Best paint color to sell a home? (feedback, incentive, countertop)
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Our walls downstairs are white in the hallways, light grey in office/living room, very subtle light blue/green in kitchen (white cabinets/grey countertops). In other words, our walls are very light.
I keep hearing comments about it seeming "cold". BTW, our furniture style is contemporary with black wrought iron, stone, glass and leather. Minimalist for sure.
We are moving out in 2 weeks, so the furniture will no longer be an issue but what about the wall colors? I have been told to paint them a mustardy gold. (NOT MY STYLE!)
Any opinions? Here is a pic of the living room and kitchen
I personally think your kitchen looks great right now, mainly because of the stone colored counters, white cabinets, and black appliances. Be VERY careful that you don't put some sort of mustard color on the kitchen walls - it will clash horribly with your stone counters, etc. That mustard color only looks good if you've got something like cherrywood cabinets and are trying to achieve some sort of Tuscan look.
Your LR could possibly use a little color on the walls, but you know what, white is always a blank slate for the next buyer, and it's easier for them to imagine their own color on the wall rather than looking at a color they hate and trying to imagine it otherwise.
The one room that might be an issue is the office. Lt grey does sound pretty "cold" for an office (probably looked great with your furnishings, but I'm envisioning an empty room). You might try some sort of light creamy tan in there that would coordinate with the hardwood floors.
I really don't think you need to be too concerned. After you get the furniture moved, have your realtor, "decorator" friend, or someone you feel has a good sense of style take a look at your home, then give you feedback on whether it looks too "cold" or if any of the colors are a turnoff.
For your living room, I'd go with a nice taupe (tan, beige...whatever they're calling it these days) or even a sage green color. I think it would give the room a warm, comfy-cozy feel.
I agree with Gretchen B that the kitchen color is nice as-is.
The problem comes in that our living room transitions directly into the kitchen. We did a paint transition between the grey to blue/green since they were in the same color family. Tan would be harder to transition to...KWIM?
i think if you found the right color of taupe/latte/camel the transition would work well. You have white trim/moldings, right? We just did a light blue ceiling/camelback (it is a color that Behr makes) above a wainscoating w/ white trim and get complements all the time. I think it would be very nice and still feel fresh while accentuating nice trimwork. I think your kitchen looks great.
A good neutral color is Behr, Pecan Sandie. Might work well in your office. Not sure about your kitchen/living room because of the transition. I agree it does look a little cold. It is hard to see what your countertops look like, but something warmer in the two room might work. Possibly the same color in both rooms with a slightly darker color on the fireplace wall.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the colors you have in your home now....they are neutral. Unfortunately with a lot of buyers, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. I'd leave it white and offer a decorating incentive...kick in $500 or whatever and let the buyer choose the color they like.
I would listen to those comments. Gretchen has some good ideas and I would also suggest visiting some local new homes sites with homes similar to yours. Builders spend a lot of money on decorating and hiring people to research what the trends in home colors are. See what ideas you can get from them and then use them in your own home. Then have your Realtor send updated pictures to the Realtors that have already shown it. In this market, almost everyone I run across wants a move-in ready house and painting it might be enough to get a buyer to put in an offer. Good luck!
I happen to like the colors you have. Since they are light it will be easy to paint over if the new owner does not care for them, and they are not so bold as to be distracting.
The house I just sold had a color called Tropical Orange (think safety cones) on the kitchen walls. Made the room very bright. My decorator friend was MORTIFIED by the color, but every single person who looked at the house loved it. That house sold in 7 days for full asking price. Personally, I think that having the right price on a house will sell it faster than any amount of staging, re-decorating, or whatever else.
Thank you for the comments so far. As soon as the house is empty we will be able to really get good showings I think. One big obstacle we are facing in showing it while occupied is that we have our dining room used as "bird room". We have 6 exotic birds (macaws, eclectus, tiels). I take all but the two macaws out for showings (Have to leave all the cages though) but people are so freaked out by these huge bright birds that they can't see the potential.
Some of the realtors have said that one of the macaws mocks them while they are looking around. (Laughing when they do and saying "Uh huh, Oh! Yeah..MMM HMMMM)
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