Help with paint Choosing colour

Turn a small space into your favourite place

A small space becomes a favourite place when you stop treating it as a leftover: give it a function — reading, writing, pouring a drink, dressing — and a colour of its own, often the boldest in the house, because three square metres can carry it. A nook under the stairs, a landing, the end of a corridor, an alcove, a box room: seven ideas, and for each the colour that brings it into being.

Page updated September 2026 · by the Mylands France colour team

Reading corner under a staircase, walls and the underside of the stairs painted a deep pink-red matt, velvet armchair, brass wall light, a shelf of books — Theatre Land No.282 under the stairs: the nook has become the room people go to

Understanding

Why small spaces become the favourites

Ask someone which is their favourite spot at home: it is rarely the sitting room. It is the armchair by the window, the corner of the kitchen where the coffee gets drunk, the end of the corridor where a desk was put. We love places that hold us — where the back is protected, the light is close, and there is nothing to do but what we came to do. A small space has that head start over a big room.

It usually lacks two things: a declared function, and an identity. Paint gives the second in one tin and one afternoon. And because the surface is small, it accepts the colour you would not dare on 40 m² — a red, a plum, a midnight blue — and the double drenching that would weigh elsewhere. Small spaces are the house's laboratory.

Seven ideas

Seven small spaces, seven functions, seven colours

1. The reading corner under the stairs

Walls, the underside of the stairs and skirting in a deep pink-red, an armchair, a wall light, a shelf: the most awkward nook becomes the most sought-after. The dark erases the slope.

Everywhere · Theatre Land No.282 Shelf · Threadneedle No.262

2. The pocket study at the end of the corridor

A shelf on two brackets, the end wall and the ceiling in a deep blue-grey, the rest of the corridor light: the study exists because its colour stops dead.

End wall & ceiling · Mayfair Dark No.218 Corridor · Walpole No.42

3. The bed alcove or window seat

An alcove, a deep niche, a window recess: a seat cushion, pillows, and the inside of the alcove in a deep green when the room is light. The ship's cabin.

Inside · Pleasure Gardens Green No.214 Room · Syon Park No.13

4. The bar in the cupboard

A sitting-room cupboard emptied, the inside painted a midnight blue in Eggshell, shelves, a lamp: the bar that closes. The deep colour flatters glass and brass.

Inside · Observatory No.34 Doors · Cadogan Stone No.59

5. The landing that becomes a sitting room

A two-square-metre landing with a window: an armchair, a plant, and the landing in a colour that is neither the staircase's nor the bedrooms' — a soft ochre, drenched. The passage becomes a pause.

Everywhere · Haymarket No.47 Staircase · Whitehall No.9

6. The dressing room or box room

The windowless room you enter for five minutes: a plum or a brown-black on everything, wardrobes included, a mirror, good light. A couture house's fitting room.

Everywhere · Plum Tree No.283 Ceiling · Threadneedle No.262

7. A child's corner of a bedroom

In a shared or a large bedroom, a corner marked out by a colour block — a rectangle painted from the floor to 1.5 m, a small table, a shelf — that belongs to the child. See Colour blocking.

Block · Lambeth Walk No.210 Bedroom · St Clement No.11

End of a corridor made into a study: end wall and ceiling in deep blue-grey, oak shelf, stool, lamp, the rest of the corridor very pale blue — Mayfair Dark No.218 on the end wall and ceiling: the study exists because its colour stops

The method

Four decisions that turn a small space into a room

Decision	What it means	The paint
One function only	Reading, or writing, or a drink — not all three	The colour follows the function: deep for reading, crisp for writing, dark for the bar
A clean edge	The space starts and stops somewhere	The colour stops on an arris, a taped line, a painted frame
A light of its own	A wall light, a lamp, a window	A dark colour needs a lamp; a light one makes do with the window
One object that counts	An armchair, a shelf, a mirror	The rest is put away or painted the wall colour

Finishes: Marble Matt Emulsion on walls and ceilings, Eggshell on shelves, ledges and cupboard interiors, Multi-Surface Dead Matt to paint everything from one tin.

To avoid

What leaves a small space a leftover

The corridor's colour. A nook in the shade of what surrounds it stays a nook; its colour must be its own.
White "so as not to shrink it". It shows the slope and the missing window; dark erases them.
Three functions. A reading-study-storage corner is none of the three.
No light. A deep colour without a lamp is a cupboard.
A blurred edge. Colour that spills into the corridor dilutes the place; stop it on an arris or a line.

Landing with a window, walls and ceiling in soft ochre matt, a rattan armchair, a plant, warm white staircase — Haymarket No.47 drenched on the landing: the passage has become a pause

Frequently asked questions

Your questions, our answers

Which colour for a space with no window?

A warm dark and a good lamp: plum, brown-black, bottle green, deep red. Light without a window goes grey and shows the lack of daylight; dark owns it. See Colour schemes for small spaces.

How do I mark out a space within a larger room?

With a colour block — a rectangle, an arch, a floor-to-ceiling band — set out with a level and masking tape, light colour first, dark after. Or with the ceiling alone: colour above the corner, and nowhere else. See Freeform shapes.

Can the underside of a staircase be painted?

Yes, like a ceiling, in Marble Matt Emulsion if plastered, in Eggshell if wood. In the same colour as the nook's walls, so the slope disappears.

How much paint for a nook?

A nook of 2 m² floor and 2.4 m height is 8 to 10 m² of walls and ceiling: one litre of Marble Matt Emulsion for two coats, and a 250 ml tin for the shelves. It is an afternoon's project.