Need help picking Interior Paint Colors

[NewnameC]

We recently found out that we may be moving later this year after living here for a decade. We won’t know for a while, and the move may be a quick one if it happens. 

So, we need to prepare the house for a possible sale. This mainly means fixing little things around the house. 

The walls also need painting. I would love help in picking colors. I’m awful at it, and I’m always amazed by the suggestions the hive makes on paint threads.

I’m looking for colors that will appeal to potential buyers this year and that we will like if long-term if we end up staying another decade..

It is a two-story house that faces the south.
The first floor has large north-facing windows along the back of the house. One of those rooms is  the great room, which js two-stories and runs from front to back of the house. The great room has two-story windows along the back, as well as a picture window above the front door. There is a fireplace with a cream colored mantle in here. 

The doorframes & baseboards throughout the house are white; so is the stairway banister. The bedrooms have carpet that will be replaced; most of the rest of the floors are dark hardwood.

Right now, almost all the rooms are either a tawny yellow or a khaki green. It came this way and we never changed it. One bathroom is brown and another is a sunny yellow. 

The kitchen doesn’t have any painted walls. Dark creamish cabinets make up the three walls in the kitchen. The backsplash is granite like the counters. I would love blue cabinets, but would a buyer?

I have no idea what paint colors I would like. I like blue, but we need something others would like. I didn’t like these colors when we bought the house, but I don’t notice them that much anymore. 

Thanks 

[KSera]

Would you like it or hate it if you went really, really neutral? For market, I would likely be going in the white/off white direction right now. But if you would hate that, it would probably be better to pick a neutral with a little bit of color. Blue is a good bathroom color when listing for sale  

This article is current and has some nice specific paint colors shown: https://jennakateathome.com/best-neutral-paint-colors/

 

[popmom]

Hire a good decorator. It’s not that expensive to hire one for a paint color consultation. WORTH EVERY PENNY. If you are on Nextdoor, ask for references. Or try Houzz. Sometimes a really good realtor can help out with stuff like this. 
 

It’s so hard to generically recommend a neutral paint color. I mean…you ((think)) you have white trim. But as I’ve discovered…when you repaint your walls a trendier color, you may find that your trim isn’t white after all! 😂 Mine is VERY off white/ vanilla. The cascade effect is real. 🙂

 

 

[Kassia]

2 hours ago, popmom said:

Hire a good decorator. It’s not that expensive to hire one for a paint color consultation. WORTH EVERY PENNY. If you are on Nextdoor, ask for references. Or try Houzz. Sometimes a really good realtor can help out with stuff like this. 
 

It’s so hard to generically recommend a neutral paint color. I mean…you ((think)) you have white trim. But as I’ve discovered…when you repaint your walls a trendier color, you may find that your trim isn’t white after all! 😂 Mine is VERY off white/ vanilla. The cascade effect is real. 🙂

 

 

Many many years ago Sherwin Williams would send a decorator to your home if you purchased a minimum amount in gift cards (to be used after consulting with the decorator).  We did this and followed the decorator's recommendations and were thrilled with the results - she chose colors we never would have chosen.  I don't know if they still have that service.  If not, I wonder if you could contact a paint store (or even the paint department in a bigger store that sells paint?) and ask for a recommendation?  

 

 

[Katy]

I like most of the colors in that article @KSeralinked above. There’s definitely a trend towards using white trim and off white paint, or even white on white. I’ve been looking at 

Benjamin Moore Steam: https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/color-overview/find-your-color/color/af-15/steam?color=AF-15

Benjamin Moore Melted Lacy Pearl: https://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/color-overview/find-your-color/color/2108-70/lacey-pearl?color=2108-70

There’s also a trend to using dark moody colors on cabinets and medium dark ones like sage green & navy, but I would not do that when staging a house for sale because it’s quite taste specific. 

[lmrich]

You can get a free paint color consultation over Zoom from Sherwin Williams.

The white/off white is in for houses for sale, but pops of color are trending. Regardless - fresh paint will make your place look clean and crisp; it will be nice if you can enjoy it for awhile, too. 

[teachermom2834]

I’m not good with choosing colors but I have been using Shoji White and Worldy Grey from Sherwin Williams throughout my house and they just seem to go with everything. They look really nice against my fresh white trim and I have lots of places where rooms kind of flow into one another and it is hard to know where one stops and the other starts. I am able to use these two colors throughout and they just work. I have navy furniture and some black accents and medium wood floors and furniture and I like random pops of teal and orange and red and it all just works. So while it is not exciting, for now I am sticking with these colors when I am going for neutral and easy. But I also like the idea of hiring a designer!

[Scarlett]

I have accessible beige and balanced beige. One of those is darker and I have that in our master.  The other I have in living area, kitchen, hallway etc.   I have white trim.  Oh and one dark blue wall in the open dining room.  It is called indigo Batik.  
 

Dh just painted our kitchen cabinets blue.  I love it and get a lot of compliments on it BUT if I was trying to prepare for a possible sale I don’t think I would change the cream color. 
 

Greys are popular but not all houses lend themselves to that pain color……what you have described would probably do better with neutrals in the beige area.  

[sassenach]

Go light and neutral. I would also suggest consulting with a realtor now. They usually know what sells in your market.

[stephanier.1765]

Most of the houses we have looked at recently have been light blue. That was a surprise to me. A good surprise because I love light blue but I didn't know other people did as well.

[mom@shiloh]

I have Accessible Beige from Sherwin Williams in a few rooms and it's a great neutral. I just painted an entire house in Repose Gray from SW and I love that as well. It's also a great neutral.

[NewnameC]

Thanks everyone. I like these colors suggeestions.

I understand the suggestions to hire an interior decorator, but that seems like one more step that breaks momma’s back. 

[kristin0713]

I love this designer. I wish I had found her blog at the beginning of my house building process, but just in the last few months she has saved me from some MAJOR mistakes. And I did not hire her, I just read her blog and I bought her e-book White is Complicated. We are doing the whole house white to save money for now, but next year we will start painting rooms and I will definitely be buying her other ebook, How to Choose Paint Colors. 

https://mariakillam.com/products/ 

[Plateau Mama]

I love this gals blog. If you have cream cabinets read this one.  The 16 Best Wall Colours for Cream Cabinets & Trim - Kylie M Interiors  I have cream doors and trim and was having such a hard time finding a color for my media room.  Reading this blog post and a few others, ordering samples from samplize and I got an awesome color that everyone in my family loves.