Five Palettes That Hold Up in Indian Daylight

Chalk and pale oak

Warm whites rather than cool ones. A cool grey-white that looks crisp in a European catalogue reads blue and cold under a strong Indian sun.

Charcoal with a single warm accent

Dark walls handle glare well and make bright rooms feel calmer. Keep the accent to one saturated element — oxblood, ochre or deep green — and let everything else stay neutral.

Teak, cane and brass

The palette Indian homes have used for a century, for good reason: it hides dust, it takes humidity, and it improves with age rather than looking tired.

Ivory with warm stone

Statuario, travertine and cream marble against ivory walls. Formal without being cold, and it holds up under both daylight and warm lamplight.

Chalk with muted sage

The quietest of the five. Sage is one of the few colours that does not shift unpleasantly between daylight and 2700K lamplight, which makes it unusually easy to live with.