Colors to Avoid When Selling a Home

By: Melissa Dittmann Tracey

There’s a reason why home stagers prefer white or neutral colors when preparing a home for the market. Some colors can be distracting and a turn-off to home buyers. 

Rethink a red-painted living room or dining area; red is the most off-putting color, according to a survey of home staging and design professionals conducted by the home remodeling site Fixr.com.(link is external) “Red is an extremely strong color and may not be to everybody’s taste,” the study notes.

Fixr’s Paint & Color Trends 2024 report flags the following as the most off-putting colors to home buyers:

• Red: 53%
• Lime green: 53%
• Bright yellow: 40%
• Mustard yellow: 19%
• Pink: 10%
• Turquoise: 9%

Instead of splashing interiors in bright hues, home stagers, and designers say they like to use color strategically to warm up a space and even make it appear more spacious.

For example, 61% of experts recommend using warm neutrals—like beiges and whites—to help make small spaces appear larger. “Warm neutrals can reflect light and visually recede, and their calmness can make a space feel less overwhelming,” the study notes. White was a favorite among home stagers in making spaces seem more spacious and giving the illusion of higher and wider ceilings.

“When selling a house, paint and color trends need to be used in a softened way,” Birgit Anich of BA Staging & Interiors said in the Fixr study. The latest trends may call for attention-getting colors, but Anich warns that “a trend today is not necessarily the trend that buyers are yet ready to embrace. They need to have certain exposure to a new trend before they fall in love with the new trend. While these trends are great for interior design, they need to be used more moderately when selling a property.”