These Moody Paint Colors Could Increase Your Home’s Value by as Much as $2,500

If you plan to sell your house this year, it’s time to go dark. For the last decade or so, real estate experts have advised homeowners to paint their walls in a variation of white to appeal to the broadest range of buyers, but a new paint color analysis from Zillow has found that gray is what people are looking for in 2023. And not just any gray—shoppers are looking for dark, moody walls that add a feeling of coziness and comfort. Buyers are willing to pay more for gray, too: Offers for houses with gray walls in the living room or bedroom(s) averaged $1,755 more than other colors, according to Zillow’s analysis.

Gray’s appeal doesn’t end at living room or bedroom walls. In the kitchen, where white has long been far and away the most popular color for cabinets and walls, gray has become the new hot hue. (In fact, a white kitchen could even hurt a home’s sale price by more than $600. Properties with a charcoal gray kitchen can sell for an estimated $2,512 more than similar homes, and pewter gray kitchens command $2,553 more. House with kitchens in other colors are getting bids of $612 less than those in gray.

“Gray is the color of retreat,” Mehnaz Khan, a color psychology specialist and interior designer in Albany, New York, said in a statement included in Zillow’s analysis. “As we come out of the pandemic and return to our hectic lives, buyers want home to be a refuge.”

The Best Front Door Colors to Boost Home Value in 2023

Most homeowners will do a project or two when they decide to put their home on the market, and painting the interior is at the top of the list. Choosing the right color for interior walls can help a home sell quickly. But if you’re painting your front door, don’t pick gray. Zillow’s report found that a mid-tone gray front door, such as a cement-toned door, can reduce the offer on a home by $3,365.

So what colors should you put on your front door in 2023? Zillow’s report says that buyers prefer black front doors to gray ones, and would even offer $300 more for a house with a mid-tone, rosy brown front door.

Paint Bathrooms On-Trend Shades of Brown to Maximize Sale Price

When it comes to bathrooms, ditch the gray there as well. Bathrooms painted in earth tones, including trendy terracotta brown or other key shades of brown, could help a home sell for $1,624 more than similar homes.

“Paint is a relatively affordable and easy change, yet it has an outsize impact on a buyer’s perception of the home,” said Amanda Pendleton, Zillow’s home trends expert, in a press release. “People don’t buy homes every day, so they’re trying to quickly process a lot of complex information in an area where they don’t have a lot of experience. That uncertainty is likely why buyers rely on color as a powerful visual signal that a home is modern and up-to-date or tired and needs maintenance. That first impression contributes to their overall feelings about a home and, ultimately, how much they’re willing to pay for it.”

The takeaway? According to Zillow’s study, to sell your house, you may have to step out of what may be your comfort zone of neutral walls to make buyers feel at home. The numbers are there in black and white—there’s no gray area.