Entire House Renovation to Sell - Which Colour/Paint

Jaynne

I'm interested in why the people are saying they wouldn't buy a magnolia house? Personally I've never looked so much at the colours that houses we've been looking at rather the standard of the work and permanent fixings and maintenance.

Painting a room is easy, you can do any in a day if you put your mind to it so I look at whether the walls etc are in good condition.

In the houses we've bought we've only ever left two rooms unpainted - one was a cream (possibly magnolia) but it was an attic conversion and really needed the light colour as you were effectively painting the walls and ceiling the same. The other was oddly in blue, not a colour I would normally have chosen but it really suited the room.

If I was decorating just for renting (at the lowish end) or selling (at any end of the market) it would be magnolia or off white every time. You just can't please everyone as this thread shows and at least if the buyers hate magnolia its much easier to paint over.

If you think that magnolia throughout is too much then go for different shades of off white. Our house currently is unashamedly pale but of differing shades. The bedrooms upstairs are are a slightly brighter golden shade. The hall is an earthy tone and in a couple of places we've actually just gone for bright white. All the colour is in accessories, plants, rugs and pictures on the walls. We love it but I know that its not what everyone likes but see above about not being able to please everyone.

katejo

The owners of a newly painted magnolia house would expect a slightly better price because the house is in a good decorative state. As a buyer I couldn't justify repainting straight away as it is not needed but I would find magnolia throughout dull as ditchwater. The house would have little individuality. I have just had my kitchen redone. Three of the walls are in a cream colour to keep it light but I have glossy terracotta/gold/pale green tiles and an olive green feature wall.
You could at least choose a different tint for each room to give some individuality. I'd rather choose my own colours and not pay for the seller's bland choice of paint.
I am not suggesting that a seller should go for bright orange or dark green (or a kitchen all in red and black gloss as I saw recently!)

keystone

Not only does papering it make it look as if there is something to hide so does a complete redecorate throughout just before putting it on the market.

Knock £5k off the price and sell as is.

Cheers

Leif

As Keystone, indicates, this really does raise the question of whether or not to paint. When my mum died, 8 years ago, I was responsible for selling her house. I chatted with the estate agent, and he thought there was no real point in having it repainted. So I left it. The house was in decent repair, not newly done, not tatty, so someone could move in as is, although when the auction house took the larger items of furniture from the sitting room, I discovered that mum had painted the walls with the furniture in place, and the areas behind were a different colour. Ooops. It did sell for a good price, although it took at least 6 months to get the offer we wanted, as we held out for a good price, though nothing silly.

Some people do like a house that needs modernising, as mine did, but that means a significant price drop, and I think the OP is not in that position.

keystone wrote: »

Not only does papering it make it look as if there is something to hide so does a complete redecorate throughout just before putting it on the market.

Surely some people do like a nice house. I saw several houses bought cheap, and refurbished sell at high prices. I also saw the same, but refurbished with a cheap carpet and kitchen, not sell at high prices.

keystone wrote: »

Knock £5k off the price and sell as is.

Cheers

Knock £5K off the price, eh? What's going on upstairs in Keystone-land then? The cost to paint my house, covering paints and tools but own labour, was the best part of £1,000.

Edwardia

Both houses we rented privately before buying our own house were painted in matt magnolia or cream with darker beige carpets.

The plus point as a tenant was that there was nothing which clashed with our furniture. Also, if you're buying a house, you know you can change it but as a tenant, usually you can't.

I wouldn't line walls because I'd wonder as prospective tenant whether they were damp. Our house is old and we've used Farrow and Ball Estate Emulsion with great results on less than perfect walls as well as skimmed ones. There's a great range of neutral colours which aren't magnolia.

If you need breatheable AND cheap AND neutral I recommend Wickes Trade Paint for New Plaster which is a breatheable vinyl for new plaster and comes in Brilliant White and Magnolia and in sizes up to 10 litres. English Heritage told me this would work and it has.

We use it as undercoat on all our walls to get a more even top coat with the Farrow and Ball. Estate Emulsion has way less vinyl than normal modern formula emulsions.

We've used Johnstones obliterating matt and it's nowhere as good as F&B. None of the painters I've ever come across use Leyland.

plumb1_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd not want to buy a renovated house (knowing I was paying for that...) only to see that the walls were papered.... as it'd all have to come off. Why not just paint the walls?

Papering looks like you've something to hide.

Papering over walls then painting them aways smells of the seller hiding bad plaster work . Bodge it and scarper job imo.

erichamster

What's the target market for the house?

If it's middle aged/retired people do magnolia, it looks warm and old people are always cold. If it's first time buyers/families/older trendy couples/anyone the hell else then paint it all white, they'll rave about the light and space and clean lines etc.

Magnolia's very old fashioned, a lot of current home magazines show all white painted houses accesorised with various colours/styles.

And unless you're trying to cover up a body entombed in the walls or other such horrors, for the love of god don't paper! Literally no one will thank you for it, it'll make buyers suspicious and it's just bad karma

ed110220

When we bought our house it was all papered in 30+ year old embossed floral wallpaper (mostly at least two different types per room). At least from that we could be certain there was no damp!

Leif

ed110220 wrote: »

When we bought our house it was all papered in 30+ year old embossed floral wallpaper (mostly at least two different types per room). At least from that we could be certain there was no damp!

Not unlike mine. It came off one wall at a time, in huge sheets. And beneath, the walls were sh.... not good, as the earlier posts suggest.

SGE1

I don't understand the magnolia obsession. If you want something that won't offend anyone and that makes a room look as light as possible, then surely WHITE is the answer??

Someone earlier asked why magnolia would put people off. It's not the colour itself that would put me off (though it's true I don't like it - but not because I find it 'dull', just because I don't think it's a very nice colour), it's because I associate it with a recent renovation that's done on the cheap, and for maximum profit. I would assume that anywhere painted magnolia would have cheap carpets/laminate flooring, cheap fixtures and fittings, cheap everything. I wouldn't want to pay over the odds for a house that looked like it had been done up like this on the cheap, simply ahead of a sale.