Observe Read the daylight
Stand in the room at three moments: early morning, midday and the hour before dusk. Note where the light falls, how far it reaches and what colour it seems to be. In the northern hemisphere, north-facing rooms receive cool, even light that flattens warm colours. South-facing rooms are bright and warm for most of the day. East-facing rooms glow early and turn grey by afternoon; west-facing rooms do the opposite and finish in amber.
Write it down. These notes are the brief for every lamp and every colour that follows.
Layer Plan three kinds of light
Ambient light fills the room: ceiling fittings, wall washers, uplighters bounced off the ceiling. Task light serves a job: a reading lamp over the shoulder, under-cabinet strips in the kitchen. Accent light creates drama: a picture light, a lamp grazing a textured wall, a glow inside a bookcase.
A good working rule is at least three light sources per room, at three different heights. Junichiro Tanizaki's essay In Praise of Shadows reminds us why: rooms become beautiful not when every corner is lit, but when light and shadow are composed together.
Measure Choose colour temperature
Bulbs are rated in kelvin. Lower numbers are warmer and more amber; higher numbers are cooler and whiter. Choose one temperature per room so lamps do not fight each other, and look for a colour rendering index (CRI) of 90 or above so fabrics and skin tones read truthfully.
Room Colour temp. Target light level Living room 2700 K ≈ 100–150 lux ambient Bedroom 2200–2700 K ≈ 50–100 lux ambient Reading spot 2700–3000 K ≈ 300–500 lux at the page Kitchen worktop 3000 K ≈ 300–500 lux Home office desk 3000–4000 K ≈ 500 lux Control Put everything on a dimmer
A room needs to be a bright workshop at noon and a lantern at ten at night. Dimmers, or smart bulbs that dim warmer as they lower, give one set of fittings many moods. Plan switching by zone, so the reading corner can glow while the dining table stays dark. Check that your LED bulbs are labelled dimmable and compatible with the dimmer you choose.
Sample Now test colour
With light planned, paint finally makes sense. Paint large samples — at least A3 size — or use painted sample boards you can move. Place them on two different walls, including the darkest one, and look at them under daylight and under your evening lamps.
Josef Albers, in Interaction of Color (1963), showed that the same colour looks different depending on what surrounds it. Check each sample against your floor, your largest fabric and your woodwork. Note each paint's light reflectance value (LRV): a high LRV bounces light around a dim room; a low LRV absorbs it and wraps the space.
Proportion Build the palette in ratios
The 60-30-10 rule remains a reliable starting point: roughly 60% of the room in a dominant colour (walls, large rug), 30% in a secondary (upholstery, curtains), 10% in an accent (cushions, art, a lacquered side table). Check undertones — a grey with green in it will quarrel with a grey that leans violet. Pull colours from something you already love, such as a painting or a rug, and the palette will feel personal rather than borrowed.
Finish Remember the fifth wall
The ceiling is the largest unbroken surface in most rooms. Brilliant white can feel stark above a warm palette; a ceiling tinted a few shades lighter than the walls softens the edge. For small or awkward rooms, consider colour drenching — walls, trim and ceiling in one shade — which blurs corners and makes the room feel deliberate.
Light shapes colour; colour then reveals texture. That is where the sequence turns next.
Next · Step 03 Choosing Materials and Texture
Touch points, fabric specs, floors and walls with depth.
Continue to Materials
Home / Step 02 of 04
Light First, Color Second
Paint has no colour of its own. It only returns the light that reaches it, and that light changes by the hour. So the designer's order is fixed: understand the daylight, plan the lamps, and only then open a sample pot. Reverse it and you will repaint.
