I’m leaning towards BM Grey Owl but unsure if it’ll come off as dark. And while this room WOULD be considered bright, if like my client, you prefer to keep the blinds down, then it’s a great example of a darker room with a beautiful colour on the walls. 12. It does not have to be a solid color, but if you opt for a patterned rug, make sure the overall color scheme is light and bright. Dark, drab furniture will make the space feel just as cold as the wrong paint color (see master bedroom photos below). It is a beautifully warm color that works in dark and bright spaces alike. Hi Lisa, with the degree of warmth in Calming Cream, I would HANDS-DOWN look at BM Simply White – I have a review on it you can check out :). Are there any tricks we can do to make it appear less taupe by what we put on the walls, around in the rooms? That means we use bits and pieces of your expertise to make some improvements ourselves, but when we are ready (financially speaking) to hire, I tell you, you’ll be on top of the list! If the room's ceiling is painted a dark color, or has dark wooden beams, it is probably casting a pall over the entire room. Another one of my all-time favorite colors. Paint samples can help you choose the right color: You may be nervous about painting a dark, saturated color in an already dark room. Sherwin Williams Silver Strand SW 7057. A beautiful creamy white that doesn't disappoint. In a dark room, the wall color that you choose makes a big difference in how bright the room feels. Hands down winner, pair it with bright white trim for stunning effect. E-Design and Online Paint Colour Consulting, Using a light paint colour to brighten a dark space, Using a dark paint colour to give a dark room personality – even if the room won’t look that much brighter, The 10 Best DARK PAINT COLOURS for a Dark Room, Benjamin Moore’s 5 Best Cream Paint Colours, Benjamin Moore 8 Best White Paint Colours, The 3 Best Warm White Paint Colours from Benjamin Moore, Yellow is the most reflective colour and will reflect any artificial and natural light it is given making the colour itself (and the room) feel brighter. I found this information incredibly helpful and I thought other people might too. My Favorite Paint Colors and Brands For Dark Rooms. Back in the day, a dark basement with wood panelling, orange shag carpet and a faint musty smell would leave many homeowners hot to trot. I hate it. It has more yellow in it without appearing yellow but is still wonderfully warm and bright. A good example of this is my master bedroom. Oh, I love getting a chance to say this…, You can have a dark space that appears ‘bright, light and fresh’ with the use of good lighting and a light paint colour, however, you will need the right furnishings to visually support it or it will look boooooring. In contrast, a room with black walls will absorb the light so no light will bounce around. A low-light room will benefit greatly from a light shade of paint. But it's really soft, airy and very beautiful! While I wouldn’t mind seeing a WINK more colour, it is a beauty. I have to go to the hardware store and just pick the colours myself. I love the dark grey and would love to know what this one is! Remember, really dark colors can dim down even the brightest room, so you want to make sure it doesn’t get too dark in the space. Read more: The 8 BEST Blue-Green Paint Colours. Edgecomb Gray is much more a "greige" (a mixture of gray and beige) than a true gray. Jan 9, 2021 Annie Schlechter. Even warm cream walls turn flat, yellow, and dingy. Hi Eva, thank you for your note! If you want a light and airy, casual yet cozy feeling to your space, you will want to stick to lighter colors. If your room is basement or just doesn't have much natural light coming in because of too few windows, feel free to play around with bluer toned grays. In a similar cool blue-green family, I also love SW Rainwashed and BM Palladian Blue. I hope that helps! If you would like to follow along on more of my home decor, DIY, lifestyle, and other posts, I’d love to have you follow me on any of the following: Hi, I'm Jenna, a busy mom of 3 boys, and the author & photographer here at JennaKateatHome.com. Move over, teenager! Thank you for visiting my paint colour blog, I'm glad you're here! Moonshine is ‘approximately’ 25% lighter, with an LRV up at 68, whereas Gray Owl is 65. Paint the ceiling white. So many different elements play into whether a color will work in your room (the color's undertones as well as colors reflecting from the furniture/fixings in your space). The bright white will reflect light instead of absorbing it, and you'll be … What Colors Work Best in a Low Light Room To Make it Brighter? You might be tempted to paint the room your favorite rich, deep color, but it's best to save bright and bold colors for accent walls or trim. The adults are taking back the basement. It has a wide range of shades that... Chocolate Brown. A wonderfully warm and versatile gray. Some of our favorite colors for rooms with little natural light are: I’m a painter by trade and reference your blog to my clients when choosing colours. Since lavender has warmer tones, using it to brighten up your dark room would be a really smart move. It will instantly lighten, freshen, and modernize a room. It's a Western Exposure room, so it's cold throughout most of the day save for a couple of hours of sunshine in the late afternoon. Light blue walls will help showcase any artificial lighting that you have in your usually-dark space, as lighter colors absorb less light than dark colors. However, lighter colors do not always mean white paint! Buy a can or two of white paint and give the ceiling a fresh coat. I repainted several of the darker rooms in my home Paper White and absolutely adore how it looks in all of them. If white won’t make the room feel airy, than what paint color will work for this dark north facing room to make it feel the way I want it to. The secret to using a bold color like this is to accept that the room will be dark until it's lit properly. Above, you can see how dark that back hallway is, but the reason it LOOKS GOOD, is because it has a wicked colour on it! It's a bit of a chameleon - sometimes it looks like a really dark gray, other times a dark gray/blue and even sometimes just downright blue. You can play around with these options and see how it can improve the look of your room. Or maybe you need something in the light/medium range that has a touch more colour in it (ie: a neutral with decent coloured undertones…). Use sunny paint colours 2) Inject a bit of sunshine If it’s warmth you’re after, don't be afraid to use light terracotta or yellow paint colours – a sunny hue can brighten and warm a dark, dingy space. Popular interior colors include light shades of yellow, green blue and pink. I just gone done with eider white in the basement. Dark colors are harder to work with than light colors. This is why, A shiny paint finish will reflect more light (but shiny walls can be super horrendous – especially if your drywall isn’t 100% awesome), so stick with reasonable finishes like matte, flat and eggshell, How to Fix a Dark Room – And it Ain’t With Paint, Benjamin Moore’s 9 Best Gray Paint Colours, E-Decorating and Colour Consulting Services, Legal Notice:    All the information and Kylie M Interiors watermarked images are the property of Kylie M Interiors, all rights reserved. The Best LIGHT Paint Colours to Brighten a Dark Room 1. If your room has little natural light - or colder light in the case of a northern exposure room - adding white to the walls will only make your room feel flat, since there's not enough light to bounce off it to begin with. While any light paint color will brighten a dark room, I strongly recommend considering white paint. With that being said, there are some paint colors that I go to time and time again when I'm dealing with small, low-light or just downright dark rooms. A fresh coat of paint can instantly brighten a dark room. Rooms without great light feel smaller, they said. And don’t forget, CONTRAST is a fantastic way to add interest to a dark room, as shown in this stairwell landing as well as on the bathroom vanity (see the whole home HERE). And while it isn’t a SUPER light colour, it’s a happy medium between the lighter and darker ends of things. I hope that our basement will be more welcoming. Before, the walls were painted a blueish/gray, Behr's French Gray. Yes, initially, the new paint color made the room feel considerably brighter, but by switching out the dark wood furniture for lighter furniture, suddenly the room is transformed. One hue that will brighten a dark room is gold, but you have to choose a "clean" gold such as Jonquil (SW 6674). The dark grey cabinets don’t feel overbearing, but rather inviting and riveting. Is the light blocked by hills or buildings outside the window. I repainted it one of my favorite light grays, Paper White, which has just enough warmth to stop it falling flat, while still giving that bright, crisp look that I wanted. If you... 2. Thanks for your help and post! Read more: The 3 Best Warm White Paint Colours from Benjamin Moore. In well lit spaces in comes across as a very light gray but down here it definitely leans a bit more blue. Some swear that using one of the best white paint colors is the only way to go because your walls will reflect light, which can make your space feel more open and airy. Online decorating and e-design, e-decor consultations. Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore paint colour expert. But both experts kept talking about adding a sense of space. These hues will breathe new life into your bathroom. Our sofa is brown leather and there is a beige rug. Another amazing moody green. Observe the paint swatches over the course of several hours, to get an idea of how those paint colors look at different times of day. What would be a nice compliment color to paint an accent wall? Similar in tone to Collonade Gray but a little less beige. While you don’t have to paint the entire room white, keeping the walls light instead of using those rich dark colors will also brighten up the entire room. Just like filling your room up with light-colored furniture, using light paint colors for your walls can also give your space a brighter mood. So, I’ve found that ‘taupe’ can mean different things to different people. So many of us love the bright, fresh feeling that lighter colors bring to a space. Eva. It turns out its really not that easy. It's bright, modern and a very light gray. So, what this really means is that…, You don’t have to paint your walls light and white to make a dark space feel good. In the picture below, you can barely see any of the gray tones at all. It’s a cream with a beige-gray undertone that calms it down, so it’s soft and muted and loses a lot of the ‘cream’ that you’ve seen in some of the above colours. Closer to a basic white, BM Simply White has just enough warmth to stop it feeling cold. This may make your room feel very cold. We like light grey with white trim and we’ll do a darker turquoise feature wall in the living room. Ask interior designers how to make a small room look bigger, and you’ll get a lot of different answers—especially when it comes to paint. I just discovered your blog post while searching for advice on paint colors for a dark room, and I’m so very glad I found you! Beige and White (Contemporary) It may seem boring, but it’s anything but. It has just enough warmth to stop it feeling cold but not so much that it takes it out of the light gray territory. Thanks again! It’s basic color science, white is the best reflector of light. The best way to control this factor (other than replacing your floors) is to put down a light area rug. A tried-and-true trick to making a dark space feel brighter is to fill it with the colors of the sun, like reds, yellows, and oranges. One of the best ways to bring more light into a room is with a high-gloss paint color, and a ceiling is the perfect spot to experiment with this design choice. Maybe you like it, or maybe you like it in a smaller area but remember, it’s going to be all over the walls. This also works great if you don’t have the nicest furnishings as your wall colour might be the only ‘visual support and interest’ that your room has, And personally, I’d rather have an interesting and slightly dark space (that I would fix with good lighting and other tricks) than a boring bright one. If you want more drama, more personality, more pop to your walls, then a darker, more saturated color will be want you want. Any thoughts or suggestions? This keeps things not only brighter but also bigger looking (wider). I go back to your guide to greys more than I care to admit. Required fields are marked *. If you’ve picked your colours already and have hired a professional painter, then they should be able to do a good job with work lights, but if it’s you painting, you might want the lighting in, so you can make sure your lines are neat and tidy , Kylie, Flat sheen wall paint is becoming increasingly more popular for walls - primarily because it hides uneven textures the best, but it's not a good choice for a darker room where your intent is to brighten up the space, as there's no reflective particles to help reflect the light back into the room. If you absolutely must use dark blue, green, red or another rich color, choose one small wall to paint, and paint the rest in a much lighter color. Does it have little natural light because of minimal windows or because it's a basement room? This way you could add some personality to the room without committing on a larger scale. Instead, if I want to achieve a light to medium fresh gray, I'll pick a gray (like SW Repose Gray) that has some beige to it. Yes, you might be tired of white, but it can easily boost the brightness of any room. It doesn’t have to be overly feminine, so it works well in almost any space. Top 12 Interior Paint Colors That Help Any Dark Room Seem Brighter 1 – Lavender. Click HERE or on the above image to see available packages! By Carmen Collins. But what happens when your room has few—or no—windows? Thomas Loof. Hi Amanda, thank you for asking. Looking for something even warmer? The cold light really brought out the blue in this paint color and the room always fell dull and cold as a result. A few more popular warm whites include SW Pure White, BM Simply White and SW Alabaster. I am looking to paint my upstairs bedroom! Cooler paint colors — like pale shades of blue and gray — help walls recede and make rooms feel more light and spacious. The cleaner the color (meaning the less black it contains) the lighter and brighter the paint color is. If you really want to achieve a light and airy feeling, then keep the furnishings light, too. Mirrors places across from windows or light sources Silver Strand is a beautiful light blend of blue-green-gray that USUALLY favours blue over green. Kylie, I know you’ve heard it all before but I still want to thank you for the priceless work you share with the rest of the world. Creamy has a beautiful soft warmth to it, without turning obnoxiously yellow. Now when it comes to my own home I’m of course too picky. Here are just a FEW reasons why I recommend Samplize to my clients…, 6. It was fun for a little while. This is in an open concept basement kitchen with white cabinets. 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