how to choose paint colours.

• Look at your light first. The same colour looks different in every room.
• Test large samples on two walls and check them morning, afternoon and night.
• Match the undertone to your floors, benchtops and fixed features.
• Plan whites for ceilings and trims as carefully as the main colour.

Colour is light bouncing off a surface, so the light in your room changes the colour you see. A grey that looks calm in a bright living room can look cold in a dim hallway.

In Sydney, north facing rooms get warm light for most of the day. South facing rooms are cooler and softer. East rooms are bright in the morning, and west rooms glow in the afternoon. Choose with that light in mind.

Floors, benchtops, tiles, a roof and a brick front aren’t changing, so your colour has to sit well with them. Look at the undertone: is the fixed feature warm (yellow, red or cream) or cool (blue, green or grey)?

Matching undertones feels calm. Clashing undertones are why a colour can look slightly off even when you can’t say why.

1. Get a sample pot or a large painted board, not a tiny swatch.
2. Paint it on two different walls, or move the board around the room.
3. Look at it in the morning, in the afternoon and at night with the lights on.
4. Check it next to your floors, curtains and furniture.
5. Live with it for a few days before you decide.

There is no such thing as just white. Whites lean warm, cool, yellow, pink or grey, and the wrong one looks dirty next to a good colour.

A common approach is a flat white on ceilings, and a slightly different white on trims and doors. Test your whites side by side with your wall colour before you commit.

Outside, think about the roof, the street and the way the light moves across your home. Colours look lighter and brighter in full sun, so go a shade deeper than you think you need.

If you live in a strata building or a heritage area, check what colours are allowed before you fall in love with one.