Choosing wallpaper for a north-facing room

North-facing rooms get cool, even light all day. No bright sun, no harsh shadows. That sounds easy to decorate, and in some ways it is. But a lot of wallpapers go flat in north light, and a few key choices change everything.

Avoid cool greys and stark whites

Cool tones in cool light read as blue-tinged and sterile. The same paper that looks like a soft dove grey on the south wall of the showroom can look like wet concrete in your north-facing study. Tape a test piece to the wall and live with it for a full day before committing.

Lean into warm pigments

Ochre, terracotta, oxblood, mustard, blush, peach. Anything with a warm undertone gives the room something the natural light isn't supplying. We've put oxblood damask in north-facing dining rooms and the room feels lit from within, even on a Hull November afternoon.

Pattern can do the work too

Cool light flattens texture, so flat solid papers tend to look duller than they should. A pattern with movement — a floral, a small geometric, a damask — gives the eye something to follow and stops the room reading as static.

Three north-room papers we keep going back to

• Cath Kidston Clifton Floral in the warm colourways. Small repeat, just enough pattern to lift the wall.

• Anything from the Clarke & Clarke ochre and terracotta range. Their pigments are saturated without being garish.

• Cole & Son archive florals on a cream ground. Reads like a museum room, in a good way.

Tape a test piece to the actual wall. Look at it in the morning, in the evening, and with the curtains shut and the lamps on. That's the only test that matters.