Choosing paint colours for Ealing homes

Start with the light, not the colour card

The same tin of paint can look like three different colours in three rooms of one house. The main reason is light. Before you look at a single colour card, work out which way each room faces and when you actually use it.

• North-facing rooms get steady, cool, slightly blue light all day. Cool greys and blue-based whites can look flat or chilly here. Colours with a warm undertone, such as off-whites with a touch of yellow or red, soft greens and earthy neutrals, tend to hold up better.
• South-facing rooms get warm, strong light for much of the day. Most colours work, and cooler shades that would look cold elsewhere can feel fresh. Very warm colours can look more intense than the sample suggests.
• East-facing rooms are bright and slightly blue in the morning and cooler later. A bedroom you wake up in behaves differently from a sitting room used in the evening.
• West-facing rooms are flatter in the morning and glow warm in the late afternoon. Colours that look balanced at midday can turn orange or pink in evening sun.

Artificial light matters too: warm-white bulbs pull colours towards yellow and cool-white bulbs towards blue, so judge samples under your own lighting.

Test colours properly before you commit

A small patch painted straight onto the old wall colour is hard to judge: it is too small, and the colour around it distorts how you see it.

1. Buy sample pots of two or three candidates, not eight.
2. Paint each sample onto a large piece of white card or lining paper, roughly A3 or bigger, with two coats. One coat rarely shows the true colour.
3. Leave a white border around the edge so the old wall colour does not affect your judgement.
4. Move the boards around the room over two or three days: next to the window, in the darkest corner, near the skirting, and beside furniture and fabrics that are staying.
5. Look at them in the morning, the afternoon and at night under your own lighting.

Colours almost always look darker and stronger across a whole wall than on a sample. If you are torn between two shades, the lighter one is usually the safer choice for large areas. If you are having the work done, give your decorator the exact colour name and code early, so the right paint can be ordered before the first day.

Whites and neutrals: look at the undertone

Whites differ mainly in undertone: the small amount of another colour mixed in. Put a few white samples next to a sheet of plain printer paper and the undertones become obvious.

• Warm whites (yellow, red or pink undertones) feel soft and work well in north-facing rooms and older houses.
• Cool whites (blue, green or grey undertones) look crisp and modern, and suit bright south-facing rooms and contemporary kitchens.
• Brilliant white has no undertone. It is practical for ceilings and rented properties, but it can look stark next to off-white walls or old timber.

The same applies to greys and stone-coloured neutrals, which can turn noticeably green, blue or purple in certain light. Test them exactly as you would a stronger colour. A simple rule that works in most homes: choose the wall colour first, then pick a woodwork and ceiling white with a similar undertone, so everything reads as one scheme rather than competing shades.

Pick the right sheen for each surface

Sheen is how much light the dried paint reflects. It changes how a colour looks and how well the surface stands up to wear.

• Matt reflects very little light and hides small bumps and repairs, which is why it suits walls and ceilings, especially in older houses with uneven plaster. Standard matt marks easily; a durable, washable matt emulsion is worth it for halls, stairs and children's rooms.
• Eggshell has a low sheen. It suits woodwork if you want a softer, more modern look than gloss, and water-based eggshell also works on kitchen and bathroom walls that need wiping.
• Satin sits between eggshell and gloss. It is hard-wearing on skirting, doors and architraves and a little more forgiving of imperfections than gloss.
• Gloss is the most reflective and the most durable. It suits traditional front doors, railings and period woodwork, but it shows every dent and brush mark underneath, so preparation matters more.

Kitchens and bathrooms benefit from paints made for steam and moisture, many of which include a mould inhibitor. For interior woodwork, water-based trim paints stay white for longer, while oil-based finishes are very hard but tend to yellow over time, especially in rooms with little daylight. There is more on finishes for doors and skirting on our woodwork painting page.

Period homes and modern homes need different thinking

Much of Ealing's housing is late-Victorian and Edwardian, with tall ceilings, deep skirting, cornicing and sash windows. Greenford, Northolt and Perivale have many 1930s semis, and there are newer flats around the town centres and Park Royal. Each type responds to colour differently.

In tall period rooms, deeper colours rarely feel oppressive, and strong walls with a lighter ceiling can make the proportions feel generous rather than cavernous. Picture rails give you a natural break: taking the ceiling colour down to the rail lowers the visual height of a very tall room.

In 1930s houses and new-builds, ceilings are lower and rooms are often more compact. Lighter walls, with a ceiling in a pale tint of the wall colour rather than stark white, can make them feel calm without looking bare. Painting skirting, doors and walls in closely related shades is a modern approach that makes smaller rooms feel wider.

Our guide to decorating Victorian homes in Ealing covers period features in more detail.

Plan how colours flow through the house

Choosing colours room by room can leave a house feeling disjointed, especially where you can see from one room into another, or up the stairs to the landing.

• Start with the hall. It connects everything, so a calm, hard-wearing colour here makes it easier for the other rooms to work together.
• Keep one constant. Using the same woodwork colour, or the same ceiling white, throughout the house ties different wall colours together.
• Link neighbouring rooms. Rooms that open into each other look best with colours that share an undertone, or with lighter and darker versions of the same colour.
• Save stronger colour for rooms with doors. A dark dining room or a bold study works well as a destination, less well as a corridor.

Walking through the house with your sample boards and holding them up in each doorway is the quickest way to see whether a scheme hangs together.

Front doors, exteriors and conservation areas

Exterior colour is where personal taste meets planning rules. Ealing has many conservation areas, from the Brentham Garden Estate to the streets around Ealing Common. In some of them an Article 4 direction removes normal permitted development rights, which can mean you need planning permission to paint the outside of a house, including brickwork, render and sometimes front doors and windows, in a different colour or finish.

Before changing an exterior colour, check with Ealing Council's planning team whether your address is in a conservation area and whether an Article 4 direction applies. Repainting in the same colour is usually treated differently from a change, but confirm it rather than assume.

Traditional front doors often suit deep, slightly muted colours in gloss: dark greens, blues, reds and black. Painted render usually looks best in soft off-whites and stone shades rather than brilliant white, which can look harsh and shows dirt quickly. For timing and preparation, see our exterior painting tips.

Once you have a shortlist, the Instant Quote gives you an indicative price range for the rooms or elevations you have in mind, and a decorator then confirms a fixed quote.