Menu
How To
Design Advice
Customer Service
My account
Colour guides · Bedroom · North-facing
A north-facing bedroom has a quality the others lack: its light hardly changes through the day, and it stays cool in summer. It also has a flaw: that light is blue, and it chills everything it touches.
The right colour compensates — with a warm undertone — or goes along with it, with a soft grey that makes coolness a virtue. Here are ten colours for either.
Updated September 2026 · by the Mylands France colour team
The short answer
In a north-facing bedroom, choose a white or a neutral with a warm undertone — Kensington Rose No.22, Holbein Chamber No.7, Fitzrovia No.26 — or a soft grey tagged for the north, such as Sleet No.91 or Early Lavender No.260. Avoid pure whites and candid blues, which turn cold there.
At a glance
10 colours
The north white
A soft, slightly greyed white with just enough warmth not to turn blue in cold light — our colourists file it among the 'north' whites. In a bedroom it gives a calm clarity, without a pure white's clinical glare, and it flatters white linen rather than competing with it.
Our tip — Walls and ceiling in Sleet, headboard in Hoxton Grey: the bright, warm bedroom.
The green white
An off-white with a barely perceptible green undertone, also filed for the north: the green offsets the blue of the light and the white doesn't turn grey. It is the white of a north-facing bedroom you want fresh but not cold — with pale timber and natural fabrics it is perfect.
Our tip — A door or wardrobe in Damp Leaf: the white's green, revealed.
The powder pink
Our first choice for a north-facing bedroom: a pink-tinged white with a peach undertone, so pale it stays almost a white, so warm it transforms the light. The cold light switches off the pink; only the warmth remains, like that of a late afternoon. It flatters every complexion on waking.
Our tip — Woodwork in Maugham White rather than pure white, for a tender contrast.
The rose-tinged white
A white carrying a hint of pink and earth — invisible on the card, decisive on a wall. In north light that undertone warms without yellowing: the bedroom looks lit by a sun it doesn't have. More discreet than Kensington Rose, for those who want no pink at all.
Our tip — With Whitehall woodwork, a tone-on-tone that gives relief without contrast.
The plaster neutral
A pale neutral with a pink-brown undertone, the colour of fresh plaster. In a north-facing bedroom it is the neutral that works best: the cold light switches off the pink, and a diffuse warmth remains, like a room heated by a stove. Superb with ecru linen, timber and leather.
Our tip — Ceiling in Holland Park, a barely lighter white: the plaster look, not the building-site look.
The lavender grey
A pale grey with a mauve undertone, filed for the north: in cold light the mauve becomes a simple softness, and the grey never looks sad. It is the colour of a north-facing bedroom you accept as cool — a morning bedroom, calm, a little powdery. With white and pale timber it is delicate.
Our tip — Woodwork in Osterley, a lilac white: two barely-there mauves, very refined.
The soft grey-blue
A pale grey with a blue-green undertone, filed for the north. It is the way to have a blue bedroom facing north without it being cold: the grey tempers the blue, the green warms it, and a morning freshness remains that helps you get up. A guest-room or teenager's-bedroom blue.
Our tip — Ceiling in Sleet, a door in Proper Blue: north blue in three values.
The light taupe grey
A pale-to-mid grey with a yellow-brown undertone, filed for the north — the grey of old plaster. It has more substance than the whites on this list and it warms a bedroom without colouring it. With white sheets, timber and a wool rug, it is the country-hotel bedroom.
Our tip — A headboard painted in Westmoreland on Ludgate Circus walls: taupe in two values.
The enveloping old rose
For a north-facing bedroom you want cosy rather than bright: a mid old rose, greyed and brown, with the warmth no white can give this orientation. The cold light makes it sober and a little grey by day; at night, under a lamp, it turns to old velvet. Paint the ceiling too.
Our tip — Colour-drenched in Multi-Surface Dead Matt, white linen sheets, warm lamps.
The night blue
The other strategy: accept the shade and make a night bedroom of it. A deep blue-grey sliding towards violet, whose hint of violet — warm — makes it possible facing north where a navy would be icy. It is the deep blue gentlest on waking, and the most beautiful under a bedside lamp.
Our tip — Walls, ceiling and woodwork in Observatory; one white only, that of the sheets.
North light comes from the sky, not the sun: it is blue, diffuse and almost constant from dawn to dusk. In a bedroom that is a blessing — no raking sun at seven in the morning, no overheating in summer — provided you don't fight it with cold colours. Pure whites turn grey there, candid blues icy, pure greys sad.
Three families work. Whites and neutrals with a warm undertone (Kensington Rose No.22, Holbein Chamber No.7, Fitzrovia No.26), which offset the blue of the light. Soft greys with a subtle undertone (Sleet No.91, Early Lavender No.260, Mews Blue No.98, Ludgate Circus No.89) — the shades our colourists file for the north — which accept the coolness and make a quality of it. And deep, warm colours (Bloomsbury No.267, Observatory No.34) that turn the shade into a cocoon.
A pure-white ceiling above warm walls: it will look grey and make the walls look yellow. A sky blue such as Morning Blue No.32, magnificent facing south, cold here. And a sample judged on the card: paint a large one on the wall facing the window and look at it morning and evening. See also our blues for a bedroom, our pinks for a bedroom, how light changes colour and our bedroom ideas.
Colour chosen, the surface remains. These are the Mylands finishes we recommend, room by room.
Walls and ceiling
Matt and enveloping: the finish that makes a bedroom calm, with no glare under the bedside lamp.
Every colour in Marble Matt Emulsion →
Colour drenching (walls + woodwork)
For a cocoon of a bedroom: walls, ceiling and woodwork in one colour, in dead matt.
Every colour in Multi-Surface Dead Matt →
Woodwork, doors and skirting
Wardrobes, a painted headboard, skirtings: a discreet sheen that cleans.
Every colour in Multi-Surface Eggshell →
Thanks for signing up to our newsletter!
Sign in to save items to your wishlist. Sign in to save your basket, so you can continue shopping later.
Don't have an account? Create one
Share this link and friends can buy items from your list. Anything bought disappears from it automatically. Anyone with this link can see your selection.
Moving in, redecorating, or dropping hints? A free account turns this selection into a gift list — add or remove colours whenever you like, and we'll email you when someone buys something from your shared list.
Free · Delivered to your door
Get a free colour card posted to you, showing our complete Colours of London range, with swatches made from the real paint for a true representation of our award-winning colours.
