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Colour guides · Living room · North-facing
North light is the steadiest in the house — and the coldest. It turns pure whites blue, hardens greys and dulls shades that looked so soft on the colour card.
Two strategies work: warm the room with warm-undertoned colours, or accept the shade and choose a deep colour that turns it into a cocoon. Here are ten colours for either.
Updated September 2026 · by the Mylands France colour team
The short answer
In a north-facing living room, choose colours with a warm undertone — a creamy white such as Lots Road No.24, a pink-tinged neutral such as Fitzrovia No.26, a greige such as Hoxton Grey No.72 — and avoid pure whites and cool greys. Or embrace the shade with a deep grey-green such as Brompton Road No.205.
At a glance
10 colours
The white that won't turn blue
A soft, slightly greyed white with just enough warmth not to turn blue in cold light — which is why our colourists file it among the 'north' whites. It gives the living room a calm clarity without the clinical glare of a pure white. The right choice for the ceiling and walls of a living room that must stay bright.
Our tip — Walls and ceiling in the same Sleet: with no change of shade, the room reads taller and wider.
The rose-tinged white
A white carrying a hint of pink and earth — barely visible on the card, decisive on a wall. In north light that undertone does exactly what is asked of it: it warms without yellowing. A living room in Holbein Chamber looks lit by a sun it doesn't have.
Our tip — With woodwork in Whitehall, a touch warmer: a tone-on-tone that gives relief without contrast.
The cream white
The warmest of our whites: a candid cream, almost fresh butter, that returns a great deal of light while tinting it yellow. It is the classic cure for a north-facing room — and it works. Provided you commit to the warmth: with blond timber and linen the room turns sunny; with cold grey it turns old-yellow.
Our tip — Don't marry it to a bluish grey; prefer a warm contrast such as Westmoreland on the far wall.
The pink-tinged neutral
A pale neutral with a pink-brown undertone, the colour of fresh plaster. It is the shade we recommend most often for a north-facing living room that wants to stay light without being white: the cold light switches off the pink, and only a diffuse warmth remains, like a room heated by a stove. It flatters everything in wood and leather.
Our tip — Skirtings and cornices in Holland Park, a barely lighter white: the plaster look without the building-site look.
The warm stone
A soft, luminous stone beige with a yellow-brown undertone. Where a pale grey looks dirty in north light, Cadogan Stone keeps its substance: it looks like dressed stone, not like a wall in need of repainting. A safe bet for a large living room you don't want to colour outright.
Our tip — A bookcase or chimney breast in Westmoreland amid Cadogan Stone walls: two stones, one light, one dark.
The greige
Despite its name, Hoxton Grey is a greige: a grey carrying enough beige and pink to stay warm in any light. That is precisely what pure greys fail to do facing north. It makes a perfect ground for coloured textiles, paintings and dark furniture, and pairs as well with brass as with oak.
Our tip — Colour-drenched — walls, woodwork and ceiling in Hoxton Grey — the room gains depth without losing light.
The olive neutral
A mid neutral leaning towards olive and khaki — a green so greyed it reads as beige, and a beige with something of the garden in it. Its yellow-green undertone holds remarkably in cold light, where it gives the living room the atmosphere of an English club, enveloping without heaviness.
Our tip — Superb behind gilt frames and with rust velvets; ceiling in Limestone.
The grey-taupe
A warm mid grey, almost taupe, with a brown undertone that makes all the difference facing north: where a grey of the same value would turn to cement, Egyptian Grey stays hushed. It is an evening living-room colour — under lamps, it becomes the colour of cashmere.
Our tip — Woodwork in Chalk Farm, one step lighter: the contrast stays gentle, with no hard white.
Embracing depth
The other strategy: stop fighting the shade. A deep grey-green with warm undertones, Brompton Road turns a north-facing living room into an enveloping one, the room you sit in at night. The cold light, which would flatten a bright green, suits it well: it brings out the grey and makes it almost mineral.
Our tip — Paint the woodwork and ceiling too; a half-painted dark room looks twice as small.
The evening red
A deep red between claret and burnt brick, with the warmth no white can give a north-facing room. It is the colour of old reception rooms for a good reason: it visibly warms the air. In daylight Huguenot stays restrained; in the evening, under lamps, it lights up.
Our tip — One wall is not enough: Huguenot wants the whole room, with a Limestone ceiling to breathe.
A north-facing living room never receives direct sun: its light comes from the sky, blue and constant from morning to night. It is the light of painters' studios — perfect for judging a colour, unforgiving to live with. It exaggerates everything cold in a shade and switches off everything warm.
What to avoid: pure whites such as Pure White No.1, magnificent facing south but icy facing north; bluish greys such as Mid Wedgwood No.113; and in general pale, cool-undertoned shades, which look 'dirty' for want of light to animate them.
What works: warm whites (Lots Road No.24, Holbein Chamber No.7, Sleet No.91), neutrals with a pink or yellow undertone (Fitzrovia No.26, Cadogan Stone No.59, Hoxton Grey No.72), and — often the best idea — deep colours that make the shade a quality: Brompton Road No.205, Huguenot No.49, or a night blue such as Observatory No.34.
Always test with a painted sample on two walls — the one facing the window and the one at right angles to it — and look at it at noon and in the evening under your lamps. To go further: how light changes colour, our warm whites for a dark room and our living-room ideas.
Colour chosen, the surface remains. These are the Mylands finishes we recommend, room by room.
Walls and ceiling
The velvet matt with crushed Carrara marble: the most beautiful depth of colour for living-room walls.
Every colour in Marble Matt Emulsion →
Colour drenching (walls + woodwork)
The same shade from walls to woodwork, in a dead matt (5%) that goes on every surface.
Every colour in Multi-Surface Dead Matt →
Woodwork, doors and skirting
A soft sheen that picks out mouldings and skirtings without making them shine.
Every colour in Multi-Surface Eggshell →
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