiddled a lot with the plants in it since it lives on runoff so is one of my few truly xeric beds. It gets very little direct sun but a lot of very bright shade (it looks south/southeast, instead of north like yours), so it can take even sun-lovers like the purple Lantana trailer on the RH side. One small shrub I have in a north-facing bed MIGHT work for you, but I'm not sure. It is a regular water lover, not drought resistant. I love this plant! It is a variegated fuchsia, "Firecracker". A bit tender, so it would probably do better for you in SF than it does for me in the Oakland hills.

We must be rule breakers! LOL! Our master bedroom faces north and is painted in the cool-calm-and-comfortable Silver Sage from Restoration Hardware -- with bright white trim. Love this color -- and it goes with so many other colors including black and white decorative accents! The furniture is deep walnut but there is both silver and gold accessories and accents around the room. The adjoining bathroom is painted in bright white with dark sage green towels. You could simply add a touch of warmth in your bedding colors -- perhaps a red or orange. Or add color with warm colors in the artworks. Hope this helps! It is a photo of our bed -- with its winter bedding. In the summer we use Ralph Lauren's "Sussex Gardens" comforter and shams (with a peachy background and florals) with a leaf-green or very old soft orange-peach satin comforter folded at the bottom of the bed.

50-ish, if you find one at 45 or so that you like don't discount it just because of the LRV number. Unless there are standards/color specs involved, LRV is more like a loosey-goosey guideline, not a formula or prescription to follow. And, yes, colors with a higher LRV number have better odds of delivering the light and airy atmosphere you're after vs. darker colors. A dramatically shifting paint color has more to do with its own metameric tendencies vs. the quality of light. A rule of thumb is if your color stays consistent in appearance when viewed in fluorescent and incandescent lighting, it will *probably* be consistent in any light source. More about north light: North exposure is not direct rays of sunlight. Very different from south light beaming into your kitchen almost all day long, or the morning sun bursting through your east facing bedroom windows at the break of day. North light isn’t necessarily reflecting or bouncing off of something else to get inside the space, it’s just that when your windows face north you don’t have actual, direct beams of light entering fenestration. North light is the most balanced from a spectral distribution perspective, it has a nice, even collection of all the wavelengths though it tends to be heavier in the blue range. Because it’s a balanced bundle of wavelengths and also because it is not a direct beaming, or spot-light effect of natural light, north facing rooms are ideal for any kind of artistic work environment. The pronounced blue of north light is a factoid that's been blown way out of proportion. Blogosphere has taken that one single aspect of north light and made a huge deal out of it - I guess because it makes a good 'sound bite' or something. I dunno. But it's kind of a dumb thing to hyper-focus on. Heavy in blue doesn't mean it's gray. Doesn't necessarily mean it's cool either. North light is simply indirect light that's balanced over the visible spectrum as a whole but with a pronounced bump of blue.

I would be inclined to get some bedding with a bit more structure like a coverlet with a tailored bed skirt. The walls painted a pale turquoise like the color on the bedding in this picsome linen drapes in the same color as the walls , new simple wood night stands and some nice decorative pillows . This pic is the wall color for the LR it could be a bit paler but I think it would look awesome in that space