I'd do a soft celery type color (and did once, it sold quickly) :o) It will highlight the carpet and cabinetry without being too taste specific. Be sure to stay away from pastel's and keep it soft. A very soft butterscotch type color could also work well.

Igloochic,
Do you have a specific paint color that comes to mind. I appreciate your help.

I wish I could pull out a deck and give you a tone but I haven't recieved my shipped items from home (which is where the decks are). One that comes to mind easily in the butterscotch tone would be cowslip which is a BM color I believe....I've used it several times. I would stick to the lightest tone of cowslip verses going into the deep tones (it comes in about 5 levels). If you need to do ceilings I'd do them in ralph lauren writers parchment if you use the cowslip color and if you do a celery tone use ralph lauren startched apron.

(obviously I have a few go to colors can you tell LOL)

igloochic, cowslip is a Valspar (Lowes) color, Laura Ashley collection.

I'm no expert, but I have sold 3 houses since 2003. Two of the houses received offers within 2 weeks of listing. One was a victim of the swift decline in house prices as well as increased foreclosure properties. We still received an offer within 4 months, given the real estate climate in 2006 in that area, it was pretty good. Each was staged, but we were not living there. If at all possible, stage the house with simple furiture, art and live plants. The furniture and accessories allow people to imagine a lifestyle, not just square footage, paint and carpet. A great book is Ready, Set, Sold by Michael Corbett. It has great tips and tricks for simple staging.

As for color, use what you have. Only repaint rooms that need paint. Try to keep your color choices in the middle to light section of the color card. If it's already white, then go ahead and paint. No need to go into an elaborate color scheme or to paint the whole thing builder's beige.

If you choose to try to sell without staging, then your paint choices need to speak, but not yell if that makes sense. Without furniture or art on the walls, the eye has no place to rest. A furnished room tends to look larger than an empty one. I'm attaching a link from a realtor's article about colors that sell. Amazingly, the BM Pottery Barn colors are tops.

Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Colors that Sell

Here's a link to pictures from 2 of my previous houses - staged. The very first one, DH forgot to get pictures until after everything was moved out.

On the left under Albums, there is one called Hanover Drive and Jasmine Place

HTH
Kathe

Here is a link that might be useful:

I can also vouch for the Ready, Set, Sold book. I used many of his ideas and sold a house for a great price in a terrible market in Florida (2008) in just a few months.

There is a house near me that is sitting unsold right now, filled with furniture from a staging company. It looks like a furniture showroom (gag). I can't help but think that with the money they've poured into renting soul-less, ugly furniture, they could have bought things with some personality off Craigslist and created an environment people around here could actually relate to.

All that said, if you can't stage with furniture, I would suggest using a different color for each room, or at least have some variety. The house will already be "boring" with nothing in it. Painting it all one color (beige....eeek!) will just sap the rest of the personality out of the house. You could go to any paint store and pick a card with a set of coordinating colors and pretty much get it right.

I hope you are not offended by our advice here. I know you were asking for one color and got a whole lot of head-spinning advice. It is a stressful time selling and moving. But, we want to see you get a good price, preferably without spending more than you have to. Have you read the Buying & Selling board yet?

We had ours painted SW Ivoire in October before putting it on the market. It's such a nice color. Must have looked good because it sold in 3 weeks.

Thank you for all your help. I took your suggestions and went to a BM dealer and picked out many beautifull colors. Painting in in progress!

Best wishes for a quick sale at a good price!

Let us know what colors you picked.

Here are some beautiful colors to make a room look
amazing.

Put something yellow in your house. Yellow flowers
at the door, yellow vase.. anything yellow. Yellow
evokes memory. When house hunters are going back in their
minds over the houses they saw, they will remember the
one with the yellow _______.

Pale Daffodil by BM

Golden Straw a yellow Ben Moore paint

I agree a soft celery would be lovely
This is called Soft Celery by BM

Haze Green Pratt Lambert has a bit more gray

Aganthus Green y Ben Moore (See how nice it looks with the
gold maple color)

I love this color Baked Scone by Behr

This is called Fools gold but notice the blue color too.

The blue in your home to sell with Maple could really
be stunning.

Here is a great blue called Glass Slipper by Ben Moore

Boxerpups, these are beautiful colors. However, I already had purchased paint before your posting.

the main color in the great room, foyer, family room is Sea Urchin. I love it.
The bathroom and bedroom will be done in Lighthouse view and Foggy Mist.

Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions.