Impact Of Lighting When you're planning your décor, pay just as much attention to your lighting as to your colour palette. Natural light and indoor lighting have quite an impact on the ambiance created by your chosen colours.

Cool Tip The finished colour on the wall is identical to the retailer's paint chip. Remember however, that the eye naturally perceives the colour as darker when it covers a larger surface or several walls in a room.

Make sure you can live with the colours you've chosen under all lighting conditions; the most reliable method it is to affix your colour chips right on the surface to be painted. For the ceiling, place the sample horizontally, facing down and for the walls, place the sample vertically. Watch how they appear to change throughout the day; observe how they react to natural light and adapt your lighting accordingly. Light affects colours; to avoid surprises, choose your colours under lighting conditions that are similar to the room you are re-doing.

The three main types of indoor lighting have very different effects on colour. Choosing the right light source will go a long way to helping you achieve the desired effect: Incandescent light — traditional light bulbs create a warm ambiance but they tend to give a slightly yellow cast to your chosen colours. This is why they are better at displaying warm colours (red, yellow and orange). Fluorescent light — fluorescent tubes create a cooler mood so colours will have a greenish or bluish tinge. This is why they are better at rendering cool colours (blue, green and purple). Halogen light — the new generation of reflectors and bulbs really light up a room. They also allow you to make your lighting more precise or more diffuse, depending on the room. Further, halogen light is similar to natural light; it’s neutral so it has very little effect on the appearance of colours.

Dark colours reduce the ambiant lighting since they absorb light. Conversely, lighter colours increase the luminosity because they reflect light. So if you paint your walls a light colour, you will need less lighting than if you use a dark colour.

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