Neutralize, neutralize, neutralize.
You've heard that advice a million times I am sure.
Honestly, it is generic advice that anyone can give you and is often misguided, especially when it comes to paint colors.
If you are starting from scratch with a flip or new construction then you are most likely going to keep the paint colors neutral. But, if you have a house that you have been living in and you have some wild wall colors, you may not always need to paint to sell your house.
I want to share the tale of a house that we staged in the spring that had some wall colors with…let's say…pep. Despite the zany colors, we worked with them–and I'll walk you through how we did it–and this house sold to the first people that came through.
Making the Wall Color Work
Check out this yellow! This color literally scared me when I first saw it, it was so bright. It was slightly embarrassing to jump and gasp when the homeowner turned the light on in this bathroom! But when my calmer self prevailed, I decided that bringing in the neutral shower curtain and towels to relate to the floor tile and adding a little pop of turquoise would really help offset the, shall we say, vibrancy of this color and it really did:
Below is the master bedroom. Here we were working with periwinkle blue walls, beige trim and pink beige carpet. This is not a typical combination for sure and we had to try and make this room feel cohesive when none if it really worked together. To make this color scheme work, we used the art as our guide. When you aren't sure how to make a color work, I usually like to start with a piece of art or a fabric that has several colors in it so that you can begin to pull those colors into the space.
While this image may not show it all that well, it incorporated the periwinkle of the walls, the green-blue of the bedding and the beige of the trim. There are also gray branches in the art to tie in with the purple-gray drapes. The pop of coral on the pillows picked up the little dots in the flowers of the art.
Next up…the kitchen! Once again we had a challenging palette to work with. We had a green-yellow wall with a blue-green wall. The counters are reddish-orange and the cabinetry is orange. Wow! Again, art was our saving element. It combined all of these colors. We brought the yellow over to the island using stools and added blue-green baskets to the bookcase to the left. As an aside, we normally would have added more to a bookcase, but as you can see only a couple of the shelves line up and they were very short. We felt that adding accessories would have become visual clutter in photos so left them bare.
Last but not least, we have the basement. This picture really doesn't do the color justice–it was uber bright! Here using navy and accent fabrics on the chair and sofa that relate to the wall color really helped tone it down and make it work.
Here is one other example of a bright color that really added to the visual interest in a house that we staged last fall. How gorgeous is this ceiling?!
I hope that these home staging tips will give you the inspiration you need to make any wall color work for you!
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