The Impact of Lighting on Paint Colours

Selecting the paint colour for your home interiors is a matter of personal choice, as well as your vision of the look and feel you want to have in the room. Applying a fresh coat of paint on your wall is a great way to uplift the aesthetic appeal of your home, infuse some freshness, and make the space look warm and inviting. 

However, choosing the right colour for your home can be quite tricky. Apart from choosing the right shade, you must also take into account how the colour will look based on the lighting set-up you have at home. Have you ever chosen a wall paint colour that really looked appealing but turned out to be a disappointment when you finally applied the paint in your room? Among other reasons, the impact of lighting in your home is the most critical reason why the paint colour on your wall may look different than you imagined. 

Understanding the reason why paint colours appear different under different lighting conditions 

If you are wondering how lighting affects paint colour, you must know that the interaction between the paint colours you choose for your home and the lighting setup you have can be quite transformative. The shade of the paint colour may change or look different based on whether they are exposed to natural sunlight or an artificial lighting fixture that emits a soft glow. 

This happens because of a concept called metamerism. Depending on the intensity of light and the position of the light source, the wall paint colours may seem to change shades throughout the day. Now that you know the relationship between room lighting and paint selection, it is paramount that you choose the paint colours for your home based on how they look in natural light.

Impact of natural lighting on paint colours 

The natural sunlight entering your home plays a significant role in how the paint colours in your room look and feel at different times of the day. You must remember the rule of thumb while choosing the paint colour for your house, the bright natural light will have a warm effect on the north-side facing wall. This means if you have a dark paint shade, it will appear darker, and the light paint will look more subtle. 

Rooms on the west side of the room will receive warm lights in the evening and perhaps shadow during the day. The paint colours in the rooms facing east can look bright during the day; as the day progresses, the sun starts to set, and the light begins to fade, the room may have a cooler and cosy ambience.

Regardless of the natural light exposure your home has, you can easily control the colours and hues of your home paint colour at any time of the day by using the right artificial lights and placing them correctly. So, when you are choosing lights for painted walls, you must take into account the exact colour shade as well as the exposure to natural light your home has to make it look exactly as you want.

Impact of artificial lighting on paint colours 

Just like the natural light has a significant impact on the paint colours of your home, the artificial lighting set-up you have at home can make or break the overall ambience. The key is to combine the natural and artificial lights in a way that they complement each other and enhance the beauty of your home paint colours.

If you are using the standard and traditional white lights like the incandescent bulbs or LED light tube lights like the Wipro Garnet LED Tubelight from the house of Wipro Consumer Lighting, you can be assured that you get bright and even lighting throughout the room. However, at the same time, the bright white light can make certain bright paint colours, like yellow, orange, and red, on your wall look brighter and more intense, and the cooler colours, like blue, grey and green, appear slightly less intense than their actual shade. 

If you have fluorescent lights at home, they are known to give off a blueish light and have a cool effect on the room. These lights pair well with cooler paint colours like green, blue and shades of grey. It is best advised to use these colours for your living room, workspace or kitchen.

Impact of positioning of lighting fixtures on paint colours 

Even if you have the best lighting for wall colours that make them look stunning, if you place them incorrectly, your whole ambience in the room can look boring and unappealing. When you mount the lighting fixtures on the ceiling, you can be assured of getting even lighting throughout the room, and the light reflects off well from the walls, allowing the natural shade of the paint colour to shine through and make the space look spacious and well-lit. 

If your room or one side of the room doesn’t have enough natural light exposure, you can place the lights on the side of the wall or at the bottom. For example, you can put up LED strip lights on the floor or place a table lamp to make the paint colour look bright and have that perfect colour balance in the room. 

Conclusion 

When painting your wall at home, it is best advised to do a test area and see how it looks with the lighting set up and under the natural light first and then choose the right colour shade accordingly to create that dramatic effect and vibe in the room you want to have.