The 7 Best LIGHT Paint Colors for a Dark Room / Basement

How to Make a Dark Room Feel Lighter and Brighter With Paint

Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams

Back in the day, a dark basement with wood paneling, orange shag carpet and a faint musty smell would leave many homeowners hot to trot. These days, homeowners are focusing more on light, fresh and updated when it comes to their basements, family rooms and dark spaces.

In our last home, we didn’t have to worry about shag or anything when we bought it, however, the family room was definitely not a bright, welcoming space.

Now: SAME room, SAME LIGHTING, but the right use of wall color changed its vibe entirely…

See the full meal deal here

Using a light paint color to brighten a dark space

Well, you can definitely TRY to make a dark room look brighter with a light paint color, but if you don’t have enough interior lighting – it won’t work. Why? Oh, I love getting a chance to say this…

And it doesn’t end there…

You can have a dark space that appears ‘bright, light and fresh’ with the use of good lighting and a light paint color, however, you will need the right furnishings to visually support it or it will look boooooring

If you don’t have nice/interesting furnishings, accessories or architecture to supplement that lack of personality and color on your walls then you risk having a bright – but boring space (heaven forbid).

Which leads us to the second way to treat a dark room…

Using a dark paint color to give a dark room personality – even if the room won’t look that much brighter

That’s right, you can have a dark space that is still somewhat dark, but has ‘personality’ via the right paint color.

This also works great if you don’t have the nicest furnishings as your wall color might be the only ‘visual support and interest’ that your room has 

And personally, I’d rather have an interesting and slightly dark space (that I would fix with good lighting and other tricks) than a boring bright one. So, what this really means is that…

You don’t have to paint your walls light and white to make a dark space feel good

Above, you can see how dark that back hallway is, but the reason it LOOKS GOOD, is because it has a wicked color on it!

Read more: The 10 Best DARK PAINT COLORS for a Dark Room

However, for those of you who say – ‘Bob, I’ll take what’s behind door #1’ (I just dated myself), the most IMPORTANT thing to remember is that YOU NEED GOOD LIGHTING! Light paint colors (or any paint color, really) will fall flat in a room without enough natural and/or artificial light to support them. So, if you don’t have pot lights or ceiling mount fixtures, invest in some floor and table lamps with white or off-white shades so you can amp up the volume!

So, blah blah blah – TO THE PAINT COLORS ALREADY!

The Best LIGHT Paint Colors to Brighten a Dark Room

Whether you want to paint all the walls the same color or prefer accenting your light walls with a killer feature wall, these should get you well on your way!

BTW – I realize that all of these photos below aren’t necessarily dark rooms. However, I rely 100% on my E-design client’s photos, so sometimes I can only show you the color as I’ve got it! 

1. Sherwin Williams Creamy SW 7012

Creamy has a beautiful soft warmth to it, without turning obnoxiously yellow. If you were to take a more muted approach, you’d risk things looking a bit dingy and dirty if your lighting wasn’t adequate.

If you like Creamy, you might also like SW Dover White or BM White Down.

2. Benjamin Moore Silver Marlin 2139-50

Silver Marlin has enough COLOR to help counteract a lack of light, whereas some grays will just fall flat and dull. Notice the LACK of artificial or natural light in this butlers pantry below, yet the paint color is still showing up to the party (it would come MORE to life with additional lighting). And while it isn’t a SUPER light color, it’s a happy medium between the lighter and darker ends of things.

While the eating nook of this home (next) has BETTER light, it still isn’t an overly bright space and you can see how pretty Silver Marlin looks.

If you like Silver Marlin, you might also like SW Comfort Gray or SW Rainwashed, but remember, they won’t necessarily LIGHTEN your space at this depth.

3. Sherwin Williams Tidewater SW 6477

Tidewater looks GORGEOUS in this next dining room. And while this room WOULD be considered bright, if like my client, you prefer to keep the blinds down, then it’s a great example of a darker room with a beautiful color on the walls.

In a similar cool blue-green family, I also love SW Rainwashed and BM Palladian Blue.

Read more: The 8 BEST Blue-Green Paint Colors

4. BM Navajo White OC 95

Navajo White is a light, creamy paint color. Any cream color will have a yellow base, and this is no exception, but the yellow is cut-back by neutral undertones to calm it down.

If you like Navajo White, you might also like BM Windswept or SW Creamy (mentioned previously).

Read more: Benjamin Moore’s 5 Best Cream Paint Colors

5. BM White Dove OC 17

White Dove is actually a white (almost off-white) and has a warmth that’s tempered by a neutral base to slow it down.

Read more: Benjamin Moore 8 Best White Paint Colors

I like White Dove as it has warmth, without too much yellow coming up (yellow is definitely one of the least favorite undertones with my E-Design clients).

If you like White Dove, you might also like SW Alabaster or BM Cloud White.

And don’t forget, CONTRAST is a fantastic way to add interest to a dark room, as shown in this stairwell landing as well as on the bathroom vanity (see the whole home HERE).

Read more: The 3 Best Warm White Paint Colors from Benjamin Moore

A few more popular warm whites include SW Pure White, BM Simply White and SW Alabaster.

Click HERE or on the above image to see available packages!

Let’s take a quick break to talk about paint samples…

Undoubtedly, you’ll be heading out in the near future to grab paint samples – stop right there! I want you to check out SAMPLIZE. Samplize offers peel and stick paint samples that are more AFFORDABLE, EASIER and more ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY than traditional paint pots. Here are just a FEW reasons why I recommend Samplize to my clients…

• Samples arrive ON YOUR DOORSTEP in 1-3 business days, depending on location
• At $6.99, they’re more affordable than the samples pots/rollers/foam boards that are needing for traditional paint sampling
• If you keep the samples on their white paper, you can move them around the room

Visit the SAMPLIZE website HERE

6. Sherwin Williams Silver Strand SW 7057

Silver Strand is a beautiful light blend of blue-green-gray that USUALLY favors blue over green.

While I wouldn’t mind seeing a WINK more color, it is a beauty.

7. Benjamin Moore Ballet White

I’ll admit, I’m always nervous about putting a greige paint color in a dark room because, without lighting, it can look dull and dirty. Ballet White is as close as I’d get to greige (and don’t get your hopes up, it’s not greige). It’s a cream with a beige-gray undertone that calms it down, so it’s soft and muted and loses a lot of the ‘cream’ that you’ve seen in some of the above colors. In this way, it NODS towards greige, without going all the way.

Read more: Paint Color Review: Benjamin Moore Ballet White

And did you know?

• Yellow is the most reflective color and will reflect any artificial and natural light it is given making the color itself (and the room) feel brighter. This is why cream and off-white are popular choices as they have a yellow undertone
• A shiny paint finish will reflect more light (but shiny walls can be super horrendous – especially if your drywall isn’t 100% awesome), so stick with reasonable finishes like matte, flat and eggshell

Read more: How to Fix a Dark Room – And it Ain’t With Paint

Read more: Benjamin Moore’s 9 Best Gray Paint Colors

Not sure which paint color is best for YOUR dark room?

Check out my affordable E-Decorating and Color Consulting Services!

 Chat soon,

READ MORE

The 10 Best DARK Colors for a Dark Room or Basement

4 Ideas: How to Make a Dark Room Look Brighter

How to Brighten a Low Energy or Dark Room with Sheen

Originally written in August 2017, updated mid-2019