2011 Neutral Paint Color Trends to Sell Your Home

Neutral colors sell houses. That does mean you should settle for your early 1990s paint job because it was once a shade of white. Real estate professionals agree that painting a home's interior is a worthwhile investment for home sellers. So you can enjoy the look of fresh paint and enjoy a healthy return on your investment. Not painting your interior walls a current neutral paint color will cost you more when that offer does come through.

Fast Facts: The Numbers

According to HomeGain 96 percent of real estate professionals recommend that home sellers should paint their interior walls. Painting with neutral paint colors can also help home sellers meet the recommendation 97 percent of real estate professionals recommend, and that is to brighten the home. You may be in love with your blueberry walls or Caribbean blue bathroom, but your potential buyer may not be. That buyer will figure out how much it will cost them to repaint the bathroom. They may even inflate that price in their minds when confronted with a bold or dark color.

2011 Neutral Paint Color Trends to Sell Your Home

When choosing neutral paint colors don't spend hours or days agonizing about which hues you think home owners would like to live with for the next five years. The goal is to brighten, lighten and create a neutral palette, which will help potential buyers envision their own decor and color choices in each room.

- When choosing neutral paint colors don't spend hours or days agonizing about which hues you think home owners would like to live with for the next five years. The goal is to brighten, lighten and create a neutral palette, which will help potential buyers envision their own decor and color choices in each room.

- Always view a swatch of the color in person. Whites and light neutrals are hard to distinguish on a computer screen.

- Try not to clash with existing carpet or floor colors. Bring photos to the paint store to help you choose the right hues.

- Don't forget the ceilings. If you repaint walls a light neutral color and skip the ceiling, it will show. Bright white works best on ceilings.

- Stay away from "hospital" white on walls which can make your home look not clean, but cold and uninviting.

Modern Neutrals to Sell Your Home

From Sherwin-Williams consider a warm neutral, Classic Light Buff SW0050.
Yolo Colorhouse offers Air .02 or Nourish .02, both modern neutrals to help sell your home.
From Behr paints, Fretwire T11-7 or Lucky Potato T11-20 from their 2011 paint collections.