I get asked my favourite paint shades and recommendations all the time, so I have created this central hub which is packed full of my go-to shades, based on the type of room, from a few different paint brands for both my UK and US readers.
All images are clickable so you can view the shade in more detail.
The majority of these shades I have used within a project, and personally love them.
Light can massively vary throughout rooms and how much your north facing room receives may be even less than my own, so I do always recommend grabbing a tester pot first.
I recommend testing a shade on an A4 sheet of paper, or opting for peel and stick samples where possible, this makes them so easy for moving around the room and seeing how they perform in both the light, and darkest nooks of a room, happy painting!
Nicole’s Paint Recommendations
North Facing Rooms
South Facing Rooms
East and West Facing Rooms – Warm Colours
East and West Facing Rooms – Dark Colours
High Traffic Areas
If you have a very high traffic area such as a hallway and you have pets, kids or both, you really need a more durable paint than standard emulsion as heavy scrubbing ends up removing paint, no matter what the tin says!
I recommend, going for an eggshell on the walls to counter this – it means it will withstand heavy scrubbing and you won’t need to keep repainting every few months (been there, done that!). The BEST paint I have found for heavy traffic spaces is Scuff X Benjamin Moore – available in both the UK and US.
You can literally scrub this month after month and you will see no colour shift. It’s not cheap, but it’s worth it for peace of mind without you having to keep worrying about it being covered in who knows what!
Colour Pairings – Walls Vs Skirting/Trims/Woodwork
If you’ve picked your wall colour and are not sure where to start with picking a colour for your woodwork, skirting etc, I have a whole post on this with my 3 fail safe ways for choosing a colour, PLUS, loads of paint recommendations and examples that I use in projects.
Skirting Board Colour VS Walls – How To Select Paint Colours
Other Useful Resources For Choosing Paint Colours
Understanding why rooms change a paint colour so drastically will really help you choose a paint colour for your space that works.
In the below blog posts, I do a deep dive into each room orientation, what it means for the light your room receives and how paint reacts to it, along with loads more paint recommendations. If you have any questions I haven’t answered, please leave a comment below or on any blog post and I will come back with my recommendations!
The Best Benjamin Moore Paint Colors For North Facing Rooms
The Best Farrow and Ball South Facing Room Paint Colours