Color in Staging - Grape and Green!

I don't know about the grape and green, but I do agree about entering a house that feels warm and inviting!  I personally love color!

I think it depends on the home and the owners in terms of what I would recommend......sometimes it's best to stay with neutral.   

I think using neutral colors is best, but remember- neutral doesn't always mean beige or off white. Mocha is a nice neutral, and you can highlight it with most popular accent colors! The right shade of olive can also be considered a neutral color, and from there you can decide analogous or complimentary.  

David,

With paint, a neutral color is created by mixing 2 complementary colors in unequal parts with white or black. This creates colors like olive green, khaki's and browns. They are not traditionally thought of as neutral colors like beige, but a darker shade of beige is brown.

Perhaps in other parts of the country colors such as reds, purples and such have a better time of gaining positive interest among buyers, but in the Phoenix Arizona area, anything besides tasteful neutral tones will pretty much definitely make a home languish longer on the market. A home might be decorated to a seller's personal taste with red or purple walls and "when they are living in the home" and all their furnishings are inside, the home may look great. But list the home for sale, and the buying public passes by homes that are not neutral, time and time again ~ particularly in this market with a lot of inventory.

When we list a home, if there are odd colored rooms or walls that seem it will deter buyer's from feeling favorable toward the home, we suggest that the seller repaint and make the entire house neutral. (Of course they don't always listen!)

On the flip side, if a home is "too white" or "builder-white" buyers shrug the home off as well.

Most in favor here are homes tastefully done with cremes, light tans, earth tones and such.  

Carolin Benjamin
Bob and Carolin Benjamin - The Benjamin Team - Keller Williams Integrity First Realty - Gold Canyon, Arizona

Hi David,

Your blog came at a good time. I am ready to stage an upscale condo unit, with carte blanche in terms of what I can do.  It is new construction and they want for me to pick out colors.  In all my stagings, I usually do light tans/ crisp khaki is the best. (It is a Duron paint color). 

But for some reason, I want this hip condo to stand apart from the other units and my gut feeling is telling me to go bold.  (really against all my staging sensibilities)

I know usually, that is a no-no but I am really considering painting the dining room red and a room with a spectacular view of the city a dark brown. 

What do ya think?  anyone?...

This is a really great blog.  Kudos, David!,

Yes, color is good.  But, you have to know how to work with it.  White can be sterile - especially with white woodwork but if the proper accents are used, you can pull it off.  the problem with beige is that it is an orange based color and in defferent types of light can be higly distorted to appear pink or even purple. 

So, what color is best?  It depends on the house and the light therein.  Wheat may look warm and cozy in one house, but very yellow and garish in another. 

If you are introducing a color such as green, red - or even grape - I would recommend that you put it in a kitchen or dining room where upholstery is usually not a factor for the new owner.

Should builders us color?  Absolutley.  And they should hire a professional to choose it for them.

David - My favorite 'wheat' shade is RIPE WHEAT by Behr. It was used here:

In this house it appears more neutral than yellow.  In another house it could easily be too bright.  The trouble with yellow is that if incorrectly chosen it can turn out a sickly shade of egg yolk, no matter what the value of the color (high value colors contain more white, low value more black).

Note: notice that in these two photos, the wall shade appears slightly different.  It is actually the same colr, it is how the light enters the rooms that changes how you 'see' it.  That is why colors should always be chosen in the house when it receives the most natural light.  Lightbulbs can also change how the color 'reads', so by using halogen bulbs - which are closest to sunlight - you get less color distortion.

The paint samples are always a struggle.  Some paint manufacturers are catching on to this and are making larger cards.  Behr cards are larger in general - one of the reasons I like it. 

I suggest to DIYers that they get several cards, cut them out and tape them together on a sheet of white paper, then attach it to the wall.  Why the white paper?  It will prevent your current color (if it isn't white) from distorting the color you want to try.  This way you see the color in a white relief.  Leave it up for a few days and see how the light changes it during the day.  You may love it in the morning, but hate it in the afternoon.

Some manufacturers such as Benjamin Moore and Sherwin williams now make sample pots for you to actually paint on the wall. (primer first if you already have color - same effect as the white paper)  They run from $2-$4 each.

Halogen bulbs are now widely available for all fixtures. I suggest that you try the halogen bulbs before repainting.  Sometimes it is not the color, but the bulb.