Hi,
After a few blissful days away with my family, I’m back, rested, recharged, and ready to dive into this week’s colour chat.
Before we start, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s downloaded my first Colour Academy course, How to Decorate Your Living Room. The feedback has honestly blown me away. It’s been such a joy (and a little nerve-wracking!) putting this personal project together with a small team of friends and creatives I adore. If your living room is next on the decoration list and you haven’t taken a look yet, do go and explore it. I am putting together the final touches to the next course, which should be launching very soon.
You can get the course right here and it’s yours to keep forever, so take it at your own pace. Inside you’ll find nine short, easy-to-watch video lessons, each designed to help you think about your space in a new way. I’ve also included some simple worksheets to guide you along, plus lots of real homes and examples to spark your ideas and bring everything to life
Now, onto this week’s topic, one I’m asked about a lot: rooms with little or no natural light.
We all have that one space that never quite gets the daylight it deserves, the basement flat that feels a touch flat, the windowless bathroom, or that north-facing room where the sun seems to play hard to get.
Here’s the truth: you don’t need sunlight for a room to shine. You just need to understand how light interacts with colour and choose shades that work with what you’ve got, not against it.
Hallway
Let’s talk about one of the most overlooked spaces in almost every home: the hallway. It’s a fascinating room to design because, when I chat with clients, it’s rarely where they start. Most people are focused on their living room, kitchen or bedroom, the spaces they spend the majority of their time in. But the hallway is the first space you see when you step through the door. It’s the one that greets you home, sets the mood for the rest of the house, and quietly says, “this is who lives here.”
What I find so exciting about hallways is that they’re transitional spaces; you don’t spend long in them, so you can afford to be a little braver. This is your chance to start your home’s colour story, to create that moment when you open the front door and think, “oh yes, I’m home.”
Because hallways often lack natural light, they can pick up dull grey shadows. So instead of fighting that, choose a beautiful midtone that adds depth and warmth. Think of it as wrapping your home in a sense of welcome from the very first step inside. Stronger colours work brilliantly here; they soak up those shadows and create a richer, more enveloping feel.
And once you’ve chosen that hallway colour, don’t stop there. Let it gently lead you into the rest of the house, maybe echoed in a cushion in the living room, or a piece of artwork in the kitchen. It ties everything together and makes the journey through your home feel thoughtful and connected.
Basements
Our first home
I speak from experience here. My husband Sam and I once lived in a basement flat in Clapham, our very first home together. I really struggled with the lack of natural light down there, so I know how it feels to crave brightness.
My trick? Choose neutrals with warm undertones and steer clear of anything with a cool or grey base. Warmth is your best friend. It immediately makes a space feel cosy, soft, and welcoming.
In that flat, I used White 03 and colour-drenched every surface. Then I added oversized mirrors to bounce around what little natural light we did have, along with multiple light sources to create depth and softness.
But if you’re working with only a basement bedroom, you can go the other way and lean into the darkness. Deep, velvety tones like a rich teal or even terracotta pinks make for a room that feels intentional, enveloping, and luxurious.. It’s the difference between fighting the shadows and embracing them.
Windowless Bathrooms
The windowless bathroom is one almost all of us have had at some point. But instead of seeing it as a limitation, treat it as your mini design playground. This is the space to experiment with the colours you’ve been hesitating over elsewhere.
Go for a midtone, something that will deepen beautifully in low light, and use an eggshell finish to reflect as much light as possible while adding a subtle glow. Colour drench the entire room, from walls to ceiling to woodwork, so it feels cohesive. Then think about texture; tongue-and-groove panelling creates visual interest and character to the space, and tactile tiles all bring life and warmth.
And yes, embrace colour here, it will make the room feel more considered and far less clinical.
North-Facing Rooms
North-facing spaces are often unfairly labelled tricky, but once you understand their light, they can easily become the most atmospheric rooms in your home.
The key thing to remember is that the light is cool and slightly grey/blue-tinted. So, to balance that, you need warmth in your paint choices.
If you love neutrals, look for warm whites with a yellow or pink undertone. If blue is your favourite, don’t rule it out, just go for one with warmth, a yellow-based undertone. For neutrals, rich beiges with a yellow or pink base are stunning here.
And don’t be afraid to go darker. Layer texture through fabrics, flooring, and soft furnishings to create depth and comfort. Tonal schemes work beautifully, especially in living rooms where everything sings in harmony. In bedrooms, a complementary contrast (colours opposite each other on the colour wheel) adds vibrancy and balance.
A Final Thought
When natural light is limited, colour becomes your main storyteller. Instead of chasing brightness, focus on creating atmosphere, that feeling you want to evoke when you step into the room.
Because the magic isn’t in the daylight. It’s in how you use colour to create warmth, character, and emotion, even in the darkest of corners.
Tash x
Note: All images (except my studio flat) sourced from Pinterest