NEW YORK — If you're looking to sell your home, do yourself a favor and pick up that paintbrush and say adieu to white walls and vibrant hues.
A new study from real estate marketplace Zillow shows that dark gray interiors are in vogue among prospective homebuyers, potentially helping sellers rake in slightly bigger bucks on closing day.
Homes with rooms painted in dark, dusky shades commanded higher bids than those with lighter interiors, the study found. A home with a charcoal gray kitchen, for example, can sell for $2,512 more than similar homes, while dark gray in the living room or bedroom can bring in offers $1,755 higher than pale neutrals. By comparison, a white kitchen can lower a home's sale price by more than $600, Zillow's research found.
Prospective buyers are embracing moody, dramatic tones due, in part, to the influence of home improvement TV shows and social media. But that's not the only reason they're gravitating toward shades of dark gray, Mehnaz Khan, a color psychology specialist and interior designer, said.
Home as refuge
"Gray is the color of retreat," Khan said in a statement. "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 researchers surveyed 4,700 recent and prospective homebuyers across the U.S. to assess their color preferences. Buyers were shown images of homes with interiors and doors painted in one of 10 or 11 colors. The colors were then rated based on buyers' perception of each respective home, how likely they were to tour the homes and how much they'd be willing to pay for them.
Charcoal gray scored the highest in the study, meaning that the color was linked to homes that received the highest bidding offers. But it wasn't the only color buyers were willing to shell out for, according to the report. Bathrooms painted in terra-cotta brown could boost a home's sale price by $1,624.
A relatively low-cost way to spruce up a space, painting is an extremely popular project among homeowners. Interior painting was the most popular home improvement project in 2021, with roughly 32% of households reporting they'd undertaken some form of painting project, according to an Angie's List report.
