Thinking of refreshing your home with a fresh coat of paint? Choosing a color that not only fits your home’s atmosphere but also looks how it did when you picked the swatches from the store can be tricky. Unlike buying a black piece of clothing only to discover it was actually navy once you arrived home—choosing a color for your walls only to discover it just doesn’t quite look right is a different kind of frustration. Rely on Mike’s Quality Painting in Albuquerque to update your home with a color that works for your home lighting.

Natural Lighting
New Mexico has beautiful skies and many bright days—depending on which direction your house is facing, you’ve probably noticed one room may be darker during certain times of day versus another room. One factor to consider when choosing the perfect paint color is which direction the room is facing when sunlight comes in. While North-facing walls produce soft, warm tones that subdue lighter colors, South-facing walls bring intense light that could easily wash out lighter colors but brighten darker ones. West-facing walls bring in warm evenings—as reds, oranges, and yellows are easily affected by this lighting and intensified. East facing on the other hand, offers greenish hues that help to brighten softer yellows. This may seem overwhelming, but artificial lighting can assist in providing the perfect lighting as well as help the colors you picked out stay true to their original tones.

Artificial Lighting
There are many different types of artificial lighting, and like natural light, it can affect the way colors look in your home. Incandescent bulbs are one choice that complements cooler colors and intensifies reds, oranges, and yellows with their warm hue. Fluorescent lights—like the one you likely picked color swatches under—tend to mesh well with cool blues and greens, and would work great in a kitchen or workspace. Halogen lights are the closest to replicating natural light in a home, so they complement the most colors, though occasionally they may cool down colors. Artificial lighting can vastly improve areas of your home that may receive harsh natural lighting or that don’t receive enough sunlight throughout the day—thus helping you take control of how colors are perceived in your home.

Final Notes
Keep in mind that there are a few other factors that can affect the way you see color in your home. When using artificial lighting, the placement of the lights can also affect color, as they may receive direct light from above, as opposed to natural light that streams in from a window. Natural lighting on the other hand can suffer the opposite fate, as the light that comes into your house may change throughout the day and is also affected by weather conditions. Furniture in the room will also absorb light sources and could potentially dull or darken colors depending on lighting. Finally, paint color and finish should be taken into consideration—glossy finishes tend to bounce light off, and certain colors could potentially be more difficult to work with such as khaki, sage, and taupe.

Now that you’ve learned about the ways that lighting can affect colors in your home, we’re ready to help you get started with painting! Call Mike’s Quality Painting at (505) 508-5342—we proudly serve Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, and Santa Fe, and we’re ready to help you make your home look its best!

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