The Best Paint Colors for East Facing Rooms
Author: Rick Worst | Editor: Omar Alonso
Review & Research: Jen Worst & Chris Miller
Are you painting an east-facing room in your home? Your choice of paint color should complement the natural light entering the room. When considering your color options, you must account for the time of day the light casts into the room and the year's seasonality. Let's cover the best paint colors for east facing rooms.
East Facing Rooms Are Challenging, But Not Impossible
Finding the best paint colors for east facing rooms is tough because you need to account for the dramatic light variation compared to the south or north-facing rooms. Take some samples of the paints you like and paint them on cardboard. Leave them in the room on a sun-facing wall and look at how the color changes in the morning, midday, and afternoon. You want to make sure the paint doesn't dry darker or lighter, too, than you'd expect.
This paint-testing strategy gives you an idea of the light's dimensional effect on the color and how it looks at any time of day. The sun shifts throughout the day, and east-facing rooms get a beautiful splash of sunlight in the morning but a colder cast into the afternoon.
The Best Paint Colors for East Facing Rooms
The morning sunlight in an east-facing room is warm and clear, unlike a north-facing space which feels cold and greyed-out. As the sun rises in the sky, the light in east-facing rooms gets whiter and brighter before tapering off in the afternoon. Remember that if you're painting a lighter color over a darker existing one, you'll want to use some type of primer.
Here are our top choices for the best paint colors for east-facing rooms. We selected different hues to match sunlight and artificial lighting conditions.
Yellow Hues
Yellow is the perfect color to complement the morning sunlight entering the room. Yellow hues give your mind a boost of confidence and clarity in the morning, helping you get a fresh start to the day. Color psychology is a big deal when it comes to interior house painting. Here are our top variations of yellow hues for east-facing rooms in the home.
Canary Yellow
Canary yellow is bright and bold, setting the precedent of an energetic space resembling natural sunlight. It makes east-facing rooms bright and vibrant, making the room feel radiant. Canary yellow sets the impression of spring and summer and complements trim colors like violet and grey.
Butterscotch Syrup
This color brings a sense of relaxation into the room. You get an ambient and laid-back feeling from this color, with its light to mid-brown hue adding sharpness to east-facing rooms in the morning light. It's a stunning color and remarkably delicate, giving the impression of inviting the morning sunlight to dance on the walls.
Bright Yellow
Like canary yellow, Bright yellow is another brilliant, radiant hue. However, bright yellow has more tones of white in it, giving the impression of a vibrant, bold space as it catches the morning light. You get a joyful feeling and more personality from this color, with a laid-back vibe. If you're an early bird, bright yellow helps you wake up and enjoy the sunlight in the room as it slowly intensifies over the morning.
Burnished or Rajah Gold
If you want to establish a sense of calm and inner peace in east-facing rooms, we recommend going with this color for the walls. This light to mid-shade yellow hue adds a feeling of serene tranquility, and combining it with a dark cream for the trim is remarkably soothing and satisfying.
Orange Hues
Orange colors are outstanding during the afternoon, making them some of the best paint colors for east facing rooms. When the sun starts to move overhead, and the light no longer shines through the window, orange hues set a tone of warmth and energy to give you the boost you need before the sun starts to set. Combining orange hues with white and brown trim is the best compliment.
Fiery Orange
This deep, orange color hints at autumnal tones with a dash of pumpkin spice. It's ideal for galleries, making artwork jump out from the wall. In bedrooms, it creates a sense of coziness and comfort.
Orange Spark
This mid-brown orange hue creates the union of luxurious color, resulting in a rich, deep coffee creme-like color that attracts the eyes while offering a sense of distinction. It's majestic, powerful, and a great choice for east-facing lounges and dining rooms. You get an animated visual stirring conversation and sparking positivity in the room.
L-Orange
This red-orange shade has a rich feel to it, summoning images of a lively Mediterranean-like atmosphere. It's a real stand-out, creating a sharp edge that's simply mesmerizing and complements many other colors. L-Orange adds brightness and warmth while remaining deep but not dominating. It's a highly flexible paint choice, complementing many different hues.
Whites
We all love the neutral tone of whites, providing a warm undertone for bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens. However, white can appear sterile in some cases, and picking the right tint for white paint can be challenging.
Maybe you like pure white, in which case you can use that leftover can of ceiling paint on the walls. Latex types of paint are the best for this, in my opinion. Otherwise, here are our top choices to create a sense of clean, calm, airy ambiance in east-facing rooms.
White Dove
This tint is amazing and works in any setting. There's a slight hint of grey, keeping it from appearing too chilly or sharp. Some off-white hues might appear green or yellowish in dim rooms, but a high-gloss finish with this color creates a bright, fresh, cheerful backdrop to the room, removing any sense of dullness or gloom.
Off-White
Another classic, off-white, offers you a clean backdrop to walls. The brilliant but cool undertones can appear somewhat sharp, making it hard to look at. However, off-white can look gentle and soft in east-facing rooms, making it a remarkably flexible color that radiates warmth compared to the standard sterile look of flat white.
White OC
White offers you warm or cool tones, depending on your chosen tint. White OC has a creamy look, creating a tranquil, relaxed style with a slight peach hue to it for warmth.
Cloud White
This hue has a sharp, clean appearance with a touch of warmth. It's ideal for use in both traditional and contemporary interior design aesthetics. It's a remarkably flexible color in both gloss or semi-gloss finishes and complements blue and grey.
Cloud white brings a relaxing foundational color, allowing warm textures and tones to shine. It complements artificial lighting, making it a good choice for the afternoon or evening and a remarkable cool effect for the summer sunlight.
Colors for the Late Afternoon
When the late afternoon arrives, east-facing rooms in the home create a unique atmosphere in the house. The warm glow from the setting sun brings a soothing effect into any space. Using neutral and earthy colors adds gentle radiance, with tans, greys, and beige paints being great choices for bedrooms, lounges, and dining rooms. Here are a few examples of the best paint colors for east facing rooms later in the day.
Shaker Beige
This beige color paint radiates elegance and complements light green and white hues. It has a sophisticated feel, making it the ideal choice for east-facing kitchens and lounges. This color seems to dance in the glow of afternoon light, giving the room an exquisite touch of glory.
Manchester Tan
This refined beige hue evokes imagery of sandstone facades and is an ideal choice for east-facing rooms like lounges and bedrooms.
Balboa Mist
Balboa Mist is versatile and flexible, with neutral elements of grey complementing the room. The pale-grey color goes with everything, and its slightly brown coloration has hints of grey and green undertones.
Green & Blue Hues
East-facing rooms don't have to rely on oranges, tans, browns, whites, and yellows to look fantastic. Sometimes, going with cool colors can create dramatic visual effects in any room.
We recommend avoiding blue and green hues that appear greyed out, as they tend to flatten the walls and create a cold effect. Blue aqua and light greens assist with infusing the room with delicate but fresh colors. Here are our top choices for east-facing rooms.
Ocean Air
This hue offers a subdued, pale blue undertone with a slight grey tint that's ageless and soothing. Some studies even suggest it alleviates feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression. The soft grey tint in this color looks fantastic in lounges, bedrooms, and kitchens. It feels fresh, clean, and airy, offering a therapeutic effect on the mind.
Sapling
This color sets a relaxing precedent in the morning. It's easy on the eyes, and its green-yellow tinge soothes the mind before readying yourself for the day ahead. We love it in bedrooms and dining rooms. You get the impression of vibrancy and enthusiasm that only green undertones bring bubbling to the forefront of your mind.
Spring Meadow
The soothing visual effect of spring meadow gives the impression of being outside on a warm spring morning. Painting the walls of lounges and bedrooms with spring meadows guarantees you'll feel sensations of relaxation as you plan out your day.
Milk Jug
This color brings a sense of coolness to the vibe of east-facing rooms. It has tones of cream, creating a relaxing mood while leaving the mind to drift into creative thought. It's the ideal choice for a home office or a bedroom. You'll feel connected and ready to concentrate without any sense of anxiety or pressure.
Cricket
Cricket offers a warm but muted undertone, making it a flexible choice for most rooms throughout the home. It's very easy on the eyes, with soft undertones offering a relaxing impression. Lay back, relax, and enjoy the soothing visual effect provided by this mellow tone.
Some of the Best Paint Colors for East Facing Rooms
Above are a handful of the best paint colors for east facing rooms to get you started on your journey. If you can choose from the above, even better. But this should give you an idea of what would work or not. I would personally avoid dark colors, and if you want an accent wall you can choose one that isn’t directly facing the window. Just have fun with it and follow your heart’s desire and you’ll be satisfied.