You have found the perfect paint color for your soon to be remodeled room. A nice soft lavender perhaps, at least it looked like soft lavender on the paint chip in the local home store. Except when the walls are painted and the sun is streaming through the windows, it looks more like Barney’s bedroom, not a pleasant sight at all.

The problem is that the natural light a room receives makes a huge difference to the way color looks in any given space. For that reason it is essential that you try more than just a small patch of color out on the walls in the room itself before you invest in gallons and gallons of any paint.

The same logic applies to flooring, furnishing and window treatments as well. As you shop, here are some very basic tips to keep in mind on how natural light can affect your decor.

Rooms Facing North

• Northern light is often rather cold looking and in the winter can look especially harsh. You can soften this effect by choosing warm colors such as subtle reds, oranges or browns. It is best to avoid blue and green shades as they tend only to intensify the cold effect.

Rooms Facing South

• Blues and greens work very well in rooms with a southern exposure and can be used to give the room a year round summery mood, even in the depths of winter.

Rooms Facing East

• Light from the east provides a room with bright sunny mornings but rather muted middays and often very dim afternoons. In this kind of room a mixture of a warm and cool tones can help even out the imbalance.

Rooms Facing West

• Western light brings the sunshine streaming into a room in the afternoons and evenings. In the earlier part of the day though, such rooms can be rather dark. Neutral shades are best in these kinds of rooms.

Using colors that are too warm will cast a somewhat unpleasant orange glare in the intense afternoon light. Paint testers are easy to find but you need to see all the color elements you intend to use in the room they are intended for to get a true picture of how they will really work with both the natural and artificial light present in the room.