Increase Your Home's Value with These Paint Colors

For most homebuyers, the first impression is everything. As a rule, buyers base their criteria for choosing the homes they like on a property’s appearance. As a seller competing with others to get the buyer’s attention, you must keep this in mind. Prospective buyers do not care about the quality of your home until they first find it visually appealing.

Of all the important visual elements of a home, the color of the paint on its walls is number one. The square footage, layout, and design of a house also matter. But the single most important quality for arresting or repelling buyer’s interest is the colors of the home. This is true for both exterior and interior wall paint.

If you want your home to have a fighting chance among the thousands of “For Sale” homes that are posted daily on the internet, you must use colors that captivate attention. The colors of the home should make potential buyers stop their browsing and click on the images of the property, explains Windermere Management. In other words, they must have that quality that makes it hard for people to take their eyes away.

How do you do this? If you would like to know, keep reading.

Colors for the Kitchen

The kitchen is the room with the most influence on buyers’ choices. Based on market data, the best color for painting this part of the home is blue-gray. Shades of blueish-gray do not show dirt easily. 

This color also has the ability to evoke feelings of calm in people, which can help buyers feels a sense of connection to the home. Using varying shades of grays and mild blues in the kitchen will improve the home’s value.

Colors for the Living Room

Buyers want a living room that exudes warmth and coziness. The colors used in this space should make it feel roomy, airy, bright, and inviting. The colors which have been shown to do this to the highest level are beige, oatmeal, and biscuit. 

Painting the room in these colors will encourage people to relax, play, and talk. For the best results beige, oatmeal, and biscuit should be combined with white accents.

Colors for the Bedroom

At the end of each day, people in a home should look forward to entering their bedrooms and offloading the day’s stress. The colors of the bedroom should make it easy for homeowners to unwind. The best colors for achieving this effect in a bedroom are soft cerulean blue and beige colors. Painting the bedroom in blue also makes it easier to decorate the space.

Colors for the Bathroom

Bathrooms are expected to be clean and sanitary, but they should also feel inviting and soothing. People need their bathrooms to be a sort of escape and the colors of the room should facilitate this mood. The color that ties all these qualities together in a bathroom is periwinkle blue or pale blue. Painting the bathroom in this color will make it easier for the walls to hide stains.

Color's for the Home's Exterior

The color on the outside walls of your home is what a buyer will experience first. The exterior paint represents your best chance to make a good first impression. The best color for the home’s exterior is greige – a combination of grey and beige. The beige in the colors adds warmth, while the grey helps to deliver a clean look. Combined with a white trim, this color will increase the home’s market value.

Colors for the Front Door

Though part of the home’s exterior, front doors are important enough to warrant special treatment. The front door is the main approach to the home. It is usually the focus of buyers’ and visitors’ attention and people tend to notice all the minor details of a front door. 

To give the front door a magnetic appeal, it should be painted in navy blue, slate gray, black, or charcoal gray. If you prefer bolder colors for your front door, try classic red, deep plum, or rich green.

Other Colors to Consider

  • Warm grays: A warm shade of gray can be used in almost any room in the home, but they are especially good for high-traffic spaces. Warm grays will complement nearly every color of the furniture.
  • Light pastels: This is for when you want to introduce some color into rooms without going overboard with them.  They are for adding character to rooms.
  • Soft whites: This color is different from stark white which can sometimes feel bland. Soft white is nuanced and offers a clean background to wall décor and furnishings. It will also stand out in listing photos.

Some Paint Colors to Avoid

These colors will depress your home’s value; they should never be used.
  • Dark red walls in the living room are a nightmare when trying to sell your home.
  • Pink bedrooms should be avoided; a few people like them and most buyers don’t.
  • Red kitchens are a bad idea. This color is loud, polarizing, and overly stimulating.
For more help in choosing, and then applying, the ideal colors to help sell your home fast, get your free, in-person estimate from ProEnd Painting.
This article was written in partnership with Windermere Property Management and Rob Lancaster.