5 Paint Mistakes Sellers Should Avoid

The wrong paint color can be a big turn-off to potential home buyers. House Beautiful recently highlighted some of the worst mistakes home owners can make when it comes to painting their house, including:

More home staging and design tips: Styled, Staged & Sold blog

1. Painting a ceiling a flat white color. “I never paint a ceiling dead white because all white paint has a bit of gray in it, and it takes the room down,” designer Athalie Derse told House Beautiful. Instead, she suggests choosing a cream shade.

2. Too many colors from room to room. Some home owners may opt for a different color scheme for each room. “Even when I don’t use the same colors everywhere, I still like the rooms to feel connected,” designer Mona Ross Berman says. “The bedroom should never feel like it’s in a completely different house than the living room. The whole house has to make sense as one.”

3. Using the same color palette for the entire house. On the flip side, home owners who only stick to one color palette may be making the home too bland. “A two-color scheme can be great, but there has to be some relief, or it comes across as too pat and makes everything seem stiff,” says designer Tom Scheerer.

4. Matching too much. “You never want to match your walls to a color in one of your fabrics,” designer Sallie Giordano says. “It will be too strong. Find a grayed-out version of the color.”

5. Use neutrals to balance out color. Some home owners may be tempted to go overboard with one color. “The biggest mistake people make when they’re trying to be colorful and exciting is to forget that you need to balance it with neutrals,” says designer Todd Klein. He adds that architectural elements in white or even a few gray throws can give visitors’ eyes a place to rest.

Source: “The 9 Paint Color Mistakes You Should Never Make,” House Beautiful (August 2015)