Reality Check: Listing Photos Westchester Buyers Are Seeing 7.5.11

It would appear the pendulum has swung all the way over for some Westchester sellers regarding the need for walls to have color. YES< all the way over.

Using 2 or more different colors on the walls in a space is a highly personal decision. It could work to add value in a Staging situation…here is a job from a few years ago…$$$ condo in a big building with lots of competition. The owners never painted, it was one big vanilla room.

These photos taken from the LR, looking towards the entry(where painter started cutting in) and the kitchen, on the right side of the room.

Two gender-friendly, complimentary colors added value by defining separate areas-BM # HC 95 Sag Harbor Gray in entry and common space,  HC# 113 Louisberg Green in kitchen; they also made the testosterone-infused black leather upholstery seem more manageable.

Color, when used well, guides, directs and influences us. Decisions on which wall and what colors should address a larger issue-like echoing a floor plan, or bringing balance to an unbalanced or over-furnished space.  Chosen badly, the result is…well, these rooms.

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Doors and surrounding trim make up about 20 square feet of a wall, so that’s significant. These sellers are loosing dollars because vibrant yellow doors against sky blue walls chop up and visually reduce a space substantially.

 It’s very hard to see this room as anything other than a nursery, which means SMALL and cute to most people.

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How many colors do you count here?  Gotta wonder, what was the intent?  It’s very disruptive, like being in a kindergarten class with all the kids screaming LOOK AT ME!!

As we spoke of last week, the sky blue is outdated and should go anyway, but a better decision would have been to have the far right wall and the adjacent wall going up the stairs be the same, so it’s a more gentle transition.

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The coice of walls and the sharp contrast of colors contradict what you want to establish in this room.

 The impact of big bright windows is lost, and by using different colors in back of 2 pieces of furniture that match, a generous space holding the main conversation area is trivialized, and value is lost.

Neutral colors that complimented the furniture would have been a better choice.

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Sellers and Agents:  Walls are a room’s biggest surface area, and present the most opportunity to set the tone.  They are the canvas  buyers see in listing photos.

I am in the business of helping Sellers and Agents  getting their properties sold. To that end, my offer stands: if you claim any of these properties as your own, I will spend up to a half-day Staging your property, for free. REALLY.