When you go to social events, do you make an effort to snazzy yourself up? Of course you do. The simply fact is attraction is a key factor in forming relationships and the same applies to your house. When you put the house on the market, you need to make it look good for ‘a date’ with potential buyers. The color of your house can make all the difference.
First, there is no absolutely correct answer to the best color. Instead, the decision depends on the makeup of your home and the surrounding landscape. Let’s take a look at some issues:
1. Whatever color you choose, make sure it doesn’t clash with the other homes in the neighborhood. An otherwise appropriate color could end up making your house an ‘eye-sore’.
2. The Roof. What color is the roof on your home? If it is a red tile roof, off-whites for the walls are probably going to be a good choice. Dark green will not. Unless you are going to invest money in a new roof or paint it, make sure the surrounding paint color doesn’t clash with it.
3. Highlights. If there is a particular part of your house that should be emphasized, let’s say an outdoor water feature or an open fire place, you could use light colored paint around it to draw attention. But be careful with too many ‘feature walls’ inside the home. A blue wall might feel cozy to you, a red glass splash-back in the kitchen makes you feel like a master chef or a yellow painted en-suite symbolizes ‘happiness’ to you, however, the future buyer might just think the complete opposite !
Now we get to the fun part. After considering the above issues, make a preliminary list of colors and buy small cans of each color. In a private area of the house start applying samples strokes. Try to paint examples in both shaded areas and those exposed to the sun.
Do not immediately judge the results of your experiments. Instead, wait a few hours for the paint to dry and then start comparing. Dry paint takes on a very different appearance than wet paint.
Once the paint is dry, take a long look at each sample. You will typically find the colors look much different than you thought they would. You may find one color is perfect or you may find something does not fit at all. In my experience, neutral colours will fit most homes and will leave room for the buyers imagination what to do with this ‘empty canvas’. If in doubt ask friends and family what they think or contact me for an obligation free consultation and feedback.