Skirting Board Colour VS Walls – How To Select Paint Colours

One of the questions that I get asked most regarding paint colours is “what colour should I paint the skirting boards vs the walls?”.

Then this filters down to what to do with the rest of the woodwork in your home, including your wood doors. Choosing one paint colour can be hard enough, but when you start considering what else has to be painted, it’s understandable for it to feel daunting.

To help break this down, I have three fail safe ways to choose a colour for your walls and the rest of your woodwork which is easy to follow, and it is suitable for literally any interior design scheme.

Skirting Board Colour VS Walls – 3 Ways You Can Select Paint Colours

1.Paint Skirting and Woodwork White

One of the default ways you can choose your skirting and woodwork colour is to just go for a standard bright white, or an off-white shade, leaning into warmer or cooler undertones, dependent on how much light the room receives.

This is a very traditional way to paint woodwork in an interior and is something that homeowners have been doing for years. The main reason for this being is because it creates a crisp, pristine look, and it’s the easiest solution to go for if you’re really not sure what paint colours to use VS your walls.

However, over the last few years especially, this type of decorating has become quite dated. It can also be a knee jerk reaction to paint woodwork in a bright white, but it doesn’t mean it is the best, or most stylish way.

If you want to go down this route, I would recommend not going for a bog standard ‘bright white’ because it can feel clinical in a space. Instead, pick an off-white shade with a warm or cool undertone.

I love Farrow and Ball Wevet or Pointing for woodwork which just brings a lovely warmth and softness to woodwork.

2. Paint Skirting In The Same Colour As The Walls

Colour drenching is very much an on-trend way to decorate a room, and a technique that completely removes the need to think about more than one paint colour, and it’s very effective.

Colour drenching involves saturating the room in one paint colour, it dramatically transforms a room, and can make both large and smaller rooms feel cosy, and welcoming. This is my downstairs toilet below which has been colour drenched in Sulking Room Pink, it is the perfect moody colour for a small space.

I actually always recommend those with very dark, narrow hallways to use this technique because it draws the eye up. Using different colours on woodwork in a narrow space makes your eyes dart around the space, rather than effortlessly drawing you through.

You also don’t have to stick with the full colour drenching approach here, you can just paint skirting in the same colour as your walls, and choose a different shade for the ceiling.

If you’re still not sure on colours, first work out the orientation of the room so you know what sort of light you’re working with on a daily basis.

North facing rooms are typically cold in nature, and any light they do receive is typically cold, so it’s best to stick with colours that have warm undertones, this includes yellow, red, pink and green undertones. The only exception to this is if you want to lean into the dark side, colour drenching in a dark colour can be endearing and works beautifully in cosy spaces such as cinema rooms.

3. Picking A Complementary Paint Colour For The Skirting and Woodwork

This method requires a little bit more foresight, but it’s personally one of my favourite ways to decorate an interior, and it’s super on-trend and stylish. I actually have a very simple method of how I pull the colours together too.

There are plenty of ways to pick complementary paint colours for the skirting and woodwork VS the walls, but I generally recommend to lean into a woodwork colour that is at least two shades darker than the walls. The result is a well defined base, your eyes are instantly drawn up to give the illusion of a bigger space, and the pairing of colours feels intentional.

The below example from House Nine shows a beautifully soft creamy paint colour on the walls with a slightly darker mushroom, greige shade on the skirting.

I will provide below a whole host of my favourite pairings for your inspiration, but if you’ve got your heart set on a specific colour already, there is an easy way to pick your woodwork colour, and all you need is a colour chart (physical or online) from that paint brand.

Generally most colour charts list like colours with the same undertone underneath one another, so all whites with a grey undertone are together, all whites with a yellow undertone, neutrals with a grey undertone and so forth. Use this chart to find your colour and then look at 2-3 paint shades down to see what defining, slightly darker shade makes for a complementary pairing.

The reason you don’t want to go too dark is because it will end up drawing your eyes in for the wrong reason. A bit similar to bold accent walls, they end up clashing in the space because nothing flows or works well with that chosen colour.

Here are some of my favourite walls vs skirting colours to give you some more inspiration, and an idea of how to pair colours together effortlessly for an on-trend, stylish interior.

• Walls: Coat Paints Safe Play and Woodwork: Coat Paints Cargo (shown in the image below)
• Walls: Coat Paints Jo Jo’s White and Woodwork: Coat Paints Home Is
• Walls: Farrow and Ball Schoolhouse White and Woodwork: Farrow and Ball Elephants Breath
• Walls: Farrow and Ball Wimborne White and Woodwork: Farrow and Ball Lime White

There is one more exception to these three rules, and this is if you have wallpaper! Just to throw something else into the room to think about. This is actually a really easy one to tackle, I typically tend to draw a colour out from the wallpaper, or a very similar one to use on the skirting and woodwork in the room. It makes it feel intentional in the space and avoids your woodwork from sticking out.

I have an example below from what was our unfinished bedroom! This is Oxford Stone by Farrow and Ball and the most beautifully sandy, mushroom shade that pairs so well with the wallpaper. I tend to use colour charts for picking complementary shades, but there are some in-store services that will actually find the RAL colour of the wallpaper and create a custom paint colour out of it!

If you have any questions or would like some more recommendations, please leave me a comment below as I always come back with my advice!

If you prefer to see things visually, I have a full video on how to select paint colours for your skirting and walls and lots of inspiration and images on skirting colours too.