Interior paint colors for house resale? Does it have to be off-white?

My first off cycle thread!

We want to move to a larger city and a city that isn't under a foot of snow for 3 months of the year. So we are getting ready to put our house on the ever sluggish housing market.

Do you think that I need to paint most of the rooms cream or should I use some color?

I have a tendency to paint often so currently the wall behind the tv is a grayed lavender and the dining room is grinch green. I know that these two areas will have to be either off white or some safer color. I don't mind painting, I like it as much as I like to bike!! (in 5 years this wall has been red, gold, dark purple, cobalt, brown, cream and green and yes, we have lost square footage to paint. :D I get that comment a lot)

The rest of the walls are off white downstairs.

Upstairs the girls bedrooms are pale pink, medium blue and cream. The master bedroom is medium brown.

The wood in the house is cherry, floors are beige carpet, cherry wood and terracotta tile.

What do you think a "safe" color is? Is it only off-white??

Thanks!!

I think it really depends on who the market is. There are people who will prefer a house with some rich colours already done - if they are done well - because they aren't creative enough to choose those colours and it's already done for them. Others may be scared of the richness.

Is it possible for you to ask your real estate agent or a company that stages houses to find out what the market is responding the best to? This will vary not only by the part of the country you are in, but even by neighbourhood and price point, so it's worth asking around. It's not so much that you want to be trendy, but you want to appeal to the people who are most willing to buy right now. :o

Sending loads of house selling butterflies your way,
~T~

I don't think it needs to be off white at all, but I do think that bold colors don't appeal to everyone, and dark colors absorb so much ambient light that the rooms don't show well unless it's the EXACT time of day that the darkness in the room isn't so noticeable.

If I'm recalling correctly, in two rounds of house-hunting the ONLY house we looked at that was all cream (or maybe light grey) was one that was being built on spec. None of the houses where people were actually living or had lived, that had furniture in them, were painted "blank slate."

So I say re-paint the blue room and the brown room to any light color that matches the floors, furniture and the ambient light.

But LBTC has a really good point.

Lighter colors make rooms look bigger, darker colors make them look smaller.
Most people feel slightly claustrophobic and uncomfortable in medium or dark colored rooms.

soft pale celery or sage-y gray-green, cream or pale butter, sand, and very pale watery blue are serene colors. Stark white is abrupt in feeling, but can work well with color accents.
Red is very tricky, and can look simply awful.

Spare rooms are best not painted pink, lavender, or "boy blue". This is mentally limiting, strikes some people as too cutesy, and actually can work against you if people don't have children. Paint them as if the rooms are for guests or for home office or sewing room, etc. - light neutral serene colors. That way people can better envision them as multi-purpose rooms, thus seeing the house as larger and more versatile to their needs.

Great advice all around, thanks.

I'll call our agent and see what she thinks. This area is conservative, most think beige is a color. The green bay packers are uber important so I could paint a room green and gold and that would be fine. :mad:

I hadn't thought about painting my brown bedroom. It is pretty dark brown so I guess I should.

Bleecker, do you have paint chips in mind? I have the ben moore and sherwin decks. Green can be tricky, sometimes it goes minty.

Before I paint a thing we need to spend some quality time clearing out the basement.

Anyone want to come and help?? :rolleyes:

Thanks!

Um, sorry but I don't want to help you clean out the basement. :)

I'm a self proclaimed paint-a-holic. I painted the living room yesterday, but by nightfall decided I HATED the color so I repainted it this morning. I buy $5 per gallon "oops" paints at Lowes so changing color often isn't a big deal.
I might do the darker rooms with something lighter. I don't think you have to do beige, you could even do a cafe latte or light brown color. Do whatever color will make the room pop.

How exciting that you're moving!!! I've always been a nomad my whole life and am feeling very trapped here after 15 years. I've been dreaming of moving to the Dominican Republic or Mexico lately. I think the Caribbean would be a great place to ride a bike year round! :)

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Originally Posted by cobalt

Bleecker, do you have paint chips in mind? I have the ben moore and sherwin decks. Green can be tricky, sometimes it goes minty.

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Everyone has different taste, but one of our very favorite 'feel good' colors is one that we painted our bathroom. In some lighting it has a faint greenish feeling (not minty at all though), and in other lighting or at a different time of day it looks like beach sand.
It's Ben.Moore color card #2148.....the 2148-40 "light khaki" for the walls, and the slightly lighter shade on the same card, 2148-50 "sandy white" for the window trim and ceiling. This scheme looks good against our white tile bath floor and white porcelain sink, etc. I'd think it would be great for an office or a bedroom or dining room.

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Originally Posted by cobalt

Great advice all around, thanks.

I'll call our agent and see what she thinks. This area is conservative, most think beige is a color. The green bay packers are uber important so I could paint a room green and gold and that would be fine. :mad:

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Nooooooooooooo. :eek: :eek: :eek: So you paint with a conservative Cheese-head in mind and in walks your buyer. They are progressive Dolphin fans. :rolleyes:

Our favorite colors are not our buyers favorite colors.

Plan for the buyer with no visual imagination. Most people do not think as visually as I do or you do and can't imagine "gee this is the perfect house for me, I don't like this color. I like everything purple. Purple paint's cheap. That'd take a day and then it would look juuuuuust right".

That's how I got this joint, nobody else could see the potential.

Or maybe everybody but me saw what kind of work it would actually take and noticed the electrical had to be completely redone and you can't replace the cabinets without completely gutting the kitchen .... :o

You wanna go crazy with color? Fine, great, be my guest, knock yourself out. :D

Stage the joint.

Pick a color theme (mine will compliment the main colors in the decorative imported tile on the backsplash. See tulip's remodel thread. There's only so much neutral I can do before I go batty). Keep it simple like maybe 3 main colors that work well together and use art. Find an aspect of your home that you like, a painting that will be out at the open house and mirror/compliment that.

Get throw pillows, rugs, more art. Put the color on the walls with a few family photos in nice frames, use pottery, lots of color, buy paintings from mimitabby :) replace plain lamp shades with shades in your colors or get lamps that compliment (Light may make your home look bigger), get more art, but do not overdo color on the walls.

Maybe an accent wall but that's it.

Good on you for cleaning the basement. My realtor said that's the most important thing, get rid of stuff. Have a yard sale, donate, freecycle it, just get rid of the stuff. Nothing makes a house look smaller than lots of stuff. Also you have to get "yourself" so your buyer can imagine their stuff in your home. If you plan to be there during the open house get rid of or store everything and anything throughout the house that does not either go with your design or you need on a daily basis.

Think coffee maker, and art in your theme/stage style.

Your buyer has to be able to imagine their life or even a better life in your place.

Good luck to us all in this market :cool:

It has been years since my parents sold my childhood home with a couple rooms painted blues. They just had a paint allowance in the final contract.

My house has paint in all but two rooms now and who knows what we will do when we move. We have a faux finished green kitchen, very dark green accent wall and one dark blue accent wall. The complimenting walls in those rooms are ochre or a nice deep beige. Most of the houses that have sold quickly in my neighborhood have rich colors painted in them and have sold quick. FWIW we are in a somewhat stable real estate market and a fairly coveted family area of the metro area we are in.

"Café-au-lait" has been very, very popular around Vancouver as far as I can tell, recently.

Sort of a beige but with a twist.

(Obviously not for all walls!!)

Paint This House and Sell It

You all made me laugh, out loud. Even the dogs looked at me.

Tri, do your friends tease you? Do you have a problem with xtra paint cans in your house? Do you hide paint, hide the fact that you painted again? Do you fail to finish the edges before you change to a new color? Do you paint splotches right on the walls and then leave it for a few months? If you answered yes to any of the above, then you are my girl. :) Also, I have lived here for 5 years, that's the longest we've stayed in a house so it's time to go! I understand you.

Bleeker, there are two Ben decks. I have the other so I'll trudge back to the hardware store to have a look, thanks. Our trim is wood, I covet painted trim, makes colors pop.

In WI painting wood trim is against the law.

Zen, off to look at the site, thanks.

Synd, good luck to you too!! Remember, lights on for showings. I take all traces of dogs out but with two puppies under 2 it will be hard this time. I have so much stuff to toss. Since we want to move a distance, it helps to think that stuff is too heavy/expensive to pack and move. Do you have kids? Did they mind that you painted their rooms?

LBTC, thanks for the butterflies! The market is sluggish here but we are always pretty stable in the midwest.

Grog, sounds yummy!

Trek, I like the dolphin colors much better! Thanks for the great advice, I'll dump my beige pillows. I do have a lot of art, family paints but I can't so I paint walls. The Packers are not doing well right now against the Lions who have not won this year. I think it's very funny but my DH is not amused. Ha! The best part is now the Jet fans have to live with Brett's may or may not retire stuff for months. I was so tired of Brett leading the news every night. lol

Aggie, I have decided that you are too hot! Now I have to talk Rick into a cooler climate. He is saying that he won't touch snow again but let's be realistic.

Oak, we do have to keep light in mind here in the winter. Good point.

Maybe check with your realtor?

When I bought my house, it had a bright red sunroom, fairly dark green on some walls, a lighter green on others, and so forth. I NEVER would have had the nerve to paint these colors, but I love them! So maybe you'll get buyers like me and they'll love colors. :)

Good luck with it all.

Ohhh, I couldn't resist this one:D

As a fellow Wisconsite/cheesehead who just sold and bought her house and has a love of color, here is what I learned:

1. Unless it's a truely eye popping color, your house does not have to be neutral. For example, my former kitchen had buttercream colored walls with - ready? - brick red cabinet faces with white cabinets. My bathroom was sky blue, my bedroom was a medium brown suede, the playroom was avacodo green any my sons room was tan with a navy blue ceiling. Dark colors that are cool do not darken a room.

2. Stage the house! Get rid off all your family pictures and declutter everything. A good RE agent will be able to help you with this and may even suggest moving the furniture around for better flow and visualization for buyers.

3. Clean it and Fix it. I was told and was of the same mind set, that homeowners in this area are more concerned with not having to put a lot of money into fixing up a house (unless they are flipping them). They want to move in and be done with it. If they have to do anything, painting is their cheapest investment. You need to fix doors, handles, stairs, railings, etc.

4. Get a home inspection done on your dime. It may cost you a couple hundred dollars, but then you will have time to fix anything that needs fixing or use it as a negotiating tool. It also tells your prospective buyers that you're not hiding anything.

5. Interview a couple of RE agents. This is important. I listed with someone I was comfortable with but who wasn't an aggressive agent. My house showed a lot but I never got an offer. After 6 months, I interviewed 3 agents and chose one who had an agressive marketing plan, helped me stage the house, did a market analysis so we could list at a more competitive price and had a broader customer base than the first one. She sold it in 30 days at what I wanted for it.

All that and the Packers finally won one! Good luck selling and happy house hunting!

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Originally Posted by cobalt

Bleeker, there are two Ben decks. I have the other so I'll trudge back to the hardware store to have a look, thanks. Our trim is wood, I covet painted trim, makes colors pop.
In WI painting wood trim is against the law.

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Our house has lots of maple wood trim, also oak floors....lots of unpainted wood throughout. We found a BenMoore color card that looked great against the wood windows and door trim. Card # 2153- 4 shades of a tan with "Cork" being the darkest. We used those colors a lot throughout the house- the darkest 'cork' in the livingroom, next shade up in the bedroom, then yet lighter for the kitchen, looking like a cream by that time, and the lightest shade for all the ceilings and for the kitchen cabinets. It all coordinated and looks wonderful. I can send pix if you want.
I told you about our nice bathroom color already in my previous post.

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Originally Posted by cobalt

Thanks for the great advice, I'll dump my beige pillows. I do have a lot of art, family paints but I can't so I paint walls.

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Don't dump them if you like them. Consider covers, or intersperse a few in our planned Miami Dolphin color scheme. ;) There's such a thing as too much color. Several beige pillows with just a few in the group that compliment your theme can be as good or better than "all Miami Dolphin pillows" ;)

Use mirrors, deftly placed they can make a space look bigger and they "bounce light" which is always a good thing.

There are firms that will stage for you. :cool:

I agree about getting it inspected. Buyers expect everything to be fixed. Best to fix it now than find out when an offer fails.

Just to say that bright colours was apparently what sold my place in Illinois when I moved. I had the living room painted/decorated in bright orange and reds, the kitchen was blue and white, the bedroom was dark blue and the spare room was tan and dark green. Apparently the first viewing came, saw and loved the colours and bought within minutes. So bright colours occasionally work. Of course I can't guarantee it works for anyone else. I may have just gotten lucky.

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Originally Posted by cobalt

Aggie, I have decided that you are too hot! Now I have to talk Rick into a cooler climate. He is saying that he won't touch snow again but let's be realistic.

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I think you would love our winter, spring and fall. The personality of this town is really cool, you would just wonder what you were thinking when it started to get over 90. ;)

Did I mention that I have never seen a snake or roach? We don't have anything here that is poisonous. Not even fire ants...

I'll get the card bleecker, thanks!

Trek, my pillows are really boring, I don't love them. They have been puppy chewed.

UK, you were lucky. We moved away and then moved back across the street from our old house and the new owner painted all of the bedrooms mustard! I did sell that house with a red dining room and 2 owners later, it's still red.

We lived in Kent for 2 years, loved it.

I would suggest that you stick with a neutral warm tone. Tastes vary so much and trendy colors change so quickly.

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Originally Posted by cobalt

Tri, do your friends tease you? Do you have a problem with xtra paint cans in your house? Do you hide paint, hide the fact that you painted again? Do you fail to finish the edges before you change to a new color? Do you paint splotches right on the walls and then leave it for a few months?

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sheepishly grinning: yes, yes, somtimes, yes and yes (especially yes on the last one this summer when I was deciding what color to paint my house). Yes, I painted the outside of my house. Granted, it really need it, but it took me two weeks and I had fun painting and transforming the outside. :) I also paint on canvas. I'm not the best artist, but I sure do love to paint landscapes. :)

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Originally Posted by cobalt

Did I mention that I have never seen a snake or roach?

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Where do you live they don't have roaches? :p:rolleyes: I thought they were supposed to live in every climate in the world including desert and arctic? And snakes are good, they keep the rodents down. Probably eat roaches too. :p

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Originally Posted by cobalt

Trek, my pillows are really boring, I don't love them. They have been puppy chewed.

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Ah, new pillows, then. Buyers want to feel like they walked into a spa. I'd aim to have the towels compliment the pillows which goes with the ....

OTOH if there are colors you love use 'em, market be d@mned.

A very wise contractor (UK's and my cousin) said there's no telling how long it will take to sell and close. Why suffer? If there is something you really like in the home go for it even if an imaginary buyer might not.