Darker-Colored Home Interiors Fetching More

A new study from Zillow has found that recent and prospective home buyers would offer more money for a home with interiors painted dark gray, as buyers begin to wave goodbye to bland, and are bidding more on homes with darker and more dramatic walls.

The report found that charcoal-colored walls were associated with higher offer prices than white-colored walls in every room studied by Zillow, including the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom, as the usual classic white kitchen has fallen out of favor with today's prospective buyer, who reported they would pay $612 less for a home that has one. Homes featuring a deep graphite gray kitchen sold for an estimated $2,512 more than similar homes, while a midtone pewter gray kitchen commanded $2,553 on average more than expected. Dark gray living rooms and bedrooms outperformed pale neutral-colored rooms, with the potential to command offers of at least $1,755 more.

"Buyers have been exposed to dark gray spaces through home improvement TV shows and their social media feeds, but they're likely drawn to charcoal on a psychological level," said Mehnaz Khan, a color psychology specialist and interior designer based in Albany, New York. "Gray is the color of retreat. As we come out of the pandemic and return to our hectic lives, buyers want home to be a refuge. They want to withdraw and escape from the uncertainty of the outside world, and rooms enveloped in dark gray can create that feeling of security."

Zillow’s paint color analysis is based on a series of studies of more than 4,700 recent and prospective home buyers across the country. In each study, they were randomly assigned images of a home with interior spaces and front doors painted in one of 11 or 10 colors, respectively. Each color received a score based on buyers' perception of the home, likelihood of touring the home and the price they would be willing to pay for the home.

Zillow’s research found that midtone gray can hurt a home's sale price when used on the front door, as prospective buyers would offer an estimated $3,365 less for a home with a cement gray front door. Buyers prefer black front doors to those painted gray, and would offer $300 more for a home with a midtone, rosy, brown front door.

Earth tones are associated with higher offer prices when used in the bathroom, as bathrooms that were painted a trendy terra-cotta brown, a 2023 color of the year, could help a home sell for $1,624 more than similar homes.

While a home's ultimate sale price is determined by a myriad of factors, this research shows that it pays to be strategic when sprucing up a home for sale. Most sellers make two improvements to their home before listing it, and interior painting is the most common project they take on. By selecting the right paint colors, sellers can appeal to more buyers this spring and potentially boost their bottom line.

"Paint is a relatively affordable and easy change, yet it has an outsized impact on a buyer's perception of the home," said Amanda Pendleton, Zillow's Home Trends Expert. "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."