Home office paint colour? Post your rooms please!

[Haggisman]

It's so hard to find the right colour, you just don't know until you put the tester paint on.

Yeah, even looking at the cards in store isn't ideal due to the difference in lighting. I actually ended up standing in the doorway with a handful of cards and they looked completely different in the daylight

I've got a couple of testers anyway, which at least looked nice when the cards were held side by side, we shall see!

Edit: even with the testers it can sometimes be hard to tell - a small 0.5m x 0.5m patch looks very different to the whole room!

 

[throwaway4372]

I got my house done in Dulux Pebble Shore earlier in the year, it's a nice neutral modern colour, slight olive tint. I had default new build magnolia before which was looking dated.

Spoiler: pics

Office / spare room is dead atm, so a bonus picture of the living room to give you a better sense of it.

 

[Blackvault]

It's so hard to find the right colour, you just don't know until you put the tester paint on.

None of the colours on the screen matched when I went to the shop, nor did they look 'correct' until they were on the wall.

 

[Haggisman]

None of the colours on the screen matched when I went to the shop, nor did they look 'correct' until they were on the wall.

That's understandable, since it depends on your screen calibration & settings

 

[GarethSouthgate]

I got my house done in Dulux Pebble Shore earlier in the year, it's a nice neutral modern colour, slight olive tint. I had default new build magnolia before which was looking dated.

Spoiler: pics

Office / spare room is dead atm, so a bonus picture of the living room to give you a better sense of it.

Yeah that's what I'm talking about perfect for a study, feels about right!

 

[Jimmeh]

I just went for pure brilliant white all round (simple and easy to whack up), and used a warm tone on the desk that I made.

Spoiler: Office pics

 

[Mysterae_]

Could also do with any ideas on what to do with this stupid pointless alcove space!:

Yes... the room is a strange and annoying shape

There's a few things you could do with that weird alcove - a number of quite deep shelves or what I would do is a pull out larder type storage thing, with lots of shelves - depending on your skills you could even make it hidden .

The weird low bit could be a nice seat by fixing a cushion to it or a place to put a nice large plant to the ceiling.

That strange wall cupboard with the socket, what's that? I'd be thinking of fitting one of those bathroom mirror PCs or at the least fitting a picture with a hinge and making it an ideal location for a safe lol.

 

[Haggisman]

There's a few things you could do with that weird alcove - a number of quite deep shelves or what I would do is a pull out larder type storage thing, with lots of shelves - depending on your skills you could even make it hidden .

I'm probably going to go for shelves on the back wall - problem with the pull-out solution is the desk would be in the way, limiting the distance to pull it out.

The weird low bit could be a nice seat by fixing a cushion to it or a place to put a nice large plant to the ceiling.

Plant sounds good - I was previously using it for my printers (normal paper & 3D). Might raise it up and put some storage under though.

That strange wall cupboard with the socket, what's that? I'd be thinking of fitting one of those bathroom mirror PCs or at the least fitting a picture with a hinge and making it an ideal location for a safe lol.

The strange wall cupboard is going to be my comms/server cabinet. My microserver, IOT hubs etc. are all going in there, wall mounted on a Skadis pegboard. It has a network connection, plus the PoE connections to the cameras and wifi AP all come into it.

When we moved in, it had the control panel for the burglar alarm in there - but we replaced that with a smart alarm ages ago, and I figured I could put the space to better use

 

[Glanza]

I've used Dulux colours of the year for different office rooms in the past, Sweet Embrace from 2024 or Tranquil Dawn from 2020 (this one was used in nearly every TV show and had a huge uptick in people using it in any room at home)

 

[aVdub]

Does the window allow much light and seasonal change of light into the room?

This imo can be important when choosing colours.

 

[RDCorporation]

Can

 

[RDCorporation]

Can't go wrong with Grey, as boring as it is
This was Valspar paint from B&Q, I believe it was called "Nature Walk" but might be wrong.

 

[Blackvault]

That is really lovely looking. I do feel it needs some greener to help soften it a little but otherwise looks great.

 

[jpaul]

so why wouldn't you have the desk on window side - to reduce reflections, provide a distraction+letting eyes relax WFH. ..
are you trying to preserve duel-purpose use as occasional bedroom.

Not keen on ambilight/backlighting behind monitor, but having low contrast with any background wall is less stressing.

 

[Haggisman]

Can't go wrong with Grey, as boring as it is
This was Valspar paint from B&Q, I believe it was called "Nature Walk" but might be wrong.

That's nice, but maybe a bit too "clean" & modern compared to what I'm looking for - definitely want something a bit more natural feeling!

I like what you've done with the false wall though, very smart looking

so why wouldn't you have the desk on window side - to reduce reflections, provide a distraction+letting eyes relax WFH. ..
are you trying to preserve duel-purpose use as occasional bedroom.

Not keen on ambilight/backlighting behind monitor, but having low contrast with any background wall is less stressing.

I was under the impression that having the monitor at 90 degrees to the window was best - it's (mostly) South facing, so can get pretty bright in there mid-morning, so not really what I want to be looking at for half the day! I'm open to rearranging however, to make best use of space (as long as it's not detrimental to being able to work).

Does the window allow much light and seasonal change of light into the room?

Yes, as above, it gets pretty bright in the morning - the photos above are of natural light and artificial light (although it was in the afternoon, and this time of year natural sunlight is in short supply... )

 

[IvanDobskey]

I like a little bit of colour personally, but nothing too dark and oppressive. Subtle and light pastel colours work best for me. Something like a light sage would look good I reckon.

Helps a room look bigger and lighter.

 

[Haggisman]

Have a look at Dulux Pebble Shore as a starting point. It's fairly neutral. Don't think it will go with green though, but a starting point for sure.

That pebble shore is really nice actually - it's got a warm brown hint to it. Seems to go quite nicely with the sage

 

[dlockers]

The Dulux hard wearing stuff was 40 quid for 2x2.5l tins the other day at Wickes. There is a small enough selection you don't go mental/lose interest but enough to make a selection from. I went with a blue colour which I think works well, as it isn't too dark to make lighter stuff obnoxious...

 

[Haggisman]

You've got a nice big room there with double patio doors, so plenty of light. I'd love a nice strong colour, but the mid blue it was before made the room feel quite small, due to the size and the one smallish window

 

[dlockers]

You've got a nice big room there with double patio doors, so plenty of light. I'd love a nice strong colour, but the mid blue it was before made the room feel quite small, due to the size and the one smallish window

Do you have a way to rig up 24x7 lights? Because you're right about the double doors but it's quite a dark aspect (faces opposite to the sun). You can see they're switched on in the pjc.

The Hue lights follow the colour temp of outside - we have a similar thing in our dark kitchen (wrong aspect again) - the light is automatic and alwys at the right colour temp so it never feels dark. It makes a massive difference...!