I think you are smart to realize that, even though you love jolts of color, the people who might really like the location and layout of your house may not be painters and they may hate the colors you love. Too many people underestimate this. Here on "Decorating" we are fond of saying, "It's only paint!", but to a young mother who has her hands full, a family with only just enough money to buy/not enough to redo, or even a newly retired couple looking for a "move-in ready" home.........there's no such thing as "It's only paint!".

Now.......while I adore my Baby Turtle sage throughout much of my home, it may be way dark for the prospective buyers. And a soft sage may need to be extremely soft for mass appeal in your case too. Plus, not everyone loves green, no matter how soft. Some of the most successful builders in our area use a sort of very soft gold paint throughout most of their models. It's an ICI custom color but it reads a little like Sherwin Wms Ivoire. You might try something of that ilk in your home. Or if you have a Ben Moore store nearby, seek out their decorator and ask about popular colors to give a home a Neutral Makeover. A super clean home, pared down to the most attractive accessories only, family photos boxed and stored, furniture attractively and comfortably arranged, Dogs Removed for visitors (along with the dishes/leashes/kennels/pillows/etc.) and maybe a fresh coat of 'work with anything' paint on the walls.....will absolutely have way more appeal than anything we have heavily personalized.

On the flooring, the best scenario is the same flooring flowing smoothly from room to room. Replacing the rooms with actual damage is a must though, no matter what. I have 'vision' and don't need someone else to point out that the tacky blue bedroom with the white ceiling fan and dirty carpet can be cleaned/painted/re-carpeted and 'Re-fanned'.....but it's still a huge turn-off. And if the dogs are going to continue their damage, then, minimize it with hard-surface flooring.

Best wishes
Red

If you are going to take the time to paint then I would not go with green of any shade. Stick with something like Ivoire like redbazel mentioned.

I agree. I would love green but not to sell. I would go darker than an ivory. Maybe a darker sand color.
I think redoing the floors will get your house sold intead of your neighbors.

My kitchen designer said she considers sage to be a neutral. It's certainly inoffensive enough, is light, & plays well with woodtones. Beiges & ivories look like dirty whites to me.

How about SW Sand Dollar or Practical Beige? Macadamia?

Red

**Awm03 My sage works as a neutral and I might just keep it for resale. Most people who walk in seem to like it a lot. But if I were starting over from scratch to re-paint most rooms, I would probably do something like I suggested here above.

How about adding some sage in kitchen or dining room. You don't have to do the whole house the same color. I wouldn't do too many colors as we would normally use if it was our own house. But you can easily add a different nuetral in the powder room, dining room and kitchen.
Use the sand in the majority of the house and then other colors in those rooms. It's not much the color of the walls that people don't like, it's if it's well decorated. If you have nice colors that work well together and will work with whatever furniture they have, that's what matters.
You can easily do something like Laura Ashley Gold 3 in the majority of the house and then a Baby Turtle(or another green) in the dining room or bathroom.

What about some of the room SW Ancient Marble (very pale sage)
and some other room SW Ivorie - pretty neutral

A good resale color that has been mentioned in articles and a few posters on here have used it is Ben Moore Wheeling Neutral.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wheeling Neutral

On DESIGNED TO SELL (on HGTV) they always seem to use a "neutral tan" on the walls. I always think it looks great.

I like some of the suggestions. I will be able to paint the DR a different color, but the rest of the first floor is open with no logical breaks. Which is fine, I'm having a hard enough time picking one color LOL!

Here's my LR. It's been this color since we moved in, and I am having a *really* hard time seeing more tan/sand/beige in here. The sofa is currently slipcovered, I haven't decided to use it or a slightly smaller sofa we have in the guest room (it's about the same color). The sofa is chocolate brown leather when not covered.

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This is the current fun area, which of course will be made completely unfun :( I was thinking on expanding the LR with some more chairs, maybe a game table/homework table set up (it's a 4 bedroom house, so most likely there will be children in the buyer's family or future). Same wall color will go here as LR.
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The fun area is sort-of open to the kitchen. I will be taking down the pot rack and veggie basket.
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Here's the kitchen. I'm going to paint the upper cabinets an off-white (of some yet-to-be-determined color) and the lower cabinets dark brown stain. Unless you all think all the cabs should be off-white.
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Here is the newly painted (before I knew we were selling) dining room. I *love* this color and will be sad to see it go.
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There will be a LOT of removing personal stuff- no more lizards on the walls, etc.

I am just having a hard time picturing anything, just so used to the bright cheery happy color and not at all prepared to live in a beige world. I don't have photoshop, if anyone is really bored and wants to play around I would be forever grateful.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. And please keep them coming. Last time I moved we had a relocation package that bought our house. We won't have that luxury this time, and I want to cut that commute!

I have a lot of sage in my home and I consider it to be a neutral....I have not found any color that I can not put with it.

Oooh, I just want to say how much I love your color. You've done a good job with all that brightness....and I am pretty picky! And congrats on the new job!

I just sold my house in a terrible market and I left all the colors as they were -- all 15 of them! Though I used a lot of color, none were so bright and I am afraid you'll probably have a harder time with yours. Selling is sooo stressful, I think you should make your life easier by just picking a neutral. Part of selling a house is detaching from it spiritually, and letting go of the paint color is one step. You have to try to stop looking at it as your house.

I think that people will be less likely be put off by "patchwork" flooring than they will by dirty or stained. The ideal situation is to have things flow as much as possible...even of the flooring doesn't match, does it look roughly the same? If so, chances are lookers won't even notice.

I read the book Ready, Set, Sold and I highly recommend it. I didn't take every point of advice, but a lot of what the author says is valuable.

An important thing I considered was who my target market was and what their financial situation might be. For instance, I struggled over whether to replace the stained carpet in the back of the house, but I decided that since it was not a "starter" house, the buyers would likely have the financial wherewithal to replace. I just couldn't bear to put in cheap (ugly to me) carpet. I had it cleaned and kept cheezy plastic mats out between showings and it got us through to closing. Whew!

I like your colors too, but I agree that you're much more likely to sell quickly and get a better price if you stick with neutral colors. If you need to add some color punch, you could consider colorful throw pillows.

There's a site that gives excellent, to-the-point advice on staging your house to sell. As amysrq said, the first step is detaching yourself emotionally from the house and instead focusing on what will best accomplish your selling goals.

Best of luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Staging your home to sell

meghane, i sold my little cottage bungalow 3 years ago and had bright colors too. i told the realtor i was going to repaint beige throughout and she told me absolutely not, that the colors fit the house and it was charming. before you paint , ASK the realtor. take her advise. she knows what sells in your community.

I forgot to address your carpet issue. Since you are a good DIY'er, I would absolutely put in the laminate that matches if it's in the budget especially if you're afraid of staining another carpet. You can put down some nice neutral rugs!

I was going to photoshop some warm beige's in some of your rooms but haven't found time yet. Is the slipcovered sofa (the one you say is leather) in good shape underneath? I would remove the slip cover since that would look fabulous with a sand or beige color paint.

meghane, you have a LOT of good stuff to work with....your counters and backsplash will look really nice with cream cabinets and your floors, in my opinion, would look fine next to some kind of beige or tan shade, as would your existing furniture. fwiw, i like your house the way it is now...but everything you want to do to get it sold sounds right on and i think it will come out really, really well.

I was on my way to posting for help and the Realtor in me couldn't pass by your thread! I don't know you or your market (LOVELY HOME!). Of course, your agent, if you are using one, should be a source of good advice.
Here are some things to think about and check out in your area:
1. Despite what you hear, things aren't that great for Buyers either these days. It's harder to qualify for a mortgage and interest rates have gone up. That means a smaller pool of Buyers for you and most of the Buyers out there are scraping every nickel together just to buy a house and get the key. Often, they don't have money left over for paint, even if they know how to do it (many don't know how to paint).
2. Will your home be priced within in the reach of First Time Home Buyers? Lately, that's been a good place for Sellers to be. If yours is a step up from 1st Timers, you may have to be more aggressive with your price and more creative with incentives.
3. Visit new construction and see what color paint they are using. Check out apartments to see what colors they use. I find most Buyers don't want to HAVE to do anything for the first 3 or 4 years in a house. Hence, the reason to repaint in a go-with-anything color(s). I can sell freshly painted plain vanilla houses quickly. Anything else might have to wait for the unique Buyer who just happens to have everything to match your scheme or likes to paint (also unique these days).
4. Since it looks like your colors are deep. It can sometimes take several coats (I've heard of 4 coats for dark colors!) to bring it to neutral. Ask your paint store for a base or primer coat that is best to neutralize/cover the colors you have. Don't be surprised if they suggest a gray primer or some other color as a base coat before you apply the actual neutral color.
5. If you don't want to look like you just had the place white-washed, ask a paint store person to help you select a light neutral card with 5 shades on it from lightest to darkest and stick to the top (lightest) three throughout your house. Use the lightest shade liberally and the 3rd shade sparingly. I don't know what's "in" in your area but where I live using a bright white satin or semi gloss for all woodwork, interior doors and trim is highly desirable. Again, even if you are using very light neutral paints for the walls, the bright white woodwork adds some snap & zing and gives a very fresh & clean look.
6. Don't be shy about checking out your competition. Go to Open Houses. Also ask your agent to actually schedule appointments to show you your competition. That will give you solid information about pricing your home and what you will really need to do to sell it.

With gas prices, even if you think you might not be getting the best price for your house, the $ you save in gas commuting will make up for it quickly! Not to mention the wear and tear on your being a Road Warrior.
Best Wishes!
Barbara
PS if anybody knows about picture hanging, please post on my thread ;)

I do think painting over the yellow and orange would be a good idea but you might wait and see how the kitchen cabinets look with a more neutral wall color before painting them. Ask your realtor.

If you do paint them, I suggest painting them all the same color.

Here's your living room, ready for resale. Beige paint, take off the slip cover (not sure what your leather couch looked like) add some accessories from Target and Voila!
If I have time I'll play with your kitchen.

Well covering the red cabinets proved to be difficult in photoshop. I suspect it would look much better than it does here. It's kind of glowing..LOL

And just for kicks, I did espresso cabinets....ohhhhh, I like this alot! Maybe it would be easier to cover in real life too??

I am a renter for now, and my home has the same color walls that lindybarts just photoshopped. I have to say I HATE IT. It's too gold/yellow/dark for me. But it's better than the wedgewood blue/pumpkin orange walls of the other hosue we looked at. Rentals are scarce here so my choices were limited. But I find the color depressing, not neutral.

The options described by lov2garden would make me very happy. They would fit any decor.

I can paint. I don't like to, I have very limited time. When we leave ehre in a year or two, we will likely buy, and that gold/tawny beige will be a very strong turn-off for me, and if two houses were otherwise equal, I'd opt out of painting.

Just my $.02

I know the neutral staging rule, but IMHO because buyers are so bad at envisioning changes, they'll see boring beige and brown and keep looking, whereas your brights and rustic furniture will be more memorable.

I like your red kitchen cabinets, but think the kitchen would be more family friendly were you to demo the wall between the kitchen and pool table room. Hopefully there's a cabinet run that can be made into an island when the wall come down.

Your Tex/Mex style furniture looks great against the bright yellow walls, and I would extend the color into the dining room. White crown molding would tone down the yellow a bit and most people really like it. I'd leave up the lizards, but remove the dog painting.

Good luck with a quick sale -- nobody should do the 90 minute commute!

Lots of good info posted here, both in support of repainting and recommending against it. And as the realtor pointed out, selling is difficult these days, so the more you can do to generate interest and an offer, the better.

Since your current house colors do reflect your furniture style, and don't convey "boring" (which some buyers don't relate to), you could include in your sale price a defined $$$ amount to cover the cost of re-painting the house in the buyer's choice after closing. You could also include a carpet allowance for x-amount of $$$ to cover the cost of replacing the tired carpet you referred to. This approach often appeals to prospective buyers because they get to decorate with the color they want to live with, and it's new to the house. Of course, your "x-amount of $$$) should reflect the grade of carpet and paint currently in your home....if the buyer wants to upgrade, they should pay the difference.

I do recommend removing most of your photos and wall hangings....They're large and are attention-grabbers. You want prospective buyers to notice the rooms, their flow and their size...not the way they're decorated.

Good luck!

I live in Durham, and since the home prices in my neighborhood never went up, they aren't going down much either. I think my home may be a bit large for a first time buyer- it's 4 bedrooms, and unfortunately one of the largest in the neighborhood (not THE largest though). I did a comp search and a good aggressive price would be $165k, which would also put some money into our pockets for down payment on next house.

There are lots of new developments going up nearby. I haven't toured them yet, but will this weekend to see what kind of colors are being used. The new homes have lots of upgrades that I don't have, and won't do- granite counters, SS appliances- but they are also in the $220k and up range. 99% of the trim in my home is bright white, and I really like it, so hopefully that works in this area still (house came with beige walls and bright white trim but the beige walls didn't even make it to moving in day LOL). I will also tour the open houses in my neighborhood. I'm kinda scared because one home 3 doors up has been on the market since December, though they were overpriced until recently (3 bedroom home was $174900, now at 164900). So I'd have an extra bedroom for $100 at my ballpark asking price. I will definitely have a realtor come in. We never had to worry about selling our last home since the company bought it, so this is all new to me.

I would have to price out the cost of knocking down the wall between the kitchen and family room. It probably won't be worth it but I wish I had thought of it while we were living here! I was considering adding a breakfast bar and stools on the family room side, which I could do for a little money. I like that idea, expanding the kitchen, because it is TINY.

Lindabarts- first of all, thank you SO much for doing the photoshop for me. This is so funny. I actually DID paint the cabinets that are sort of in the fun area (should be part of kitchen) ultra pure white and it WAS blinding in real life too! I've painted the doors a soft "you want some coffee with that cream" color and like it, but will have to redo it once I decide on a color scheme. The chocolate color is EXACTLY what I was thinking for the lower cabinets. I did that color in my master bath and totally love it. I'm hesitating on painting the uppers a dark color because the kitchen is so small, dark colors kind of make it seem like the cabs are closing in over your head. I like a warm cozy kitchen, but even I was planning on making my uppers off white if I had stayed because it was just too cavelike. So I think that's settled- yummy chocolate lowers and off-white/cream uppers.

That sofa is exactly what we have, and yes ours is in good condition. I just put a slipcover on because our Lab, Max, sleeps on the sofa all day and drools on it. We had been keeping a blanket on the sofa to prevent drool stains, but it looked really sloppy so I got the slipcover. I guess the beige isn't too bad. It will just take some getting used to considering what we had for 9 years. It really does help seeing it, so again, thank you.

I was planning on neutralizing our artwork. I don't think many people will appreciate our Dali print of Christ of Saint John on the Cross, especially. We're planning on renting a PackRat or POD or something and doing a MAJOR declutter and paring down everything. DH is upset at the idea, especially since that involves converting the arcade back into a garage, but I keep telling him most buyers will FREAK OUT if they saw 13 arcade games and 2 pinball machines in a black room with blue neon lights in the area where they were supposed to park their car. I will be giving up my office which includes having to board my iguana, ferret, and parrot so he's not the only one losing stuff for a while. I'll bring my dogs and their beds to work on days the house is being toured/open houses so nobody freaks out about the pets either.

As of right now, this is what I am thinking as a color palette. WARNING: this color palette subject to change at any given time without notice.

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The large color is Belvedere Cream and would be the wall color everywhere except the dining room. The green color would be the dining room wall color. The lighter cream would be for the upper kitchen cabinets. The white is Ultra Pure White which I already have for trim and love it. I like the creams because they are not too gold which hopefully is good.

Meghane, I think you are absolutely on the right track. Those colors are perfect! I think some people will definitely not like beige. Those are the ones who will probably paint their own house other colors no matter what you had on the walls. Conventional wisdom and many articles on real estate will tell you that beige will appeal to the majority of the buyers out there. When you walk through those houses this weekend, I wouldn't be surprised to see lots of coffee colors. Supposedly, it helps people to see the rooms, their size and the layout much better since the paint just blends into the background. So yes, beige paint is boring and as one poster mentioned above "depressing" but you will still attract the biggest pool of people by using neutrals. I was going to do your dining room next. That is one room where you can really get away with a bolder color. Most people expect it in there.

Can't wait to see how your cabinets turn out. Will you show us the transformations? I always love to see the final results. Good Luck on selling quickly!

I think you got everything perfect. The right pallet and the right idea to declutter. Go for it! Good luck!

I've been following your post because this past month, hubby has been preparing me for the dreaded "R" word (relocation). We'd just finally finished our basement and I used COLOR for the first time and I love it. I also just painted our front LR-turned-"library" (light sage). We had all blandish light smoke gray walls throughout, but I was adding in sages, pumpkin "spice", and SW Blonde. I think I'll hold up on my other paint projects in the main living areas and let them remain neutral.

Now that I know how to paint, I don't think I'd let one or two bright rooms scare me (if/when house-hunting), but I wouldn't want to have to paint a large area--like several rooms/halls that flow together--soon after moving in, so if there are other houses in the market that would be other than this scenario, they'd have the edge.

I just saw in your last post that you live in Durham. Small world--it's the RTP area that we would be relocating to from central IL. I think your area has higher home prices, so that scares me. I'm in my dream home now, I can't stand the thought of leaving.... :-( Ah well. If you have any links to good realtor sites that have pics, etc., in your area, please share! Thanks.

Good luck with your upcoming relocation. When it's what you want, things usually go better. Like someone mentioned above, it's time to stop thinking of the current home as "yours" and to distance yourself from it--changing color back to neutral will help with that. When you do this, something about the "energy" of the home changes (weird, I know).

I like the LR after Lindy photoshopped it. I also think I would do the kitchen cabinets all the same (not light on top, dark on bottom). What about some "antiquing" of them--in the cracks? Can the kitchen be a different color from the rest of the "fun space"? I have a friend who did her cabinets cream with some glaze in the cracks to antique them and then painted her walls a ruddy color (terra cotta-like). It was gorgeous and did well with the neutral colors of the rest of her rooms, but still gave her some "pop". A good muted orange (since you like that color) is Laura Ashley 'Spice' (at Lowes)--I'm not an orange person but fell in love with this and used it in a basement area and planned on it for my kitchen. I love how wrought iron looks against it. It seems very popular right now.

Good luck and have fun!
Tracey

Lindybarts~~You do such a great job of this....but I agree that the espresso cabinets looked GREAT~~~a lot better than the white.

Meghane, I think you're on the right track here.
Lindy, you did a super job with photoshopping those rooms. I was trying to see it and couldn't.
Robin....your points made so much sense to me.

Here is what I've observed about people looking for homes. When someone who likes color and isn't afraid to do a red dining room or an apple green kitchen walks into a well arranged, discreetly decorated home with Shaker Beige walls and traditional decor, they can still get all excited, saying, "Oh, this room would look great in a sunny yellow!" or "I would paint this off-white bedroom in a navy blue for my son!" and they are not at all intimidated by the painting process because the house is move-in ready right now and their custom color choices can be added when THEY are ready. So whether your Lookers are Mr.& Mrs. Beige.....or Miss Fuschia, a neutral scheme that will accommodate most people's furniture and stuff will have wide-spread appeal.

But when you opt to leave intense or bright colors, you work against yourself in two ways. One, the Beiges will be shaking their heads and talking about a "Paint Allowance" or even saying to themselves, "there would be so much work painting that it would take a while for us to be able to move in!"...........and Two---if it's not the specific colors that Miss Fuschia likes, then, she's saying the same thing.

My friends painted their high-ceilinged LR in a strange aqua color, wallpapered one wall in Anglypta and had a deep Teal carpet layed throughout their new home. They adored what they did and entertained often to show off their home. (don't even ASK about the bathroom!!) None of their friends liked it and when they put it up for sale a couple of years later, I begged them to re-paint. They couldn't understand why it took them so long to sell while the market was so hot, and why they had to lower their price. But they had customized the heck out of that house.

I like color and my current house has had a soft butter LR and now is sage. My DR was a warm pear green and is now Ben Moore's Northhampton Putty. But when I came into this house and saw that they had put white on two walls of the DR, pale yellow on the third, and celery green on the fourth, I knew that a couple of gallons of paint needed to be on the moving truck.

Red

I feel your pain. I adore your bold colors and am slightly depressed at the thought that (I too) will have to "bland out" my house when it goes on the market next spring. What a shame, because your colors say to me: "this is an interesting place to live"!
Too bad, we all have to "go bland and blah" to sell in this current market. Im dreading the staging stage: I can already feel my husband;s irritation with living in a "fake house" while its on the market. Luckily we bought at the bottom of the market in 1991 and will end up selling at the bottom of the market..but I think pricing it right is probably the most important thing, right?

Gwent. You are absolutely right. Finding an appealing price that draws buyers to your door is the first step, no matter how neutral your walls, or beautiful your decor. Make your house the most attractive in the neighborhood by making it feel like a real deal.

Red

Just wanted to see what the colors would look like that you picked out. Very nice!! The neutral is more of a putty (if the monitor is accurate) and lighter than the drawing I did before. I think it has some green undertones too which work well with your wood.

And here's the dining room color

OOOHHHH, I actually LIKE those colors! Who woulda thunk it?

Thank you SO much lindabarts- I would have been reluctant to go ahead and paint without seeing the colors first. I was a bit nervous, but Behr is having a sale this weekend so I am going to purchase a 5 gallon bucket of the Belvedere Cream and probably 2 gallons of the green color, and I'll need another can of white, plus the lighter cream.

So, how does the kitchen go?
#1 Light cream tops with espresso bottom cabs
#2 All light cream cabs
#3 All espresso cabs

I like the cream cabinets and I really, really like the espresso but I wouldn't do both. Can your realtor give you any advice on whether darker stains are selling in your area? They are very popular out here but every market is different.

Also, on the paint...is there anyway to get a smaller sample size first to try it out. I'd hate to see you get a big 5 gallon bucket only to have it not look good. Remember, the photoshopping can not take the place of seeing samples in your own setting in your own lighting. These virtuals could be way off. Get samples if you can first!

I love all your colors. There was a joke within our company gang of engineers that we would all paint our homes "corporate beige". I look a our neighborhood listings here in Texas and every empty house has been painted inside with some yucky (sorry) beige. They don't seem to sell as quickly as those homes with color!! I love HGTV programs that show the homes of the eccentric. Gotta love color.

I love that Lindybarts said what I was thinking. Buy a quart of each, pour it in a roller tray and paint out a large piece of wall. You're going to paint anyway, so it doesn't matter, and if it's not just the right shade, you haven't spent the money on the whole shootin' match!

Here, the darker cabs would be the thing, but you should find out what the cool thing is in your market.

Red