Oh bother. The process of designing a piece of customer furniture for your home comes with a long list of decisions to make, not the least of which is color. But one of the biggest factors that determines how you perceive a color is often forgotten: how a room is lit.

We use the term "color temperature" to describe the appearance of light provided by a light source. Measured in Kelvin (K), it determines whether a light looks warm (skewing red) or cool (blue). Warm light in the 1,000-3,000K range is the color of light emitting from candles and incandescent bulbs. Daylight or neutral light sits in the 4,000-5,000K range and is what you will see from the mid-day sun or most office lighting. And cool light sits above 5,000K; it can be found coming from an overcast/blue sky or unaltered LED lighting.

While our eyes (or perhaps more accurately our brains) are adept at adjusting how we perceive colors to sort of balance this out, this ability is lessened at the extremes of the color temperature range. No matter how much we can adjust, a room dimly lit with warm light will always appear warmer to us, and the colors in that room will always be skewed.

Why does this matter?

Most folks in the market for custom furniture are looking for something very specific. One person may want a green with a blue undertone — like emerald — while another may want a brown undertone — more like olive. Our perception of a color will be based on not just the fabric or leather itself but what quality of light is hitting that material.

As an example, take a look at how this purple leather changes from red to violet as we move up the color temperature scale.

No element of your home exists in a vacuum. Your sofa shares space with your rug, your walls, your armchair, etc. Correctly determining a good fit requires considering the overall lighting of the room.

This is why it is so important to review your swatches alongside these elements in varying lighting conditions — on a sunny day, a cloudy day, and at night under artificial lighting. Doing so will give you the best understanding of what to expect when the finished piece is added to your room.