Decorating - colours dark or light - room north facing

[Daddylonglegs123]

Advice about how to decorate our front room/living room and wondering have we missed the boat with deep dark shades of green/blue now (as we will have to live with it for awhile) or would a paler more neutral sagey green or a more neutral lighter creamy shade have more longevity? Also wondering whether to paint the whole room one colour top of skirting boards to ceiling or whether to paint say a dark greeny/blue shade on the chimney breast and in the alcoves with a contrasting more neutral shade on the other walls. If so advice and photos of any colours that work well year round in a north facing living room.

As neither of us can paint well we are going to get a decorator to do it hence having to live with it for awhile.

While I like the deep colours colour drench thing, I think muted colours with white skirtings or whatever are less trendy and therefore have more
longevity.

Go with the colours you love. Not whats fashionable, or what others think, but with colours that say something about you, your design choices and your home.

Go with a shade that suits the orientation of your room first. When do you use the room - mostly in the evenings - the deep colours can be lovely, during the day you might want to choose a warm paler colour - like a dusty pink with green and pale wood or cream, tans & black - or cream and forest green looks great, lots of plants - maybe a bit of black for contrast. I agree that white contrasted wood, now looks a bit dated and that might matter to you...or might not.

We don’t currently use the room that often because it is our front room we keep it fairly minimal and fairly tidy as it is on display at the front of the house and we have long bay windows and we generally live in the open plan back room with the dog. My son used to keep his XBOX in there, both teens now at Uni often have friends staying over in this room from time to time when home. I would take unexpected visitors in there as our back room is a kitchen diner and is often messy. The plan now is to use it more on an evening, when we have visitors and when kids home from Uni as we will have less seating in the back room.

Thanks all still going round in circles. As well as being north facing we also have a very large old tree just outside our house so it is quite dark, mainly planning to use the room at night or if we have extra visitors during the day.

Have purchased some testers and gone a bit mad. Still can’t decide whether to paint just the chimney breast wall a contrasting colour, to paint the chimney breast and the two alcoves a contrasting colour (with the rest of the room being much lighter or to paint everything the same relatively safe neutral colour?

We have original/traditional skirting boards but the picture rail was removed by previous owners and we don’t have any coving if that makes a difference. We have a pale beige carpet and two tan leather sofas. Thanks 😊

I think if it's a room you mainly plan to use in the evening and you have a light carpet and tan leather sofas then dark navy or green would be nice. Are you planning to replace the coving and picture rail and ceiling rose? The Georgians and Victorians liked dark woodwork so it's not a new idea, probably more appropriate for a period property TBH than light walls. I'd probably not have a white ceiling though, with navy a light blue might be nice or a light pink ceiling with green walls.

Oh, I'm not a big fan of painting chimney breasts and alcoves different colours, I think it's fussy and is much less calming than an all over colour. I may be scarred by the previous owners of this house who had a feature wall in ever room (yes, even the loo had a random wall painted a random colour), I've spent the last few years getting rid of them.

@JaninaDuszejko lol. I don’t know whats right or whats wrong anymore and so indecisive blame meno. I thought maybe having the whole room painted in a dark colour might be too much whereas having one wall in a darker colour might make it cosy and more current but maybe I am totally wrong here and have missed the boat with these dark colours? I don’t know anymore. DH getting fed up with my indecisiveness.

forget dark colours; they make a room look small and cramped, also v dark esp as north-facing and with a tree o/s.
can you get rid of the tree, or severely trim.
apart from the lack of natural light, trees near houses can destabilise, as pull water from the foundations.
also leaves blocking gutters etc.
paint the room a light colour.
don't mess about with faddy ideas which will cost you extra when you have to redecorate, and look dated sooner.

@alexdgr8 thanks. No unfortunately the trees were on the avenue when we moved in and have been around a long time before that. We can’t do anything with them. The council seem to trim or prune them I think once a year.

Does it have high ceilings? My DD has a Victorian town house and her front room is north facing and on a tree lined street. She went with the darkness and painted the room dark blue, skirtings and shelving included. Then added jewel colour in fabrics and furnishings, along with lamps and lots of art. It looks fabulous and is very cosy.

We also have a north facing house but no high ceilings and we went a mellow white everywhere, again with lots of colour in fabrics, furnishings and art. It also looks great but is a completely different vibe.

Not exceptionally high ceilings standard 1930’s semi detached ceiling height (not large terrace height ceilings).

Our sitting room is north facing - in the day it feels cold.

Here is what we did.

F and B Setting Plaster. It works very well as it is warm but lightish in the daytime and really cosy at night. We have a warm white on the ceiling with a pearl finish on the coving. The same on the skirting.
It takes colour well with rugs and sofas etc.

It is always bloody hard putting it together especially when you are in an indecisive phase.

@EnoughIsay thanks for your helpful comments. I was really hoping to love your link and I can see how it might tick all the boxes and would look warm but thinking of a more neutral less peachy shade of colour or more of a green shade.

I've got a similar dilemma. Same aspect room and won't decorate it regularly. I'm thinking of Little Greene Portland Stone. Enough to be a colour, but easy enough to live with for a while. Looks like it has a very slight tinge of green as well. I find settling on paint colours a nightmare - too many tempting colours but so easy to get it wrong as well.
https://www.littlegreene.com/portland-stone

That looks a nice shade @SwedishEdith its so difficult and any colour can look very different and either be very overwhelming or underwhelming once the whole room is decorated in it.

I read years ago that north facing rooms are best decorated in cool colours.
I've seen in person a north facing room painted terracotta and it was all wrong.

Still no further forward. Quite like Cromarty but wonder if it will maybe look too drab and more grey than green, the other greens we have look more blue than green.

Can anyone suggest an illusive pale ish green colour for a dark ish north facing room (with a tree outside) that won’t look too dark and dingy during the day but will also look cosy, warm and relaxing on an evening with lamps on? Thanks

Willow V (or Willow IV) from Paint and Paper Library. Or Cooking Apple Green from F&B.

I painted our north-facing study in Bone - it looks like a sage green, such a lovely shade and looks warm looks warm but fresh too - we paired it with white cupboards, a walnut desk and a chair with a burnt orange seat.

We've got Light Blue in our south west back room. Despite its name, it's quite sagey green. I've read it's a versatile colour in any room so may be worth trying.

Yes a few greens look blue or grey in our light.

I have a north facing front room, got fed up with trying to lighten it up so went darker, walls painted grey-green linen by valspar it’s darker than Cromarty I have have greige sofas & carpet with darker shades of green & pink lamps/throws/cushions it’s very cosy.

We have Crown House Palm in our living room - it’s north facing with lots of big trees making it even darker. I wanted green as it’s in-keeping with the green from trees out the window, but I tried a LOT of greens before I decided on that one!

We have light blue in our bathroom which is east facing and it's quite sagey - tried it in another east-facing room and it looked grey