hacks

these paint colors may raise your home's value by up to $5k

Mint green colored living space/Photography: Jeroen Van Pelt

Can paint color change the value of your home?

Zillow, the online real estate marketplace, offers a resounding yes: The company recently tested 15 paint colors across different rooms of a house—bathroom, kitchen, living room, and primary bedroom—to see which hues would have the greatest impact on potential buyers' willingness to pay more.

One color choice in particular has the most bang for the buck—prospective home sellers, keep reading, and start sampling!

Bathroom

The most dramatic impact? Light blue bathrooms stand to earn sellers a significant percentage more on their sales, reported Zillow: "Survey participants who viewed a light blue bathroom claimed they’d be willing to pay more: a 1.6% increase in offer price or a nearly $5,000 increase in value on a $290,000 home, on average."

Other high-performing paint options for the bathroom include gray, dark gray, light yellow, and off-white, while colors including bold choices like bright yellow, bright pink, bright green, and red decreased interest in the property. "Buyers tend to veer away from vibrant colors in the bathroom, so it is best to go with a softer shade," reported Zillow.

Try it yourself

Kitchen

White or neutral kitchens also scored high, but that doesn't rule out color altogether. In fact, light yellow/off-white, dark gray, gray, dark red, and dark green are other highly ranked hues for the heart of the home. Just avoid bright green, pink, bright yellow, and bright red—at least according to this study!

Living Room

Gray and other light colors—think light green, white, dark gray, light yellow—also indicate a price increase when used in the living room. "Light green brought an average offer-price increase of several hundreds," summarized Zillow, "while white and dark gray rounded out the top three colors for inspiring surveyed buyers to tour a home."

Bedroom

For the bedroom, the study found that dark blue was the most "appreciated" among the color choices, with light blue, white, bright blue, and dark gray also ranking highly among those surveyed.

Experiment with different samples to find the hue that's right for you. And, hey, if you prefer to break all the rules and go for bright pink everything, we say go for it! (Check out our favorite pink hues or buy a pink sample set if you'd like to go that route.)

Start with samples

Ready to take some of those suggestions? Get started by sampling! Shop some of the hues mentioned in this story and see what they look like on your wall.