COLOUR FOR A WEST-FACING ROOM

THE COLOUR COMPASS: PART IV

DINNER BY THE FIRE

The Nature of the Light  

A west-facing room: the most challenging but also potentially the most rewarding of the aspects. The turn-around cousin of the east-facing light: it lacks the brightness of eastern mornings, has none of the evenness of the north, and unlike south, only has vivid light in the afternoons and evenings. It shifts from cool and underlit in the morning to golden and sometimes fiery by evening, making it one of the most changeable orientations. It needs careful planning of both use and colour. If used in the mornings, it can feel dull and lifeless but, in the evening, it will kick into action like a nightclub proprietress.  

Indeed, such rooms were often prized as dining rooms in times when such use of spaces were common. When the evening glow coincided with dinner, it could turn the dullest of spaces into warm and welcoming havens of pleasantries. If attempted as a use for studies or breakfast rooms, they could frustrate and drain.  

Colour me hot 

A west room is a room of transformation. The colours chosen for west-facing rooms must anticipate this mercurial character. The light in west-facing rooms starts cool and cold in the mornings. With the sun at the other end of the house, the room can feel forlorn, and indeed often sits abandoned if choice is available. Warm pastels can work as long as they have enough warmth and presence for the drab morning light. If pale cool tones or chilly neutrals are used, they will drain the life out of the space. To combat this, steady warm tones such as ochres, russets, and reds will lift the cold light, and give a sense of cocooning earlier in the day. As the sun comes round in the afternoons and the golden light starts to occupy the space, they will  harmonise effortlessly with the evening glow. In colour theory, reds are supposed to stimulate appetite, so the combination of dinner in the glowing light of a warmly coloured west-facing dining room kills two birds with one stone.  

When cool plays warm 

Should you be more in favour of strong dark, cooler hues, these can work, but with a caveat. Do not go too cold. For dark blues or purples, keep the hint of green or red in the base, to enable a little glow. For dark greens, keep a hint of yellow and temper the black base. These dark tones can steady the warm light but they will never glow like a warm-toned hue, and they will not have the same enveloping feel as they might in a north-facing room. They can, however, contribute to steadiness.  If used solely as a backdrop and not as the star, the deeper cool tones can work well. They are best contrasted with warm floors and metals, and they will feel calmer rather than radiant.

After Hours  

As in all other aspects, the answer is never cold and blue artificial light. In every orientation, such a light will either exacerbate the chill, or fight the warmth. The advice remains steady: neutral-to-warm, around 2500Kelvin*, in order to help the morning freeze, and avoid any clashing between a cool lightbulb and the gold of the evening sun. Lower Kelvins will come into their own in these rooms. There is a reason to why eating by candlelight feels so enticing. Combine a warm hue, plenty of texture, the westly sun falling in through the window whilst colouring a glass of red wine with fire, accompanied by lit candles which, when the sun goes down, mimic and perpetuate the glow. These rooms throw a good party.

Choose bulbs with a high colour-rendering index (CRI 90 or higher) so tones stay truthful at night, and split the room across circuits if possible,: for example table lamps, wall lights and a central pendant on separate dimmers, to move from task to supper to conversation without having to tip into all or nothing. If so inclined, crystal chandeliers will look resplendent in the glow. 

Matter Matters  

Chrome and silver will sit at odds with the light in a west-facing room. They will push the chilled darkness over the edge in the mornings and simply look on as it falls. There is a good reason why the dining rooms of yore were often adorned with gold metals, brass and bronze.  

Fabrics and furnishings with a soft sheen (silk, velvet, damask) catch the last light beautifully. In a south-facing room, these fabrics can read a little gaudy and glittery, whilst in the west-facing light of the afternoon, they play very well with the low hanging light, enhancing and contributing to its attractive nature. Fabrics with tight weaves and a modest lustre  such as taffeta and polished cottons look tactile without straying into glitz. Returns on curtain poles, a deep track, or even a pelmet will help any glare at sundown. 

In summer the west-facing sun can feel punishing, baking through glass and making rooms almost uninhabitable in the late afternoon; blinds, shutters, or layered curtains were a historic solution, and they remain effective. In winter, however, the same room can become the household’s prize: the place where the last warmth of the day lingers when other rooms are dark. Consider window treatments which can filter light rather than shut it out altogether. Sheer linens and fine silks create dappled patterns without removing delight. If needed, heavier cotton or damask weaves can temper the glare. Even though not subjected to as many hours of daylight as a south-facing room, bleaching will still occur. Consider interlining drapery and covering any fragile upholstery or soft furnishings during summer. 

Because the evening sun enters low, it can be dazzling if a chair, desk, or dining table is placed directly in its path. Seating set at an angle to the window, rather than square-on, will feel far more comfortable and will avoid that sense of squinting across the table.

West-facing rooms are difficult if your evening activities include your favourite TV shows. Glare will happen, and therefore the strategy above in terms of window treatments will be a necessity. Place a television perpendicular to the window where possible and consider a matte screen or an anti-glare filter if the room cannot be reoriented. Mirrors prefer to sit at right angles to the light so they carry the glow without throwing it into eyes; large mirrors directly opposite the window will act like a second sun.    

Employ textures with depth: think embossed wallpapers, flocks, anaglypta, densely woven fabrics, carved woods, leathers, all come alive in raking evening light. For the large expanse of wall and ceiling, stay with matt finishes and lower sheens on woodwork. Gloss will catch the light, and you might find yourself staring at large shiny rectangles of wall, without being able to read the colour properly. 

Test, test, test 

These rooms are chameleons. Testing the paint on large boards, two coats, in the morning, midday and evening is paramount. Look carefully, blocking out surrounding colour so as to see the hue properly. Take your time. Where south-facing rooms will most likely forgive a hasty decision, north-facing rooms will live as long as you are warm and bold enough, and east-facing rooms will be happy as long as you keep it cheerful, west-facing rooms can, if not handled properly, turn into an energy-vampire in the mornings and a fire ant on speed in the evenings.   

The best schemes embrace the duality: choosing colours and materials that allow the room to glow when the sun sets, and to remain steady when it does not. They are not the easiest spaces, but they reward careful planning with an atmosphere that cannot be replicated elsewhere in the house: a daily transformation that feels theatrical, surprising, and unforgettable. 

Treat the room as a theatre that wakes after lunch, and decorate accordingly; if colour, fabric and light are cast with care, the audience will go home happy. 

*Light temperature. High Kelvins = cool light. Daylight equals about 5000K. Low Kelvins = warm light. Candlelight sits around 2000K.