It's one of the most common surprises for people decorating a Spanish property for the first time.
How the light is different
There's far more of it. Spanish interiors are brighter than most UK rooms even with the shutters half down. Bright light makes colours read lighter and more saturated — so a shade chosen to be gentle can end up looking intense.
It's a different colour. UK daylight is frequently filtered through cloud, which softens and cools it. Costa Blanca light is direct, and it carries warmth from the sun and reflected light off pale render, terrace tiles and the ground outside.
It moves. A room with a south-facing window is a different colour at nine in the morning and five in the afternoon, and the difference here is far more pronounced.
The white problem
White is the default in Spanish property and there's good reason for it — it reflects heat and keeps rooms bright.
But white isn't one colour. Brilliant white, which has optical brighteners in it, can look distinctly cold and blue in strong sunlight, and slightly clinical against warm terrace tiles and natural stone.
Warm or off-whites — with a hint of cream, stone or a soft grey base — usually sit far better in Spanish interiors. They keep the brightness without the harshness, and they work with the terracotta, marble and natural tones that are already in most properties here.
North and south rooms — the reverse of the UK
In the UK the standard advice is to warm up north-facing rooms and cool down south-facing ones. Here, the effect is stronger in both directions.
South and west-facing rooms get intense warm light for much of the day. Warm colours in them can be overwhelming. Cooler, softer shades balance it — soft greys, muted greens, pale blues.
North-facing rooms get steady indirect light, which is easier to work with here than in Britain because there's simply more of it. Warm neutrals work well.
Colours that tend to work here
- Warm whites and soft stones — the safest and most flexible choice
- Muted greens and sage tones — work with olive, pine and the natural landscape
- Soft terracotta and clay — traditional to the region and don't fight the floor tiles
- Pale greys with a warm base — modern without going cold in bright light
- Deep blues and greens as an accent — one wall, an alcove or a hallway
Colours to be careful with
- Brilliant white — can read cold and stark in direct sun
- Strong yellows — already amplified by the warm light; can become overpowering
- Cool blue-greys — often go flat and grey in a way they don't in the UK
- Very dark colours across a whole room — they absorb the light that makes these properties pleasant to be in
Always test on the wall
This matters more here than anywhere. A chart or a phone screen won't tell you what a colour does in your room.
Get a tester, paint a decent-sized patch — at least A4, ideally larger — on the wall itself, and look at it at three points in the day. Paint patches on two different walls in the same room too, because a wall facing the window and a wall beside it will read as different colours.
Matching what's already there
Floor tiles, marble sills, wooden shutters and terrace tiles are all doing colour work in the room whether you'd planned for it or not. It's usually easier to pick a wall colour that works with them than to fight them.