Ultimate Guide to Choosing Interior Paint Colours in Hove

Whether you're in an Edwardian property along New Church Road, a Regency mansion flat near Church Road or contemporary styled house down a secret mews , choosing the right interior paint colour scheme will transform your Hove home. What works in a magazine or in a friend’s home doesn’t always translate to the unique shape, size, architecture, windows and aspect of your home. Here’s what we've learned from painting a range of Hove interiors and the key things to consider to maximise light in a seaside location.

Embrace Natural Sunlight

Hove homes benefit from amazing coastal sunlight and the quality of light transforms paint colours throughout the day, from daw to dusk, and across the seasons, from Summer to Winter. Considering the sun’s orientation through different windows across day is essential to perfecting a colour scheme which maximises natural light conditions. Examples of Farrow & Ball colours demonstrate a range of options however there’s a vast palette to suit your personality and property. The aspect of the room is critical so here’s our top tips for South, North, West and East facing rooms.

South Facing Rooms

South facing spaces are filled with warm light from dawn to dusk so these are the easiest rooms to choose a palette which works for your home. Soft, pale tones maximise the feeling of light and space with blue or green undertones a solid choice for a paint colour. Inspired by the wonderful Regency colours of the Royal Pavilion, F&B Pavilion Blue is a great example of a clean and fresh finish. If you prefer something warmer then try warm neutrals with a red undertone, like F&B Pointing or Dimity, which are inspired by natural 17th Century materials such as plaster, stone and wood. Talking of woodwork, a bright white will never let you down.

North Facing rooms

Northerly aspect rooms, loved by Hove artists as light levels stay fairly steady through the day, need red undertones for a family home as Northern light brings out cooler tones within paint colours. Avoid blue undertones and pick a colour with a red base as this works beautifully to bounce light around the space. F&B Elephant’s Breath is a perennial favourite as this mid grey contemporary neutral has a hint of magenta. The other option, of course, is to embrace the cooler light from a Northerly window and go for a darker colour, like F&B Railings or Wine Dark, for some period style cocooning.

West Facing Rooms

Westerly aspect spaces need to work with cooler light in the morning and glorious sunshine in the afternoon so the key consideration is how and when you use the room. Warmer tones like F&B Setting Plaster are excellent if you want to make the most of afternoon sunlight, F&B Slipper Satin will balance morning and afternoon light, whilst complex ‘chameleon’ colours like F&B Green Blue materially change throughout the day. The changing light and shifting shadows make these rooms particularly exciting with lots of colour palettes to get the creative juices flowing.

East Facing Rooms

Easterly facing spaces also need a paint colour based on when the room is most in use in order to balance the majesty of morning sunlight with muted evening light. Veer towards blue or green undertones, like F&B Breakfast Room Green, if you mainly use the room in the morning and red or yellow undertones if you want a warm and cosy space in the afternoon and evening. If you have an open plan East/West dual aspect space then a contemporary neutral like F&B Skimming Stone or timeless neutral such as Shadow White will create an airy space with beautiful light shades and deep shadows as light moves through your home.

Consider Artificial Lighting

Light bulbs have different brightness (Lumen) and temperature (Kelvin) so, if you haven’t locked down your lighting design yet, choose a neutral white bulb for the truest representation of paint colours during the evening. Rooms are transformed at night with task lighting, ambient lighting and accent lighting creating different environments so ensure you test paint colours in these conditions. We’re fans of smart lighting, like Philips Hue, as their flexibility allows you to adjust brightness, go cool in the Summer, warm in the Winter and zone areas for different occasions.

Visualise With Technology

Augmented Reality (AR) apps are fantastic tools to experiment with different colours without any real commitment. iOS and Android apps like Dulux Visualiser and most paint brands, including Farrow & Ball, give you the option to upload images of your home and dynamically change wall colours. You can truly experiment and have fun with an almost infinite colour palette to rule out the outliers and shortlist the best colours. It’s a good representation of the impact of different colours in your home, especially if you’re thinking of bold colour schemes, however it’s still important to test real samples to see how they work in different light conditions.

Test Real Samples

Paint large swatches (at least A3 size) on different walls and live with them for a few weeks. We recommend painting A3 cardboard so you have flexibility to move them around and try paint colours in different rooms. What looks perfect at high noon will feel completely different in the evening, especially under artificial light, so it’s worth taking your time in order to make confident decisions. Sometimes your initial intuition is the right choice however paint colours can look very different depending on the size of the room, architectural features and ceiling height - so have fun experimenting with colour.

Paint Colour Tips

South facing rooms work with most undertones so a full colour palette is yours to explore.

North facing rooms benefit from red undertones and you can go bold with darker colours.

West facing rooms love red/yellow undertones to celebrate sunshine in the afternoon.

East facing rooms like blue/green undertones for mornings and red/yellow for afternoons.

Artificial lighting transforms paint colours so test colours in different lighting conditions.

Colour visualisers allow you to experiment with lots of colours to select your shortlist.

Paint A3 cardboard with different sample colours and live with your ideas for a few weeks.