We are selling our home, should we remove wall borders and repaint deep green room?

Question

We repainted our entire home 6 years ago before we moved in. We painted one room a deep dark green color called forest green. It is pretty harsh.... How should we go about repainting it? Maybe prime it first, then repaint with a neutral color? Also, we have baby borders with matching curtains up in two rooms. Should be take all the wall and border stuff down and put up regular curtains? Would it make it harder to sell if we left them up? Thanks in advance for the advice :o)

Answer 1

From everything I've seen and from selling my own place, yes repaint the forest green, it's considered a personal color (something few would chose for themselves) - I'd say a soft pale yellow or sand color.

The border and drapes should also go. You can by clips and make your own drapes, a clean thin ironed sheet can work, just make sure lots of light enters.

Answer 2

Borders are very last-century. Take them down. And repaint the wall if you think it would turn some people off. And swap out the curtains with some inexpensive, plain curtains. Wal-Mart, Target, and K-Mart (Martha Stewart) have some nice, inexpensive curtains. (My Martha Stewart curtains in the guest room were $1 each from the discount bin.)

As for priming the wall - do it!! Recently, I painted three rooms. I bought paint for one room from HD, the second from L, and the third from SW. The people at HD insisted that I prime first. Even though I thought they were just trying to sell me more prodict, I did what they told me to do. The wall was beautiful after one coat after the primer. The people at SW told me their paint didn't require primer. After three coats, the wall still looks like crap. Both walls had the same base on them to begin with. Primer rules! I'll never paint without it again.

Answer 3

Yes, take the borders down and go with more neutral colors, and plain curtains. Strong, "personal" colors make it harder to sell, and dark colors make rooms look smaller. Notice how on the decorating shows they always say "light & airy", because that's what most people are looking for.

Neutrals make it less "you", and easier for the buyers to see themselves in. Another thing that helps is removing as many or your personal belongings as personal, to make the house seem larger, and make it easier for the buyers to envision as their home. Try to store extra furnishings and momentos, and take about 1/2 the stuff out of each closet, to make them seem larger and the rooms seem more inviting.

Also, if you're working with a realtor, ask if they can give you some tips on "staging", or look it up online yourself, for ideas to make it the most presentable. Good luck! :)

Answer 4

Neutral colors sell houses, unless the paint and decor is impeccably done. Dark green may be too much for some people to look past. Ask your friend that has every issue of BH&G, watches all the DIY and HGTV shows, and has a meticulously decorated house if this color works or not.

You may want to leave it as is, but if you are getting comments about the colors, it isn't working. If it doesn't work, paint is inexpensive.

Answer 5

Yes, as said above, the best selling colors are neutral. White is best, in my opinion.

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Answer 6

Yes take the borders down. That's really tacky.

Answer 7

Keep things neutral.
Buyers always over estimate the cost of redecorating.
As it is your "buyers" will be more limited.