The 9 Best Benjamin Moore Paint Colors for a North-Facing Room

The Most Popular Paint Colors for Rooms with Northern Exposure

Have you ever walked into a room and gotten the chills? Even a room that’s well-decorated can look cold and uninviting if the exposure has been ignored, which happens ALL the time – and I’m here to put a stop to it.

A north-facing room won’t get any direct warm sunlight throughout the day, which means that it won’t benefit from the visual warmth that natural sunlight offers.

The Two Types of North-Facing Light

1. NORTH-FACING ROOMS WITH LOW NATURAL LIGHT

North-facing rooms with low light most often have small windows. However, the low light can also be caused by an overhang/patio above the window, close neighbor, or dense landscaping that blocks the natural light from coming in.

North-facing rooms naturally have a grayish light with a subtle blue cast. A north-facing room without much natural light can suffer from being more shadowed and having to deal with the gray undertone of the natural light offered – giving the room a more shaded and cold look. And be sure not to confuse ‘shadows’ (which need sunlight) with shaded – shaded means grayed-out.

2. NORTH-FACING ROOMS WITH A LOT OF NATURAL LIGHT

Bright north-facing rooms tend to have large or multiple windows with no patio/landscaping blocking the flow of natural light. But beware, just because these rooms are ‘bright’ doesn’t mean they’re warm looking.

This next photo shows a room with a pretty warmth – but that’s courtesy of the light bulbs, not the exposure! Look at the room to the right of it, and you’ll see the cool cast of the natural, northern light coming in.

A north-facing room with A LOT of natural light will have the same grayish cast but will at least have the support of ‘light’ to counteract the gray cast and brighten things up. However, the natural light itself can slightly wash out (gray out) some paint colors due to the color of the light while slightly enhancing cool tones such as blue, green, and violet.

You can also have a north-east facing room or a north-west facing room (seriously, it never ends). These rooms are ninjas and can change their look throughout the day as the sun shifts from east-west (read more HERE).

How to Pick Colors for Rooms With 2 Exposures

Northern light can wash out some paint colors

To counteract that cold, gray exposure, Designers often use warm paint colors as they create balance in the visual temperature of the room. While cool colors can be great accents, generally speaking, too many cool tones can double the effect of the already cold exposure and won’t add any balance or warmth.

Warm colors will help create balance in a north-facing room

1. BENJAMIN MOORE NAVAJO WHITE OC-95

Navajo White is a light, warm cream paint color. Cream is a yellow paint color with a neutral base added to calm it down. Northern light can ‘calm down’ the degree of yellow in a cream paint color, while the remaining yellow can help to counteract the northern light a bit.

• Navajo White will wash out a bit on a well-lit wall (as shown in the above photo) but holds itself well in average light. In a darker room, it will add warmth but will need some artificial light to come to life.

• The LRV of Navajo White is 78, meaning it’s off-white. Not sure what LRV is? You shouldn’t pick a paint color WITHOUT it (read more HERE)!

• In a south-facing room, expect Navajo White to look warmer/more yellow than it does above.

SIMILAR SHERWIN WILLIAMS CONSIDER FOR NORTH-FACING ROOMS

• Sherwin Williams Creamy
• Sherwin Williams Antique White
• Benjamin Moore White Down

2. BENJAMIN MOORE WINDS BREATH OC 24

Winds Breath is a color that doesn’t get NEARLY enough recognition. Personally, it’s one of my favorite, muted, warm neutrals.

Winds Breath has a wide range of neutrals in it, but not enough to fully commit to one in particular. This gives this awesome warm paint color some GREAT flexibility.

• With an LRV of 69.59, Winds Breath is on the higher end of the light range – winking at the off-white range.
• While Winds Breath is definitely muted, there’s still enough warmth to add some balance to cool northern light.

SHERWIN WILLIAMS PAINT COLORS THAT ARE SIMILAR TO WINDS BREATH

• Sherwin Williams Aesthetic White
• Sherwin Williams White Duck

Paint Color Review of Benjamin Moore’s Winds Breath

3. BENJAMIN MOORE GENTLE CREAM OC-96

Gentle Cream is rich enough to add warmth to your space without weighing it down, as it’s still in the light range of paint colors. This heavy cream’s yellow-orange base will help balance out your cool northern light without looking overly colorful on your walls.

In a north-facing room, the undertones will be a bit less obvious than in a south-facing room, and it’s more likely to settle like a warm but neutral-looking paint color – keeping in mind the undertones/color will come up a bit more once the sun goes down (Elton John style).

• The LRV of Gentle Cream is 72.0, putting Gentle Cream in the ‘light’ range (Read more about LRV).

• Personally, I’ve used Gentle Cream in my home in north and south-facing rooms and LOVED it in both!

SIMILAR SHERWIN WILLIAMS COLORS FOR NORTH-FACING ROOMS

• Sherwin Williams Creamy
• Sherwin Williams Antique White
• Sherwin Williams Casa Blanca

Color Review of Benjamin Moore Gentle Cream 

4. BENJAMIN MOORE LENOX TAN HC 43

As shown in this beautiful farmhouse living room below, Lenox Tan is a rich golden beige paint color tempered by a neutral earthy base which helps it come across as more NEUTRAL vs. golden.

Kylie M Online Color Consulting

• One of the more striking warm colors on this page, Lenox Tan is also the heaviest with an LRV of 43. Great for a well-lit room and rich and cozy for a darker space.

• In the above living room, we lightened it by 25%, just to account for the fact that the room was north-facing and had a patio overhang outside blocking the light.

5. BENJAMIN MOORE GRANT BEIGE HC 83

While Grant Beige is one of the more popular warm tan paint colors, its approach is very muted and subtle. It can be a great happy medium if you aren’t jazzed about the more golden approach of Lenox Tan or Gentle Cream but don’t want to dive into the greige end of things.

Grant Beige can work in a WELL-LIT north-facing room as long as you aren’t looking for a TYPICAL warm look and crave some neutral action.

• In the center of the above photo, notice the hint of green. This shows you how susceptible some neutrals are to pick up reflections – that’s the green landscaping outside the window! That being said, Grant Beige CAN pick up a very vague green all on its own.

• Grant Beige is the most ‘modern’ color on this page with its slightly cool tan look.

• With an LRV of 56.0, Grant Beige will do well in a well-lit room, but in a dark room without enough artificial lighting, it might fall a bit flat

SIMILAR SHERWIN WILLIAMS PAINT COLORS FOR NORTH-FACING ROOMS

• Sherwin Williams Natural Tan
• Sherwin Williams Canvas Tan
• Sherwin Williams Accessible Beige

Paint Color Review of Benjamin Moore Grant Beige

 How to Make a Dark Room Look Brighter – And it Ain’t with Paint!

Let’s take a quick break to talk about paint samples…

Undoubtedly, you’ll be heading out in the near future to grab paint samples – stop right there! I want you to check out SAMPLIZE. Samplize offers peel-and-stick paint samples that are more AFFORDABLE, EASIER, and more ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY than traditional paint pots. Here are just a few reasons why I recommend Samplize to my clients…

• samples arrive ON YOUR DOORSTEP in 1-3 business days, depending on the location

• at $6.99, they’re more affordable than the samples pots/rollers/foam boards that are needed for traditional paint sampling

• if you keep the samples on their white paper, you can move them around the room

Visit the SAMPLIZE website HERE

5. BENJAMIN MOORE BALLET WHITE OC 9

Ballet White is a perfectly muted cream. While it has a touch of yellow for warmth, its neutral base calms it down, leaving enough warmth to balance some cool northern light.

Paint Color Review: Benjamin Moore Ballet White

• Notice the subtle warmth of a color like Ballet White in the above photo – juuuuust right.
• You may need to jump into the cream range if you want MORE warmth than white Ballet White offers.

SHERWIN WILLIAMS PAINT COLORS THAT ARE SIMILAR TO BALLET WHITE

• Sherwin Williams White Duck
• Sherwin Williams Shoji White

6. BENJAMIN MOORE EDGECOMB GRAY HC 173

Edgecomb Gray is a beautiful blend of gray and beige with an almost creamy undertone. Along with Grant Beige, it’s another popular option for those of you wanting a more neutral-greige look but are afraid of your room looking cold.

In a north-facing room, you CAN expect Edgecomb Gray to lean MORE to the gray side than the creamy beige, but it shouldn’t pick up the blue-green undertones that a lot of greiges can in a north-facing room.

• Edgecomb Gray has an LRV of 63, so it might be a stitch too dark and neutral for a north-facing room that isn’t well-lit, so make sure it’s light and bright!

SIMILAR SHERWIN WILLIAMS PAINT COLORS FOR NORTH-FACING ROOMS

• Sherwin Williams White Duck (not the same at all, but similar intentions)

There are MANY other colors that I’d throw in a north-facing room – that’s just a small sampling to get you on the right track. However, you might have noticed that they are ALL warm colors. If you’re absolutely DETERMINED to paint your north-facing room a cool paint color, here are a few I might humor…

7. BENJAMIN MOORE WOODLAWN BLUE HC 147

While I generally shy away from cool colors in a north-facing room, I do love Benjamin Moore Wythe Blue, and Woodlawn Blue as their increased CHROMA (color) brings things to life.

Why can Wythe and Woodlawn work where other cool colors fail? Wythe is a beautiful blend of blue-green-gray (pretty balanced). Woodlawn Blue is a blue-gray with a wink of green in it. And even though blue and green are BOTH traditionally cool colors, adding green to blue can make it look warmer and softer! So, schlong story short, if I were to pick a blue for a north-facing room, I would pick a blue with green in it.

The 8 Best Blue-Green Paint Colors

 The 2 Types of Blue Paint Colors and How to Use Them

• these colors will be at their best in a north-facing room with ample or at least moderate natural light

• any cool color in a north-facing room will need to be supplemented with warm wood tones and texture

SIMILAR SHERWIN WILLIAMS PAINT COLORS FOR NORTH-FACING ROOMS

• Sherwin Williams Tradewind
• Sherwin Williams Rainwashed

8. BENJAMIN MOORE REVERE PEWTER HC 172

You can also take a look at Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter, which is a WARM color, but definitely the most ‘gray’ on this page.

Revere Pewter is a light warm gray with an earthy green undertone. In a south-facing room, it’s more inclined to lean into its warmth. However, in a north-facing room, it’s more likely to lean back into gray a bit, and the odd time can pick up the other cool gray undertones.

• Revere Pewter has an LRV of 55.1, so it’s closer to the light-medium range as it has a good depth. For this reason, I would be more inclined to use it in a reasonably well-lit north-facing room vs. a dark one

SIMILAR SHERWIN WILLIAMS PAINT COLORS FOR NORTH-FACING ROOMS

• Sherwin Williams Colonnade Gray
• Sherwin Williams Worldly Gray
• Sherwin Williams Amazing Gray

9. BENJAMIN MOORE GIBRALTAR CLIFFS 1587

Gibraltar Cliffs is one of my favorite paint colors. However, it is a bit better as a FEATURE wall rather than an overall wall color unless you want the cold-on-cold look.

Gibraltar Cliffs is on the right side of the photo, above the window

• Gibraltar Cliffs has an LRV of 30, so it’s got some good meat on its bones! It would partner up well with a soft, warm white or muted cream paint color

Rooms with north-east, north-west, or north-south facing exposures

While it might seem confusing, having dual exposures isn’t bad when you’re armed with the right information! Check out this blog post on ‘how to pick paint colors when you have two exposures‘.

Get your SAMPLIZE PEEL & STICK samples of Kylie M’s recommended colors from this post!

READ MORE

North, East, South, West – which paint color is the best?

The 8 Best Blue Green Paint Colors

Can I Paint My North Facing Room White?

Can I Paint My North-Facing Room Gray

The Best Paint Color for East Facing Rooms

The Best Paint Colors for South Facing Rooms

Not sure which color is best for you?

Check out my affordable Online Color Consulting Services!

Chat soon,

Originally written in 2014, awesomely updated in 2021