Best Paint Colors for Selling a House in 2022 (2024)

For all the years that you’ve been living in your home, the decor has been all about your personal taste and preferences. But everything changes when you decide to sell. Now, you don’t want to have a home that’s personalized. You need a home that’s neutral, one that your potential buyers can imagine living in.

Your Realtor will advise you on the different things you can do to make your house less personal and more sellable. Aside from decluttering, taking personal photos off the wall, and doing away with extra furniture, one of the things your Realtor may recommend is painting your walls.

Best Paint Colors for Selling a House in 2022 (1)

A fresh coat of paint will change the appearance of the entire house, making it look fresh, clean, and untouched. But, no matter how many nail holes you spackle, the one thing that potential homebuyers will notice is the paint color.

Does it make them feel welcome? Is it appealing? Or will they have to repaint before they move in? These are all the questions homebuyers ask themselves when they look at your house. You can overcome these objections before they even arise by choosing the right color.

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Feeling lost? Don’t be! Choose from our list of best paint colors for selling a house, and you will get it right every time.

Be Careful with White

White might seem like the best choice for several reasons. It’s light, neutral, and makes a room look bigger. And it’s one of the top design trends for 2022. However, white is a notoriously difficult color to get just right.

There are very few “pure” white paints. Almost every white will have some sort of undertone, either cool or warm. The cool undertones can make a room feel sterile and coldly unwelcoming. The warm undertones can feel dingy or even dirty.

Still, if you’re careful with the shade, white is a great option that will make your home look bigger, brighter, and more appealing to buyers.

Stick to Neutrals

Neutrals are your safest bet. Even if a potential buyer doesn’t love your exact tone of gray, they won’t feel like they have to run out and paint over it like they would, say, fuchsia. Unless you are selling your home as is, you want them to feel like they can move right in with zero to very minimal effort.

You also want potential buyers to imagine their furniture and home decor in your house. This is much easier for them to do when the backdrop is neutral. Sure, you might find a home buyer who loves orange as much as you do, but the best interior paint colors for selling a house are neutrals that will appeal to the general public.

How many paint colors should I use?

As a general rule, you want to stick to as few colors as possible, even if they are all neutrals. Using the same color in more than one area will give your home an overall cohesive feel. It also makes your home seem bigger, since there is an easy flow from one room to the next. And, using just one paint color will also help keep your costs down, since buying your paint in bulk is much less expensive than buying multiple gallons of different colors.

In an open space layout, such as a combination living/dining room or a kitchen that opens into a family room, you should use the same paint color for the entire area. For individual rooms that are not part of the main living area, for example, bathrooms or bedrooms, you can add some variety with different colors. Keep in mind, however, that even in these rooms the best interior paint colors for selling a house are neutrals.

Which color should I choose?

The best colors are neutrals, but which one? For 2021, the general consensus for best interior paint colors for selling a house are shades of greige. Greige is a combination of gray and beige, more sophisticated than an old-fashioned beige and at the same time more welcoming than a somber gray.

Traditional gray is also a good neutral, in a deeper hue such as pewter. To make it more interesting and less formal, use a gray with a blue undertone. You can easily pair this color with blue decor accents (throw pillows, artwork), which appeals equally to male and female buyers.

Beige is not as chic as the currently trendy gray/greige colors, but it is also a popular choice for neutrals. For homebuyers, it is a safe color, and one that they know that they can paint over quite easily, should they choose to do so.

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Painting Smaller Areas

Best Paint Colors for Selling a House in 2022 (2)

You can also paint smaller rooms in different colors, for variety and visual appeal. Neutrals are always a safe bet, but you can also have some fun with colors.

Bathrooms

Pale blue is a great option for making a smaller room, such as a bathroom or laundry room, feel lighter, friendlier, and more spacious. Avoid white — houses with white bathrooms on average sold for $4,035 less.

Kitchens

The heart of a house, you can have fun with paint or accent colors in the kitchen. A light, almost neutral green (think mint or soft sage) is a great way to enhance a kitchen. Or, play it safe with a white or gray neutral.

Choosing the Right Finish

After you’ve picked out the paint color, you will need to decide on the finish. Most paints are available in gloss, satin, or eggshell finishes. Occasionally a manufacturer will also throw in sheens such as semi-gloss or matte. Typically, the glossier the paint, the easier it is to wipe clean, so it’s best for areas with high traffic or which tend to get soiled more often.

  • Glossy Finish: best for busy parts of the house such as the kitchen and bathrooms
  • Satin Finish (very slight gloss): good for large, highly used areas such a living room
  • Eggshell Finish (almost matte): best used in bedrooms and other rooms that aren’t as busy

Don’t Forget the Trim

Painting the walls is a great start, but then you need to take it one step further. To really make your job stand out, you need to paint the trim. Trim includes anything that isn’t the actual walls: crown molding, baseboard, and door and window frames.

The best color for these is usually a bright white with a gloss or sheen. If you painted your walls white, choose a different shade of white (with a different undertone) so that the trim still stands out.

Choosing the best interior paint colors for selling a house can get you more offers and more money. If you’re not sure about which color to choose, a professional real estate agent can give invaluable advice. Find your Realtor through UpNest — our free service will connect you with 3-5 of the top real estate agents in your local market.

UpNest is a no-cost service for home sellers and buyers to find the best real estate agents locally. The UpNest platform allows you to compare multiple agents in your area so you can compare reviews, commission rates, previous sales, and more.

Our network agents have been carefully vetted and often offer competitive, lower than averagecommission rates to UpNest customers. There is no obligation to sign up with one of our network Realtors, but when you can potentially save thousands on commission – why wouldn’t you? If you’re ready to get started, just enter your zipcode below!

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What is the best color to paint when selling a house?

When you’re painting your house to sell, you’ll want to stick with neutral or earthy tones, though you can choose white, beiges, greys, or even off-white colors. Depending on the room, you can even choose neutral shades of blue or green (like in the kitchen). You’ll also want to avoid white in bathrooms.

What are best interior paint colors for resale?

According to experts, blue is generally the best color for resale. Though it depends on room and shade, painting in neutral shades of blue often adds value to rooms like the kitchen and bathroom. White is often perceived as boring and can lower the value of certain rooms.

Best Paint Colors for Selling a House in 2022 (2024)

FAQs

What color house has the highest resale value? ›

White – White is always a classic color that will never go out of style. White painted siding has the highest resale value, but it's also one of the most complex colors to maintain since it shows dirt and grime easily.

When selling a house should all the walls be the same color? ›

As a general rule, you want to stick to as few colors as possible, even if they are all neutrals. Using the same color in more than one area will give your home an overall cohesive feel. It also makes your home seem bigger, since there is an easy flow from one room to the next.

What color paint is trending for 2022? ›

Pantone's 2022 Color of the Year is making history with its best reveal yet: an entirely new hue created, for the first time ever, to serve as Color of the Year. They call it Very Peri (17-3938).

What color attracts more buyers? ›

Red is the color of power. It gets people's attention and it holds it, which is why it's the most popular color for marketing. The word SALE is always red, and you'll often find red a common tie color for professionals.

What colors attract home buyers? ›

"Generally, going with neutral colors like shades of white, beige, taupe, and grays lead to a faster sale," she shares. "Neutral colors are also more appealing to potential buyers because many want the creative freedom of a blank canvas to add their personal touches to when looking for a new place to call home.

What is the most popular living room color for 2022? ›

Evergreen Fog By Sherwin-Williams

Indeed, this warm green tone was crowned the Sherwin Williams 2022 paint color of the year. Unlike cooler mint greens that often feel too cold, Evergreen Fog's earthy tones are both inviting and modern.

What is the New Year color for 2022? ›

Pantone said the periwinkle blue with violet red undertones is a “symbol of the global zeitgeist of the moment and the transition we are going through." Pantone announced on Wednesday its new color of the year for 2022: Very Peri — the first hue the company has created for its annual color of the year.

Is Grey out of style 2022? ›

Is gray paint going out of style in 2022? Gray paint is trending downward in high end design, but will continue to reign in new builds and contractor's bids. If you want to be on the leading edge of refreshing your home, skip gray paint altogether.

What colors are best for home staging? ›

Stick to Light, Airy Neutrals

The best neutral paint colors for staging a home are light grays, beiges, and whites. Not only do these light neutrals stand the test of time, but they reflect light well and can make rooms feel larger.

What is the new neutral wall color 2022? ›

Sherwin-Williams selected the subtly soothing Evergreen Fog SW 9130 as its color of the year 2022.

What is the most popular Sherwin-Williams color for 2022? ›

Introducing Evergreen Fog SW 9130, the 2022 Sherwin-Williams Color of the Year.

What is the least popular color 2022? ›

Least popular colors in 2022

Millennial pink, tangerine, light yellow, violet, and bright red were all found to be the least popular colors for 2022. All of these hues received less than 5% of designer votes – while red earned just 1%.

What color makes people pay attention? ›

Bright, bold and vibrant colors work best. However, any color that contrasts with your background will serve you well. Shades of yellow, orange, red, green, purple and blue are all excellent color choices to grab a user's attention. In some cases, black and white is the way to go.

What color makes people trust you? ›

Blue is one of the most popular colours in web design – and for good reason. You see blue on a lot of websites because, to put it simply, it is the colour of trust. Blue is the colour of calm and serenity, and as such inspires security and a feeling of safety.

What color catches the eye first? ›

Those warm colors you think about (red, orange, yellow, and some violets) are noticeable and convey security. They seem to move toward the eye, and they bring a sense of comfort and warmth. Cooler colors (blue, green, some violets, and yellowish-green colors) remind us of nature.

What makes a house more appealing to buyers? ›

Address Minor Issues

If possible, make minor repairs such as replacing chipped tile, broken door handles and torn window screens before putting your home on the market. The fewer problems your home has, the more attractive it will be to buyers. And this will help you to sell your home faster.

What color door increases home value? ›

Research from Zillow® finds that homes with slate blue or black front doors appeal to more recent and prospective buyers and could sell for a higher price. Conversely, pale pink and cement gray front doors could negatively impact a home's value.

What Colour is replacing GREY? ›

What will replace it, they predicted – and also Benjamin Moore's colour of the year for 2022 – is a light, silvery green. Or, as they called it: greeneige.

What are the new home decor colors for 2022? ›

While we'll see soft blues and iridescent blues, daring hues will be used as accents throughout the home, with Pantone's 2022 Color Of The Year being Very Peri, an intense version of the classic periwinkle blue.

Is gray or beige in for 2022? ›

It's not just a rumor, it's true. Beige is back. This warm neutral, which ranges from sandy cream tones, to bone colors, to nearly tan shades is replacing cooler gray as the versatile neutral of the moment.

What's the new GREY 2022? ›

What is the new neutral wall color 2022? Sherwin-Williams selected the subtly soothing Evergreen Fog SW 9130 as its color of the year 2022.

What is the best color to paint walls when selling a house? ›

Eighty-one percent of interior design experts recently surveyed say whites and creams are the best colors to use when selling a house in 2022, according to the Paint & Color Trends 2022 Report conducted by Fixr, a home improvement resource.

What color hides the most imperfections? ›

We all know that lighter colors emphasize imperfections while darker colors hide them. This also has to do with light and reflection. Lighter colors reflect more light while darker shades absorb it.

What are the 2 most important rooms in a house? ›

The kitchen and the master bathroom. Buyers tend to show more interest in these rooms than any other in a home.

What makes a home sell quick? ›

One of the most effective ways to sell your home fast is to price it competitively. If you price it too high, you detract prospective buyers out price out potential bidders. In addition, it make take longer to settle the negotiation process if prospective buyers want your price to come down.

What brings most value to a house? ›

The top five projects that add the most dollar value to a sale in 2022 are refinishing hardwood floors, installing new wood floors, upgrading insulation, converting a basem*nt to a living area and renovating closets, according to a joint report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the National Association ...

What color is best for real estate? ›

The leading logo color for real estate agents is blue. Blue is in the cool and calming spectrum. Blue is associated with dependability, honesty, trustworthiness, security, and strength.

What colors should not be in charts? ›

It is confusing and distracting. Also, don't use red and green or orange and green to make comparisons on the same chart. About 10% of men are color blind with red/green being the most common form of color blindness. Orange is close to red, making these colors completely indiscernible.

What are lucky house colors? ›

Black, Blue, and Gray

“Colours represent different elements and life aspects in feng shui. The water element represents wealth and associated with the colours black, blue, and gray. Use these colours to enhance wealth potential, improve business profits, and increase income through work.

What exterior Colour house sells best? ›

“And although it's 'just paint,' a purchaser may view it as one more cost on top of what is, for many people, the most expensive purchase of their life.” Neutral colors like greige, white, and gray are appealing to buyers because they are more stable to exterior exposure and aren't likely to go out of style.

What color houses sell better? ›

Eighty-one percent of interior design experts recently surveyed say whites and creams are the best colors to use when selling a house in 2022, according to the Paint & Color Trends 2022 Report conducted by Fixr, a home improvement resource.

What style of home has the highest resale value? ›

Colonial. Colonial-style homes have the highest resale factor when all other elements are equal. These two-story homes that often have a boxlike appearance are popular because of the amount of functional living space that they often have.

What colors increase the value of your home? ›

"Blues, grays, greens, and whites are timeless, calming colors that allow potential buyers to see a home as a fresh, clean slate. They can then picture themselves, and their personal furnishings, filling the space to make memories in years to come."

Is gray still in style for 2022? ›

Is gray paint going out of style in 2022? Gray paint is trending downward in high end design, but will continue to reign in new builds and contractor's bids.

What house colors last longest? ›

Beiges, browns, tans, and other earth-tone colors are more stable on exterior exposure. The inorganic pigments used in these colors are less likely to break down than organic colors such as reds, blues, greens, and yellows.

What brings down house value? ›

Changes in the real estate market can lower the value of your home. Natural disasters and climate change can lower your property value because the property is a greater risk to purchase. Foreclosures in your neighborhood can also drive down property value.

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