Lighting is Everything

When choosing colors, it’s important to recognize that lighting plays a major role in how each color will react.

And if you don’t believe me, try looking at your walls in the dark… do your walls look the same as they do in the day light? Extreme example, I know, but it does illustrate the concept quite well I find.

When choosing colors you’ll often hear it’s best to do so during the day when there’s the most natural light… and I agree. But something to keep in mind is that this is only one source of light to enter your home. If you spend most of your days away from your home, you’ll find yourself admiring your walls at night when you count on your home’s lighting to light up the space... and that can change the look of your color.

Example: If you have a blue painted wall and your lighting has a hint of yellow to it, your color will most likely look a bit more like an aqua color at night (greenish blue).

Another thing to consider in terms of lighting is how much of it there is in each room. For instance if you have a small bathroom with only one window the same color might look darker than it would in a large open living room with lots of windows.

And one final point to consider in terms of lighting is the angle of the surface. I remember this one job from about 12 years ago where this customer called me in a panic because he was sure we had painted the crown mouldings the wrong color. I assured him that we had only used one color for all of the trims in the house but he insisted that I go have a look since his interior decorator was there with paint swatches and insisted that it was not the right color. When I got there I took out a paint brush and took a dip from the same gallon of paint we had used and applied some on the baseboards and then some on the crown mouldings… well you should have seen their faces.

Crown mouldings are installed at an angle near the ceiling. This means it reflects the light differently than a frame that is taking in the light directly. That can create an illusion of a different color and in that example, it was convincing enough to fool even a trained interior decorator.