You want to sell your house and the real estate agent keeps talking about staging your house for prospective buyers.  The problem is you don’t have a clue how to stage a house.  More than anything else, staging involves making your house a blank palette so prospective buyers can see the opportunities to put their taste and style to work.  A big part of staging is the color scheme used to paint the interior of your home.

Interior paint colors to sell your house. Choosing a paint color scheme to make a house ready to sell involves making the house feel to the prospective buyer that is a new house ready for them to add their style and flair.  To achieve a sense of neutrality with being sterile.

Some say that the right color of paint can make a house look more spacious and add a feeling of freshness to the interior.  The most important consideration is the color palette that you choose to paint the interior of your home when you are ready to stage for the prospective buyers.  

Choosing the Color Palette

Trends change in everything.  Clothing styles, car design, and paint colors.  What was hot and trendy last season is blasé’ and old this season.  Interior designers spend as much time keeping up with the latest fads in colors, fashions, and designs as they do creating new interiors for clients. 

The internet provides some opportunities to do a lot of that research yourself.  However, different paint manufacturers and even different interior designers may give different advice on colors and color pallets.  Regional differences in taste and style can account for part of this.  For this reason, we always advise you to consult a professional in your area that is familiar with what is popular now.

Some professionals you might consult for advice include:

• Local designers who are familiar with local trends in interior design.
• Professional interior painters who can tell you what colors people in your area are requesting.
• Paint companies are also good sources of information on popular paint colors.
• Local home builders.  Go and visit some new homes and ask the builder what paint colors they are using.
• Ask your real estate agent.  They are in the business of selling houses and should know what is selling and what is not.

What is the Goal?

The goal of staging your home for sale is to put the prospective buyer in a place where they can imagine living in your home and doing what they want done to make it their home.  You need to provide a blank canvas on which their imagination can work.  On the other hand, you don’t want the environment to be so sterile that it becomes uninviting.  You want a balance of clean and spacious that is a comfortable home but with a neutral feel that invites the prospective buyer's imagination.

How is that Accomplished?

To a large extent, you can begin staging your home for a quick sale with a fresh coat of paint to the interior walls and trim., Just a fresh coat of paint can brighten and freshen a room to a great extent.  By carefully choosing the color palette, you can enhance the feeling of spaciousness and provide that blank canvas on which a prospective buyer can see possibilities.

Going neutral means removing most of the color in the house, especially on the walls, ceilings, and trim.  Don’t go overboard and bring home gallons of stark white paint and make everything a glaring white.  You don’t want your home to look like a hospital clinic.  You want your home to look and feel like home while keeping a neutral tone.

Start with one of the paint manufacturers' sample books.  These are available from any good paint retailer and will show you a range of colors and the best choices for trim or accent colors.  These sample books change as buyers' tastes change so make a trip to the paint store and pick up the latest brochures they have in stock.  Don’t forget to ask for their recommendations as well.

If you are working with a professional interior paint contractor, ask their advice and what colors they have been painting in houses that were going on the market.  Ask to see color samples and color combinations they have used in the recent past.  Take their advice but do your research as well.

The Colors

In general, you can be safe choosing colors in the shades listed below.  Different paint manufacturers offer a veritable spectrum of color choices.  The last visit I made to the paint store to pick out a simple white paint for a bathroom, left me overwhelmed.  There were no less than 30 different shades of white on their display board.  Don’t get overwhelmed.  Pick your central color and then build a palette of accent colors around it.

Whites

Whites are probably the most used central color in staging houses.  It is clean, bright and keeps a fresh look.  There are some caveats to choosing a white.  Every white paint has a slightly different undertone.  The undertones are the small amounts of added colors that are put into the paint base to create the white color you see. 

Some white paints have a blue undertone and will take on a bluish hue when placed close to a stronger blue color.  The same goes for any of the other undertone colors added to the white color base.  The manufacturer's color wheel or brochure will usually show you accent colors in their paint line that harmonizes well with the color you have selected. 

White is always a good choice as the base color around which you add your accent colors to trim or even whole walls.  The trick is to find the right accent color to create that homey, comfortable look for your home interior.

Greys

Soft tones of grey are becoming more and more popular as accent colors and even as the foundation color for a whole room.  Avoid deep, strong greys that can make a room feel dark and small.  IF anything, tend to a shade lighter than what you are considering in the paint store.

More and more, we see greys with undertones of brown, blue and even green to give the color a warmer feeling.  Be sure that the undertone in your grey accent color doesn’t clash with the undertones of your white.

Beige

Light beige colors are making a comeback.  We aren’t talking about the bland sand-colored beige that was so overused by home builders and remodelers a few years ago.  Today’s beige colors are creamier and lighter than the beiges from times past, these light beige paints can add a warm and inviting feel to a room when used properly as an accent wall or trim color.

Before the Sell

Staging your home for sale is much more than just putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls and trim.  You may not be able to justify a professional home stager, but you can certainly do a little research to gain an understanding of how to make your home more appealing and more saleable when the time comes.  Remember that something as simple as a fresh coat of the right color paint can add as much as 15% to the selling price of your home.

Dusty Mills is a professional house painter in the Kansas City area, boasting over twenty years of experience in house painting services. Dusty learned the trade from his parents, who owned a successful house painting and contracting business for many decades before retiring, and he now enjoys sharing his painting and home repair expertise with others.