Yes. Greige. It’s a thing. A cross between gray and beige. It’s an indicator that the range of taupe and beige colors we used to see in the last decade have been fazed out in favor of the new, hot color or “lipstick” for your home. Gray.
I can see you scratching your head right now. Gray lipstick? Sure. It seems absolutely ridiculous, but interior and exterior home colors are a big deal when it comes to the real estate market.
Hey, you know what? If you want that purple wall in your bathroom, that is all up to you. Until you sell your house. That’s when it becomes an issue because buyers have a difficult time thinking about anything other than your design choices. In my last blog post, I talked about the benefits of staging a house for sale. What many people don’t realize is that your paint choices are all part of the staging. A BIG part.
What The Cool Kids Are Doing
I know what you’re going to say.
“Kendra, Los Alamos is a seller’s market. I could paint the interior of my house periwinkle and people would still buy it!”
You’re not wrong, of course. What you’re missing is the nuance of the seller’s market. The tweaks and extra effort that someone selling their home can make in order to turn their house around and get it sold in a week instead of six months. Not just sold, but sold for a top dollar price that will make it possible to maximize the investment made when the home was purchased.
The other part of selling a home in Los Alamos is that many of you bought your homes during a previous boom when the prices were sky high. Our property values fluctuate based upon things like Laboratory contracts in ways that are absolutely unlike anywhere else. If you are one of those homeowners and you’re finding the need to move either because you’re upsizing, downsizing or you’re moving to a new place to start the next chapter in your life, you’ll need to squeeze every penny out of your house to save your initial investment and hopefully come out ahead.
This means hiring a professional painter or rolling up your sleeves and doing a DIY job on your home’s “lipstick”. This can be the difference between meeting your goals or consistently getting offers that are below what you’re comfortable with.
Space Still Sells
A beautiful light gray is cool and peaceful. It can make a smaller room look spacious and it highlights the natural light from your windows. Considering a good number of the homes in our community have rather odd dimensions and unique floor plans that have undergone numerous renovations over the years, gray can be the answer to making your space look cool, modern, and inviting.
Taupe is another neutral color. And before you start reminding me that I just said brown was out, keep in mind that taupe doesn’t have to lean toward brown. There are many modern shades of taupe that maintain the warmth of a brown tone while bringing in grays, blues, or even lavender for a sophisticated result that complements our Southwestern style quite nicely.
White. Not institutional white mind you, but something that has a nice undertone that sticks with the cool, restful, and spacious theme you want to set in your home. Absolutely avoid yellows in your white. There was a yellowish off white color in the nineties called Navajo White that wound up in a huge number of homes here in Los Alamos. Using an off white with yellow undertones will immediately make your home look dated. So, it might be white. But you’re still going for blue or gray tint in order to keep things modern.
We All Like Cool Inviting Spaces
Even if you’re not selling your home and you’re looking around wondering why you feel so cramped and tense in your living space, consider lightening your color scheme with grays and blue tinted whites. You might be surprised how a bit of fresh lipstick can help you feel differently about the home you have. Stick around and keep checking my blog for new ideas to make your home not only a place you love to live in, but a solid investment for the future.
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