But be warned, because according to the pros, not just any neutral will do. There are certain neutral colors that will instantly date your suburban home from the late 1990s or early aughts. The same can be said for bold color choices that don’t always look as stylized or intentional as you’d hope.
Do you want to make sure that your home does not send potential buyers into a state of instability? Here are the types of colors that real estate and staging experts insist will instantly make your listed home look dated.
Off-white can be a classic neutral, but it has to be the right shade. One wrong turn and it can look muddy, harsh or, worse, dated. Meridith Baer, CEO and founder of Meridith Baer Home, has one particular off-white shade that has stuck with her for decades.
“In the 1990s and early 2000s, it seemed like every interior was painted Navajo white—a yellowish white that complemented the Tuscan theme that was so prevalent at the time.” Now, that color brings to mind warm quartz, elaborate stone backsplashes and filigree bronze lamps. Whenever Baer is brought in, she immediately refreshes the home with a fresher, yet softer, truer shade of white.
This will be hard for some to take, but Grey’s moment may have come and gone. “Grey ruled the 2010s. Gray walls with gray toned wood floors seemed to be a developer favorite,” says Baer. Today, gray is reminiscent of the “millennial gray aesthetic” where everything from sofas to art is in shades of gray. Baer suggests updating a gray room with a warm white, such as Benjamin Moore’s decorator white, that will make the space look more livable and welcoming.
Beige is sometimes called sad beige for a reason. “Beige, in all its forms, looks like a tired, tired white and a bit like room temperature coffee,” says Chesley McCarty of TTR | Sotheby’s International Realty. The color reached its peak in the early 2000s when rooms were washed in beige on beige, according to McCarty. Now, a look at the paint could signal to a buyer that the home hasn’t been updated in at least two decades.
“I actually love yellow, but there’s a lingering shade from the day before that, if not managed well, immediately distracts from the quality of the home,” explains McCarty. That yellow is a warm buttery yellow that, while it may be attractive if you spread it on an English muffin, it can make a room feel more like a bygone era. Instead of getting the crisp, fresh feel of the light yellow or the richness of the mustard, McCarty says it ends up falling warm and flat.
Deciding to paint a room dark on your own can be a stunning statement, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it when your house goes on the market. “Every time I show a property and walk into a room with dark red or dark green, there’s an immediate objection from the buyer. This starts the mental dance of what needs to be changed immediately,” says Patricia Gray Hendricks, real estate agent with Long & Foster Cape May. While you may love your taupe dining room, when it comes time to list your house, it may be time to spruce it up.
Do you remember the TLC hit from the early 2000s Commercial premises? That show loved a statement wall, and that loved a bold primary or secondary color such as red, blue, green, and purple. But the early 2000s are over, and those bold colors can now feel like a relic of the past.
Jared Blumberg, real estate agent and founder of the Werner Blumberg Group at Compass, explains, “Unless used sparingly and thoughtfully, bold colors should be removed. Bold choices were popular in the interiors of the early 2000s. However, more than two decades later, I would never advise any client to paint an entire room bright red, blue, green, etc.”
“When you’re selling a house, you want the house to speak for itself, not the color,” adds Blumberg.