Boost Your Homes Value with Exterior and Interior Painting

How To Boost Your Homes Value On The Market

If you are staging your home to place it on the market, one of the least expensive changes that has the biggest impact is a new layer of paint on the exterior. Before buyers look at the inside, they need to see a home that promises something equally interesting on the interior as on the exterior. The first impression of the home should leave them wanting to see more, not make them want to skip your home for the next one on their list.

What To Consider

• Other Homes in the Neighborhood – Even if there are no zoning laws in your neighborhood that limit your choice of exterior color for your home, you should try to stay within the same color palette. You want the house to look like it belongs in the neighborhood, not stands out for all the wrong reasons. Canary Yellow and Pepto-Bismol Pink are like car colors; they are rarely the choice of potential buyers, and they lower the resale value.
• The House Style – Although there are always new techniques for accenting any style home, some styles look better in certain colors than others. For example, a colonial home is often painted white, but you can use additional colors to paint shutters, doors, and trim to make the home more distinct. Ranch-style homes usually look better with some color and may need to be stained instead of painted.
• The Home’s Natural Environment – If the home resides in a natural setting, earth tones are a good choice. This may apply to a country-style home in a wooded lot or a modern style home in a neighborhood with a lot of trees and shrubbery surrounding it. If the sky offers a highly visual backdrop, blue shades may be the best match.
• Other Elements of the House – Houses that are made partially of wood, but which have brick or stone trim, need to be painted in a color that enhances the natural color of the material. The color of the roof should also be considered.

The Best Approach

The best way to make your color decision about the exterior of your home is walk to the curb and take a good, hard look at the structure and its environment. Evaluate the elements listed above. Don’t try to make the decision from memory, as most of us look passively at our own homes and sometimes don’t “picture” what it will look like with a new shade of paint.

Once you have an idea, look for home exterior paint that is already coordinated with similar colors that you can use for the trim and accents. If there is a color you can’t find in any of the top brands, it probably isn’t a good choice for the house.

Interior Painting

Once you have chosen the perfect shades for the exterior, it is time to move inside and determine the best colors for your interior walls. Your main goal in painting the interior of the house is to create a neutral palette that is void of your personal taste. Buyers like to be able to imagine the decor according to their preferences without being distracted by yours. The challenge is to use neutral colors without making it too bland.

Benjamin Moore recommends shades like barley, stone house, or providence olive, especially in rooms like the living room and bedrooms where you want to create warmth without making the latter look trendy. For the kitchen and bathroom, stick with warm whites to make the bathroom appear larger, and warm beiges or pale yellows to create a brighter kitchen.

Make It a Professional Job

A good final result comes from a combination of choosing the right paint and having a thoroughly prepped surface. These factors are often the difference in a paint job that looks great immediately after the application and one that looks good for years beyond. Although you may be tempted to do it yourself to make painting your home less expensive, the professional interior painting contractors at Dixon Painting can save you money by getting the job done right the first time and completing the job faster so you can get your home listed sooner. We start by prepping the walls and repairing any damage that would result in an otherwise poor paint job. If your goal is to increase the selling price of your home, a good paint job is the most cost-efficient way to go about the job.