When it comes to home staging, your choice of colors can make or break the property’s appeal to buyers. So much so that a wrong paint color can ultimately cost you a sale! This is why it’s important to understand the psychology behind the best colors for staging a home and how you should use it wisely.
In this post, we prepared a brief guide to help you pick the best staging colors together with more tips to make it work for your home. Keep reading to see which color should go on your current interior!
The psychology behind home staging colors
First impressions matter during showings and open houses. And one thing that will help you stand out among other listings is your choice of colors. It’s because buyers are drawn to specific colors, either consciously or subconsciously.
For this, we talked with our interior designers and stagers to explain how colors play a huge role in setting the right mood and visuals when selling your home. Here’s their quick rundown of common colors and what it means for your home:
Red
Red is widely known as the color of love and passion. But as much as it invokes positive feelings, you should use it sparingly when staging a house. Too much red in the room will start to look and feel uncomfortable. With that said, red isn’t one of the home staging paint colors to use if you want to spruce up a wall or large area.
Green
Green can be a good accent color around the house, but not as a wall paint. Instead, you can incorporate shades of green by adding a selection of plants and succulents into your interior design. You can also add touches of green to your accessories and decorations around the house.
Blue
Blue is a soothing color and can be a good accent color for furniture as long as you stay within the darker shades. We’ve used soft touches of blue on some of the homes we’ve staged, especially in the bathroom area.
Purple
Purple is a luxurious color that you’ll often see on upscale homes around Los Angeles. It comes in various shades, which we usually use for accessories like pillows, artwork, rugs, table pieces, and more. But like any bright colors, we always use purple in moderation and just consider it as an accent color.
Yellow
Yellow is a bright and bold color, which can be tricky to fit in a home staging color palette. Like purple, we reserve yellow for accessories and decorations to add a pop of color. For example, we can use yellow pillows against a white wall or yellow items against a black background. We’re always careful with this color, as too much yellow can overstimulate potential buyers.
Neutrals
If you’re looking for the best paint color for staging a home, you’ll never go wrong with neutral paint colors. The likes of beige, gray, white, and cream are just some of the foolproof options if you want to paint large walls. Overall, neutral shades appeal to a wider range of buyers since it gives a clean canvas for them to imagine their own belongings in your property.
There are a wide range of colors that you can mix and match for your home’s palette. But if you’re unsure what shades suit your property best, you can reach out to our home staging experts for a professional color consultation.
Choosing the best colors for staging a home
To give you an idea of how to use staging paint colors around your house, our stagers created this brief guide. Below, we provide color suggestions for every room in your home. Check this out:
Living room
For the living room, you’d want to imbibe a relaxing and inviting atmosphere. Neutral tones like beige, gray, and off-whites work well here and can be paired with green or blue accents. This color combination helps buyers feel comfortable, which is exactly what a living room must feel.
At the same time, you should avoid too many dark colors in the living room as this will make the space feel smaller. Also, you can use touches of yellow or orange, but keep it small. Lastly, don’t use very bright red tones in this living space, as it could create a distraction during showings.
Bedroom
The bedroom is somewhat the extension of the living room. In that case, your color palette should be dominated by neutrals. But the best part here is you can experiment with muted purples, greens, and soft blues to create a serene atmosphere.
Overall, soft blues and earth greens contribute to creating a peaceful sleep environment. Meanwhile, muted purples add a touch of elegance, but you should use it sparingly as some buyers may think of it as ‘too feminine’.
Lastly, you should avoid bright colors like hot pink, yellow, orange, or any neon shades. These bright colors are too stimulating and may disrupt a person’s sleep.
Kitchen
Staging a kitchen is where bold colors shine the brightest. Here, you can experiment with soft yellows, warm neutrals, bright whites, lime, and even shades of orange. Also, you can add touches of red here as it’s considered the ‘appetite color’.
For this, you can get bright-colored dining ware to create a lively atmosphere. This extends to your dining area, but make sure you add some earth tones like terracotta in the mix.
If you’re not quite confident about your choice of bright colors, you can call us for professional home staging in Los Angeles. Our interior designers will help you create a color palette that suits your kitchen.
Bathroom
When it comes to the bathroom, we recommend a combination of whites, soft blues, and touches of grays.
However, you should never use earth and dull colors in the bathroom as this will create a ‘dirty’ feel. Also, we don’t recommend very bright colors like red and yellow as this could feel overstimulating in what should be a relaxing place.
Overall, you should aim for colors that promote relaxation and cleanliness when staging a bathroom. Also, make sure that the bathroom’s color palette matches with the rest of your house.
Home office
If you’re also staging a home office, you should always opt for soft neutrals. These mild colors will promote concentration and prevent distraction.
Aside from whites, beiges, and grays, you can also throw in some greens by adding potted plants to your staging setup. This will help make the room feel calm and ‘breathable’, which can help promote relaxation on a stressful workday.
At the same time, you should refrain from using very bright or very dark hues. These opposite ends of the color spectrum can be distracting and overwhelming for potential buyers.
Mistakes to avoid when choosing staging colors
From choosing the best paint colors for home staging to accent walls, here are some of the mistakes you should avoid:
- Ignoring your target market. Knowing who your target buyers are will help you select the best colors to use when staging your home. For example, younger buyers may prefer brighter hues, while older ones may prefer muted colors.
- Using a clashing color scheme. Your home’s entire color palette should be cohesive and in line with color theory. If you’re having a hard time coming up with a color palette, you can take advantage of our house staging solutions to ensure that your home will have maximum visual appeal.
- Forgetting about lighting. When choosing paint colors for staging your home, make sure that you factor in the lighting conditions. You should test the colors on artificial and natural light to see how it will look like. For this, we carry paint swatches and test them against walls on different times of the day.
- Overlooking the mood of each room. Each room in your house should have a distinct feeling to connect with prospective buyers. For example, your living room should be calm and relaxing, your bedroom should be cozy, and the dining area should be vibrant. From there, you can pick what colors suit these moods best.
- Not consulting a professional. There’s nothing wrong with DIY color scheming. But if you’re planning to spruce up your entire home’s colors, you may want to consult with a professional home stager to see if your choice of colors fits the mood for each room.
Let’s help choose the best staging colors for your home!
Whether you’re staging a small room or an entire house, your choice of colors can make the biggest difference in terms of market appeal. You can partner with HolmeStage to ensure that every room of your house will have a winning color palette!
With our complete home staging services, you’ll enjoy a professional color consultation. We’ll give you an onsite walk-through and recommendations for the best colors to use. On top of that, we can also handle painting, wallpaper installation, furniture selection, and more, so you don’t have to worry about anything.
If you want to know more about color psychology in home staging, feel free to contact us today! Our interior designers are here to provide you with a professional consultation!
