Colours
Choosing colours is often the hardest part of a decorating project. This page is simple, practical guidance to help you narrow things down and avoid second-guessing later.

Start with the feeling
Before you look at colour charts, decide how you want the room to feel: calm and restful, light and open, or warm and enclosed. Once you have that in mind, it becomes much easier to work within a smaller range instead of scanning hundreds of shades and hoping something jumps out.

Light changes everything
The direction your room faces has a big effect on how a colour reads. North-facing rooms receive cool, indirect light, so blues and greys can feel flatter or colder than expected, and warmer undertones often work better than the chart suggests. South-facing rooms get stronger, warmer light, so cooler shades often look clean and balanced. East-facing rooms feel cooler in the morning and warmer later in the day, while west-facing rooms do the reverse.

The same colour can look completely different in a showroom or in another house, so it is worth checking it in your own room before deciding.

Test patches – and do them properly
Apply tester patches to the wall rather than relying only on paper or card, as the real surface and surrounding light affect the result. If you like using A4 sheets or lining paper first, that is absolutely fine as a starting point, but it is still worth testing your final choice on the actual wall.

Use thin coats and let each coat dry fully before applying the next one. Build the sample up in two or three coats rather than putting it on too thickly, because heavy brush-applied patches can leave a visible area that still shows when the wall is later rolled. Paint an area of at least A3 size if you can, and test on more than one wall, as the colour will usually look lighter on the wall facing the window and darker on the opposite wall.

Live with the sample for a day or two and look at it in natural daylight, lamplight and at different times of day before making a final decision.

Colour services and exterior ranges
For interior work, we use and supply colours from Dulux, Farrow & Ball, and Little Greene, and we can also colour match where needed. This gives customers a good choice between reliable trade ranges, designer colours, and more traditional heritage palettes. We are also more than happy to use other premium products at a customer’s request, where suitable for the job.

For exterior timber, we usually use Sikkens products for translucent wood-stain finishes, where the natural grain is meant to remain visible, and Zinsser AllCoat Exterior and Dulux Weathershield for solid colour finishes. With AllCoat we use both the water-based and solvent-based options, choosing the one best suited to the surface and level of exposure. This is an excellent product for longevity.         

For exterior masonry we use Dulux Weathershield and colours from the Weathershield range. We can also use Zinsser for masonry walls, which as with Dulux, is an excellent product.

We keep colour charts and fan decks for the main brands we work with, and below are links to colour charts and palettes from some of the paint brands we use most often.