Repainting your house, a room, or even just a wall can have a dramatic impact on how a buyer reacts to your home. Both in photos and in person, a fresh splash of paint can give an updated and clean feel to an otherwise old or lived-in room. Paint is also one of the best value for your dollar investments to upgrade your home with when putting it on the market. Here are a few key points to consider when repainting your home before selling.
BRIGHT & NEUTRAL
Neutral colours can’t be stressed enough. A light grey or tan can go with almost any furniture. It’s modern, fresh and easy to work with. Focus on the main areas of the house like the kitchen, family and living room and the master bedroom. Keep to light paints to brighten the rooms where people spend the most time. Kitchens do well with a fresh coat of white over the cupboards, especially if they’re still in the original wood finish from 20 years ago. Neutral colours, although less exciting than what you might have had in mind, are more likely to go with the potential buyer’s own furniture and style. Don’t forget, colour comes from artwork, decorations and accessories like pillows and throws.
A SPLASH OF COLOUR
I stress the use of neutral colours a lot, but if you can’t resist it here’s some advice when adding colour. The most common areas that can benefit with a splash of subtle colour are kids’ bedrooms, bathrooms, or basements. Media and entertainment rooms can look more appealing with a colourful feature wall. To be safe keep the colour to pastels so they don’t scream for attention. A nice pastel green or soft blue can bring life back to a grey or white room. Kids’ bedrooms can also get special colour treatment since they’re smaller and generally of less concern to buyers.
TRIM PIECES
Don’t have time to repaint your walls? Focus on the trim pieces instead. Fresh white baseboards, door trims and window trims will make a huge difference for very little work. It also steals attention away from any small imperfections on the walls that you didn’t have time to repaint. Doors are a quick paint job as well so get those in while you have the white paint handy!
WALL ART & PATTERNS
If you’re looking to go a step beyond basic repainting, consider wall art or simple paterns. There are infinite sources online for creative painting ideas, everything from two-tone paint jobs to complex stencils. Stale looking bathrooms and nurseries can pull off stencils or patterns easily to make them stand out. Other rooms can do with simple stripes.
WALLPAPER
Wallpaper is another quick way of bringing attention to a room. Patterned wallpapers are making a huge comeback in housing right now so it’s a safe bet if you’re looking into alternatives to painting. Wallpaper is usually seen in dining rooms, master bedrooms and even in small bathrooms to add interest. Keep the wallpaper to one wall or room as it can easily get tacky if there’s too much.
