Why Dark Paint Colors May Fetch You A Higher Selling Price After All

Pinpointing what may be most attractive to buyers when selling your home can be a challenge. Trends filter in and out, and what drew the most money last year may be a deterrent five years later. Paint color can often be a way to freshen up a space for possible buyers and is a low-labor, budget-friendly way to get your home looking its best. While the past decade has favored predominantly white spaces, particularly for kitchens, family rooms, and living rooms, recent shifts may be trending surprisingly toward deeper, darker, moody shades.

Real estate experts at Zillow report that one particular shade, dark gray or charcoal, can increase the overall purchase price of a home by up to $2,500, particularly in kitchen spaces. While white was often the most popular shade for adding value to the heart of the home, new stats are showing that an all-white kitchen can actually hurt your final price by hundreds of dollars. Why this new shift? With general trends moving away from lighter neutrals like white, cream, and beige and toward more colorful and dramatic shades in all rooms of the house, buyers are gravitating toward these darker colors for walls and cabinetry in droves.

While still technically a neutral shade with timeless appeal, gray walls can often be a draw for their versatility. They offer a great backdrop for any number of design styles, including mid-century modern, neutral-driven boho, cottagecore and modern farmhouse. Gray also has many variations, from more earthy gray with brown tones to more blue-tinged and slate-colored grays of varying depths. Gray also goes well with all manner of other neutrals and colors alike, from mustard yellow and deep oranges to teals and deep forest greens.

The term "millennial gray"  has also been circling in design circles, with the millennial generation taking a particular interest in this classic and staid shade. Gray is hot in all corners of the design internet. According to Mehnaz Khan, a color psychology specialist, and interior designer, "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" (via Zillow).

Another popular set of colors making waves in design circles and adding value and style to homes this season are varieties of rich, deep blue. These shades include midnight blues, navy, jewel-toned purple blues, and darker slate gray-blues. With navy and similar shades considered another neutral in fashion circles, it's not surprising that homeowners are drawn to it. This much-desired color works similarly to gray in being amenable to not only pairing well with other colors but also being a fitting background for everything from nautical or traditional aesthetics to deep and dramatic Art Deco or Victorian-inspired glamor.

According to designer Bethany Adams in House Beautiful, the trends shape how potential buyers see their future possible living spaces. "The moody work of designers like Jake Arnold, Amber Interiors, and Heidi Caillier has been dominating Pinterest in recent years, so it's no wonder that homeowners are emulating the cozy styles, and searching them out when they go to purchase a new home ...Whether dark gray, green, blue or another deep color with neutral undertones, these spaces are incredibly evocative and easy to imagine oneself in."