We’re three into our mini blog series for selecting colour for your room orientation. You guys will know the drill by now…selecting the right paint colour for your room can be a bit of a minefield! You finally find a colour for you after spending hours trawling through pinterest and instagram and bam it looks completely different on your walls versus the images you spotted online! Instagram filtering aside (we can’t fix this bit for you!) here are some top tips of interior design which should hopefully help you with understanding colour better and how the room, furniture, lighting and orientation (natural lighting) will impact its appearance in your home!

In the third blog of our mini series we’re tackling east facing rooms, a trickier room to get right as it gets different light at different times of the day! Don’t let this panic you, whilst it's a more challenging room to get right with a few simple tips and considerations you’ll be able to pull your scheme together to create your ultimate space!

We mentioned it in our north facing room orientation blog (which you can read here) but a key focus before we even start to talk about colour is determining how you use the room. Here’s why…

Characteristics of an East facing room

An east facing room will get its sunlight in the morning. It’s a soft, clean and warm type of light but the room does usually also get a lot of shadows at this time of the day which create a lot of contrast and can create quite an atmospheric feeling in your room. As the day moves on and the sunlight passes over the lighting in the room will start to feel harsher as it becomes more of a white light. This can wash out some of the colour on your walls so it's worth bearing in mind when you’re testing and sampling your colours to review them at separate times in the day! The afternoon light will feel grey and flat but you won’t have as many shadows at this point in the day.The natural light here will be cooler toned so it's worth trying to understand when you’re going to most use the room to be able to decide which colour direction you go for!

When are you using your east facing room?

If you’re using your east facing room mostly on a morning, then naturally you’re going to want to pick a colour that’s going to best suit the morning light! Does this mean that you ignore and stop using the room in the other half of the day? Absolutely not! You’re just going to prioritise your selection based on the most use and then ensure it still works for you throughout the rest of the day. Green and blue shades work really well in the morning light of an east facing room and are great for creating a refreshing, invigorating and energising space. Think of these if it's a kitchen with a breakfast bar that will be used to get your day started or if it's a bedroom that you need to feel calming and fresh when you wake up! It's best to work with greens and blues that don’t have too much of a grey hue to them due to the change in the light across the day and even better if you’re opting for a green or green neutral with a yellow undertone which will carry the shade into the cooler afternoon light. For a beautiful blue we would opt for Canny Blue, which is a muted pale blue shade that will withstand the changing tone of the cooler afternoon light.

For green tones I would opt for Blend Something Sage, which is a yellow toned green which would look nice and warm in the morning but will maintain its warming characteristics as the day passes over. You’ll even manage with darker tones such as Green Clay or if you’re wanting to keep with more beige/neutral tones Greyish Taupe is a beautiful beige with green undertones! 

If you’re using your east facing room mostly on an evening you may want to opt for colours that are a little warmer and with a little more colour than a neutral shade. Again these shades will also work in the morning but they’ll be at their best in the afternoon and evening light. If the purpose of these rooms is more a cosy and relaxing vibe, possibly a snug lounge area or a bedroom where your focus is more about a homey and restful space then pinky shades or neutrals with warmer undertones (red and yellow) will work really well in here. Look at Blend’s Dead Bonny and Brownbridge which will bring the beautiful and warming pinky tones or neutrals Just Right and Irish Cream that will add the yellow base tone to the neutrals for that cosy vibe. 

So that's it, a slightly more complex room to get right due to the light changing over the course of the day but once you’ve determined what you’re using the room for, it's entirely possible to get it just right! One final tip from us is to ensure you place focus on the interior lighting you use in the room to supplement the natural light that will change over the course of the day. The right lighting can completely transform a paint colour and help it to work across the day! 

Right, we’re almost there, 3 out of 4 complete! We’ll be back with West facing room orientations soon and hopefully we will have covered your burning questions on how to decorate for a north, east, south or west facing room!