Guide

Interior Paint Color Guide: Choosing the Right Colors for Every Room

Picking an interior colour is easier when you start with the room, its light, and how you use it. This guide walks through each step.

Colour Choices That Work

Start with the room's light. North-facing rooms tend to look cooler and greyer, so warm undertones help. South- and west-facing rooms take warm colours well and can handle deeper shades.
Decide on the mood first. A calm bedroom, a lively kitchen, and a focused home office each call for a different feel.
Use the fixed finishes as your starting point. Flooring, countertops, and cabinets set the undertones your walls need to work with.
Test large swatches on at least two walls, and look at them in morning, afternoon, and evening light.

Colour Choices to Avoid

Don't choose from a small chip alone. Colours shift once they cover a full wall.
Don't pair trim and walls without checking undertones. Two whites that look fine on a chip can read yellow or grey side by side.
Don't paint connected open-plan spaces in unrelated colours without planning the transitions between them.
Don't skip sheen. A glossy finish shows every flaw on the wall, and a flat finish in a busy hallway scuffs quickly.

Room by room

Matching Colour to Purpose

Each room has its own job. Use these notes as a starting point, then test your favourites in the space itself.

Living rooms

Start with the largest fixed element, such as the flooring or a large sofa, and choose a wall colour that works with it. Eggshell or satin sheens clean up well in busy family rooms. Warm neutrals and muted greens or blues give a settled, welcoming look.

Bedrooms

Softer, lower-contrast colours help a bedroom feel restful. Soft blues, muted greens, and warm greys are common choices. A flat or matte finish on the walls and ceiling reduces glare and gives a calm look.

Kitchens

Choose a colour that you can wipe down easily. Eggshell or satin on walls and semi-gloss on doors and trim make cleaning simpler. Lighter colours brighten a kitchen that gets limited window light.

Bathrooms

Moisture-resistant finishes matter most here. Test your colour under the room's own light fixtures, since bathroom bulbs often differ from daylight. Our interior paint page lists the paints we stock, including options designed for bathrooms and high-humidity rooms.

Hallways and entries

These spaces take the most wear. Pick a durable sheen and a colour that hides scuffs, and keep the palette consistent with the rooms you can see from them.

Kids' rooms

A cheerful accent wall works well, while the rest of the room stays neutral so it can grow with the child. Washable finishes make cleanup easier.

Home offices

Many people find mid-tone colours with a slight cool undertone comfortable for long stretches of work. Very bright or very dark walls can be tiring over a full day, so test them before you commit.

Step by step

How to Choose in Five Steps

Gather the fixed finishes: flooring, countertops, cabinets, and upholstery. Bring samples with you when you shop.
Note the room's light, including the direction of the windows and the type of artificial lighting you use at night.
Choose a sheen for the room's use. Flat or matte works for ceilings and low-traffic walls, eggshell or satin suits most living areas, and semi-gloss suits trim, doors, kitchens, and bathrooms.
Narrow your choices to three colours and test each one with a large sample on two walls.
Check the samples in morning, afternoon, and evening light, then make your decision.

FAQs

Common Questions

Talk to our staff before you buy.

How can I tell if a colour is warm or cool?

Look for the undertone, the faint hue beneath the main colour. Hold the sample against a sheet of white paper. Warm colours lean toward yellow, red, or orange, and cool colours lean toward blue, green, or grey.

Should the ceiling be a different colour from the walls?

Many rooms keep the ceiling white or a very light tint of the wall colour, which keeps the room balanced. Test the combination before you paint, because the ceiling shows up differently in each room's light.

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