Please don't paint me white | St Louis Real Estate Voice

St. Louis Real Estate - Don’t color me white!

If you’re about to sell your home and your RE agent tells you to repaint the house white. . . you have to read this first.

White Walls….NOT the New Neutral!

Blinded by the Light Recently while providing Home Sellers with Staging Consultations, I experienced very similar situations. I walked into houses that are for sale and all of the walls were white or off white. In all of these cases, the Home Sellers told me that they had various colors of walls and that their Realtor told them to paint all of the walls white. They all told me that the Realtors suggested this because the rooms will look bigger, brighter, and cleaner…and that white was a “neutral color”.

In my previous article, “Color It Cozy” I discussed how important interior wall color is when selling a house.

When a Potential Buyer comes through your house-for-sale for the first, second, or third time, you want them to feel “Warm and Cozy”. Whether they know it or not, Potential Buyers are looking for that home which emits those “Warm Fuzzies”.

The color white or hues of the color white are NOT colors that will emit warm and cozy feelings. Does the color white or hues of white reflect light better so that rooms seem brighter…Yes. Does the color white or hues of white make rooms appear bigger…Maybe. Does the color white or hues of white make rooms appear cleaner…Not sure about that one.

Think about this…What is the color of SNOW?…WHITE

What is the temperature of SNOW?…COLD

In my experience as a Professional Stager, White = Cold.

Would you want to stay in a COLD room or a WARM room?????

White and hues of white are the Old Neutrals.

There are many different “Warm Neutrals” that will help Potential Buyers to feel “Warm and Cozy” as they go through your house.

Warm neutrals can be hues of Browns, Golds, or Soft Greens.

I have several favorites that I share with my clients when they are interested in presenting their house-for-sale in the Best Possible Showing Appearance. These are Sherwin Williams colors-which can be purchased through that store or matched to other brands that you prefer. I hope that these will be helpful to you if you are considering re-painting your interior walls. When at all possible, paint all the walls the same warm color. It makes your house flow altogether. You might think this would be “boring”, but remember when you stage a house for sale, you are not decorating. Staging is about creating a mood, a setting in order for the Potential Buyer to visualize themselves living there with their things!

My favorite hues are the hues of Brown and Gold because these will typically go with any décor that you might have, soft hues of Greens may not:

[Show picture list]

Browns: SW6106 Kilim Beige, SW6107 Nomadic Desert, SW6141 Softer Tan, SW6142 Macadamia, SW6085 Simplify Beige, SW6086 Sand Dune, SW6093 Familiar Beige, SW6099 Sand Dollar, SW6100 Practical Beige

Golds: SW6120 Believable Buff, SW6121 Whole Wheat, SW6127 Ivoire, SW6128 Blond.

Remember…staging statistics indicate that the investment in painting whether it is inside or out, gives you the most return for your dollars. Wall colors create a mood, a feeling for Potential Buyers. Make your wall colors “Warm and Inviting”!

If you have any questions regarding wall colors or home staging, feel free to contact me at Homestaging@stlouisrealestatevoice.com .

Sue Rector, ASP

Accredited Staging Professional
HomeStaging Innovations, LLC
www.stlstaging.com

This entry was posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 2:27 pm and is filed under For Sellers, Home Staging, Unrepresented Seller(FSBO). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Comment »

Greg Saffell said:

Hi Sue,
I happen to agree with your “white” comments and with the warm natural colors you suggest. We have many dark days in the Seattle area and sometimes feel desperate for light. But white is too light so the use of light muted colors work best. I’m just happy if I can convince the seller to paint at all. I really liked the slide show, that would be a nice feature to show to clients.

# 4 December 2008 at 4:51 pm