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What you need to know about natural light & paint color

August 26th, 2010 | Author: Lori Sawaya | Posted in Color Theory | 18 Comments » |

Color Bud, Lynne Whiteside, left this comment on a previous post:

“Please point me in the direction of affects of natural light on wall color. North, South, East, and West all have their own reflective color and I need more information. Thanks a million.”

Here’s my answer to Lynne:

The popular cut-n-paste on the web goes something like this:

• North = Blue
• South = Yellow
• East = Green
• West = Orange

Seen this interpretation or some rendition of it repeated many times on many paint and color websites – just in general across the web, and even a few books if I remember right. Doesn’t mean it’s correct information though.  Probably means well but …

We can to an extent predict certain color affects and color characteristics based on fenestration – but only to an extent.  I have been known to speak to directional light in somewhat the same manner, i.e. north light spills in, it doesn’t beam directly in and because of that fact its dim qualities can read bluish. But that’s not the whole story.

We have to remember properties of inherent light will affect surface colors and produce effects sometimes foreseen, sometimes not. However, surface colors can not affect the properties of inherent light.  Unless there are extenuating circumstances like über strong or day-glo-esque wall colors adding robust reflection to the atmosphere.  (insert small pause to think about that one)

When it comes to wall color as you’ve inquired, our objective is not necessarily to assign the cardinal and intermediate directions a mask of hue. And then attempt some kind of unnatural mental color mixing gymnastics. An example of mental color mixing might go something like this: If north light is blue and I use a yellow wall color, the room will look green. It simply does not work that way.

Because, hypothetically, we’re taking an additive color quality, blue light, and saying it will defy the laws of physics and *mix* together with a subtractive surface color, yellow paint, and literally out of thin air reveal itself as green. That’s ridiculous. Or, another example: In order to alter perceived blueness of north light, use the complement of blue which would be an orange paint color to counter it.

What does work is paying attention, focusing, and finding the right wall color to partner with the quality and quantity of light you have to work with.  Here is what’s key.  It’s about a color’s nuance syncing up with the beams, the wavelengths of light in the space. When the nuance and light make a good pairing, they can dance on forever. Even as the sun’s position in the sky changes throughout the day, and the quantity and quality of said inherent light also changes, they will find a way to gracefully waltz through every hour, every minute, every second of every day.

Color and light are exclusive partners.  And often as designers we screw up that relationship by trying to force a wall color on a room because of a rug or some other “inspiration” piece or pulling a color from a favorite pair of sweat pants, or someone’s hair color, or some other thing.

If primary focus was placed on fitting the room with color instead of how well the sweat pants fit, I have to wonder what would happen.

18 Responses to “What you need to know about natural light & paint color”

1. Maria Killam
   8:36 am on August 26th, 2010

   I love how you called it mental colour mixing gymnastics. So true! I would love to hear more about what you mean on the last sentence. I certainly focus a lot of my expertise on pulling a room together with colour. I see way too many rooms where that has clearly NOT been the focus, therefore the colour doesn’t work at all, in my opinion, is not doing it’s job.

2. Elizabeth Brown
   9:29 am on August 26th, 2010

   Hi Lori,

   I engage in mental color mixing but certainly not gymnastics. Can’t do a back flip, but I can walk the balance beam. When dealing with light I don’t mix light and surface color to achieve a desired hue, but I do use it to warm it up or cool it down. Can you please elaborate more on North light “spilling in” or direct me to a source. Thanks!

3. Debra Disman
   2:54 pm on August 26th, 2010

   Hi Lori,
   Donald Kauffman, Taffy Dahl and Christine Pittel, in “Color and Light Luminous Atmospheres for Painted Rooms” say: “Light not only colors a room, a room can also color the light. Red paint on a wall actually tints the atmosphere red. A full spectrum of complementary colors re-creates the white light found in nature.”
   Would you disagree with this?

4. funcolors
   3:25 pm on August 26th, 2010

   MK, the point is not to exclude those factors rather to treat the room, the space, the atmosphere more wholistically. Too often it is not. It’s not an either or situation. Hyper-focusing on one element or a few elements to the point a tunnel-vision fixation develops also limits color in doing its job. That often happens because people have had the concept of inspiration piece, etc. drilled into their head.

   If that worked so well — and so completely — for folks, then there probably wouldn’t be a need for our color blogs and classes. The usual dogmas of color guarantees no shortage of color conversation.

   The color and light relationship gets plenty of spin too, easily as much as the staid color tips and tricks. Without fail the minute I start talking about color and light there’s always one person who jumps in with an emphatic “OF COURSE I consider the light”. But the way many of them do it stops short of what it could be.

   There needs to be a better grasp on how it works, what’s going on, and how to control it. The status quo and ridiculous color assumptions, like north light will add blue to the paint color, should be challenged.

   If we better understand how that relationship works, then we have more options and better chances of managing the whole atmosphere into what is wanted and expected. Intuitive color sense, eyeballing color and making choices based on taste and experience isn’t always enough in solving some of those more difficult color conundrums; not to mention having to explain and justify those selections in some cases.

   Enhancing the process of color selection beyond “test the paint color in your room and make sure it harmonizes throughout the day” can only happen if we move off the inspiration piece, staid color tips and tricks and speak to the space and involved humans more broadly and inclusively. It’s freeing and makes us better prepared to create color harmonies on whatever levels of contrasts and coordination one’s heart desires whether it’s undertones, masstones, hue or nuance, etc.

5. Lori Sawaya
   4:19 pm on August 26th, 2010

   EB, 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.

6. Lori Sawaya
   4:31 pm on August 26th, 2010

   “Light not only colors a room, a room can also color the light. Red paint on a wall actually tints the atmosphere red. A full spectrum of complementary colors re-creates the white light found in nature.”

   Debra, I do disagree with specific parts of that statement. There is ample opportunity for discussion and debate in my opinion.

7. Lynne Whiteside
   11:21 pm on August 27th, 2010

   The first color job I had the living room was painted a light green, the room had a Western exposure. No sun in the am at all. In the morning I would stop by before my retail job, early in the am. The green looked beautiful, and I was so proud. When I would go back in the evening and the sun was going down in the West & the room had lots of light the green had turned to an ‘alright’ taupe, I was amazed.

   So my mental gymnatics said that the orange light from the West, hit the green wall, and what, made a muddy hue? I know, it really is trial and error.

   Thanks for ALL the info, I will bookmark this and read over and over. I’m now having to rethink my last consultation where I suggested light blue in an Eastern exposure room. ARGGG….

8. funcolors
   4:21 pm on August 28th, 2010

   Yellow parking lot lights. Say what? You know how color *disappears* and others *appear* when you’re in one of those parking lots with High Pressure Sodium lamps? The whole lot appears yellow in color and the lights do not have very good color rendering or accuracy.

   I distinctly remember one Christmas when I was standing in a parking lot drenched deep with ten inches of snow that had fallen while we were in the mall. Staring at my armload of gift wrap while waiting for my husband to clean off the car trunk I was mesmerized by the colors in the paper. The bright reds and greens that grabbed my attention in the store barely resembled red and green out there in the lot.

   Once we got home, everything looked “normal” again. The paper had gone from one quality of light into another and the colors were affected differently by each.

   That’s what happens in structure due to the transient sun positioning in our sky. The morning beams in the am had what it took in their spectral distribution to make that green sing. As evening came, those properties wane and others step forward and take over. Just like you left the lot and went home.

   It wasn’t that the “orange” light from the west hit the green and made mud. It’s more like the pm west light didn’t have what it took to make the green properties of the paint color reflect in a manner that could be perceived as your pretty light green.

   From the outskirts of the issue, could argue that the way you describe it and the way I explained is simply a matter of semantics. Deeper into a level where you want to actually manage color, precision surrounding the details of what’s going on in the color & light relationship can matter.

   Because of the spectral reflection qualities of *most* blue paint colors, colors that fall under the hue family of blue are more often than not sure bets in most all exposures — not always — but more often than not.

   You’re absolutely right, you have to trial the specific blue you have in mind and see what happens.

9. funcolors
   4:38 pm on September 18th, 2010

   Don’t aim to call anyone out in awkward finger-pointing kind of way but this is a really good example of how this misinformation keeps getting perpetuated.

   North, South, East, West

   Can someone please show me a real-life, physical example of where this happens: “If in that same room the window faces north, the orange-red wall paint will be subdued and toned down because the light filtering in has a bluish cast.”

   Further will the filtered light have a bluish cast all day, every day or just a few seconds here, a minute there, a morning in the Fall, an afternoon in the Summer etc…..

10. funcolors
    12:11 am on September 19th, 2010

    A reader sent another excellent example from Farrow & Ball. The problem is we expect paint companies to be at the top of the food chain when it comes to all things paint and color knowledge. And they should be. In this case it looks like they skimmed the forums and www in general and tried to piece together something respectable about natural light and geographic exposures. Unfortunately, they miss on a few points. I wonder if you can spot the errors too?

    Farrow & Ball Paint Color
    Back to the food chain issue. Paint companies are looking to interior designers as a resource. That’s wrong – they’re making a mistake by reaching down the consumer food chain to interior designers and “signature color looks” for innovation.

    Interior Designers et al are paint companies’ customers and the level of color knowledge and expertise they (paint companies) have to offer should exceed the average designer’s color knowledge base.

    Right now paint companies’ offerings for color knowledge is only as good as the designer(s) they can get to hop on board their color crazy train. And that should be of concern to all of us who really care about and NEED bona fide color expertise.

11. Liz R
    8:57 am on September 20th, 2010

    Do you have any suggestions on picking a color in a room where you have only artificial light? I have two small, south-facing bathrooms. Both have windows, yet if you didn’t turn on the light, it would be dark in there. Thanks.

12. Kelly, Arte Styling
    9:38 am on September 20th, 2010

    “Interior Designers et al are paint companies’ customers and the level of color knowledge and expertise they (paint companies) have to offer should exceed the average designer’s color knowledge base.”

    So True!!!

13. Kelly, Arte Styling
    9:44 am on September 20th, 2010

    Just checked out F&B site. Funny – the light section doesn’t bother me as much as the “neutral” color section. What does this even mean?

    “Cool grey tones will give you a more hard edged contemporary feel, but with a slight underlying warmth.”

14. funcolors
    9:53 am on September 20th, 2010

    Well, I am particularly sensitive to the light thing so that’s what I decided to comment about.

    But glad you brought up the neutral thing — it doesn’t read well or make proper sense. It’s another example of paint companies with the wrong people in the wrong places. And this is Farrow & Ball – have to admit I expected better.

    And, yep, the Color Marketing folks and Interior Designers have been the ONLY resource paint companies had to turn to.

    I remember Frank making very subtle comments at one of the seminars I attended. He remarked about how IACC members need to be more front and center as the qualified and valuable resource that they are.

    It’s taken me years to figure out what he meant, but I think I get it now.

15. Lori Sawaya
    9:21 am on September 21st, 2010

    Hi Liz,

    An excellent color strategy for super low, low light rooms due to something obstructing the light from reaching into the space, is to use a paint color that is mixed full spectrum. Full spectrum color means a representational amout of each spectral hue is included in the formula. Most importantly, black colorant is never included in a full spectrum color formula. Of course a lighter value color, like a buttercream, is going to propagate what light you do have to work with far better than a dark navy blue.

16. Liz R
    9:04 am on September 22nd, 2010

    Thanks Lori. I was thinking about one Aura color and one C2 color. I think the C2 is full spectrum, but am not sure if Aura is.

17. Lori Sawaya
    9:13 am on September 22nd, 2010

    C2 is a multi-pigmented brew of color – there’s a total of 16 colorants in their *rack* to shoot into base. That’s not to say 16 colorants go into every can, but they use more than other “regular” brands i.e. Valspar, etc. Aura is not full spectrum. Altho the final finish of Aura delivers a very sophisticated hand (as they say). I’m fond of Aura Matte to be exact. C2 and Aura are both top shelf choices. If the color sings in the low light, then it sings and is a good fit.

18. Lynne Whiteside
    10:53 am on March 22nd, 2011

    This is the best post Ever…I reread it all the time. Thanks Lori, maybe you can comment on what seems like ‘challenging times’ for color consultants. I’m hoping Spring will start some momentum.