Neutral To Sell Your Home, But Color To Live In It

Written by Jaymi Naciri Posted On Sunday, 31 March 2019 05:00

When it comes to home décor and interior design, there is one thing that pretty much everyone agrees on: you should keep it neutral.

It's true. The experts love the idea of neutral. As if stripping every last bit of originality out of your home is a good thing.

Make it cookie cutter. Make it safe. Make it the same as next door, down the street and halfway across the country. Don't even think about offending anyone with a brightly painted wall, or, even worse, a bold backsplash (how dare you!).

Nope. You need a drone house. With robotic colors and textures (but not too much texture). And by all means, keep the personalization to a minimum, would you? Don't even think about hanging any family photos - now you've gone too far.

The idea is that if you go too bold or too bright or too you, potential buyers could be turned off by your home. When you sell. If you sell.

But should we really be living our lives and enjoying our home - or maybe not so much enjoying our homes - according to when and if we might decide to offer it up to a new set of owners (who will then have their own wrestling match with neutral)?

While it's true that none of us knows what the future holds and surprises happen every day, designing, decorating, renovating, and inhabiting your home while waiting for a "what if?" is as depressing as your beige walls.

It's the whole idea of neutral. Neutral is a bad word.

"You heard it before and you'll hear it again - stay neutral to sell your home. If you're painting your house to get it ready for the market look at neutral colors so that you'll attract the most potential buyers. In a world where it's common to try to please everyone, this can work. There are, however, reasons why you shouldn't make everything neutral," said The Home Funnel.

"It has been proven time and time again that bright colors can lift your mood. You would think that a person that is walking in your home would be affected by the colors that surround him and will react to them. Therefore, you want to make sure that you can lift a buyer's mood by offering some bright colors without overdoing at. You don't want buyers to feel humdrum about walking through your home and seeing neutrality almost attacking them."

No one wants to be attacked by neutral. But the safer choice is bland over bold.

Should you be safe? If you are actually planning to sell soon, yes. The choices you make can have a profound affect on how and when your house sells, and for how much. If you're making updates before you list, you should know that blue is the new red. That quartz is the new granite. That wood-look tile is the new hardwood.

But if you're just moving in or planning to stay awhile, how about this: do what you want.

That doesn't mean laying 70 square feet of fluorescent pink countertops - you still want to use some sense. But refinish your bathroom cabinets in that dark gray you love. Hang that bold wallpaper you're coveting. Put in that super modern crystal light fixture you've been eyeing for your entry.

Express yourself. If you can't do it in your own home, where can you do it?

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