Getting your home ready for sale – Painting

A couple was getting ready to sell their home; it was a nice, spacious home in the quiet, family neighbourhood. They enjoyed it for many years and raised their family there. Now it was time to move on.

Like many others, they didn't pay a lot of attention to the condition of their home over the years. The house was well loved by everyone, adults, kids, their dogs and numerous cats.

The original carpets were quite tired after 20 years, the sheet vinyl flooring worn out and torn. Kitchen cabinet doors were falling off their hinges, the finish on counters was worn out. Popped nails in the ceilings were visible in gaping holes.

It was obvious that in order to sell this home a lot of work needed to be done.

So, out they went to the local BIG BOX store, to get paint for the walls, tiles for the floors and new carpet.

When I finally was invited to view the home, (they insisted that I stay away until they have every thing ready), I was excited and happy for them. The new chapter in their lives was about to begin.

I came in, and they were so proud of the work that they did themselves, the contractors that they chose - and great deals they got, they were proud of colour choices they made and all the hard work that it took to finish this huge job of updating their home.

How was I suppose to tell them that they needed to go back to the store, and choose two more paint colours and paint the entire house again?

You see the lady at the store suggested the colour to them; she even picked the sheen level and sent them off to paint.

The almost flat blushing peach on every wall, door and door frame, baseboard, quarter-round and window frame was screaming at me!

Those poor people had to do all of this again! How do I tell them that all their work was a huge mistake? They just spend couple of months living in their home while renovating it. I don't wish that on any one!

They had to deal with contractors, manage schedules and deliveries, live through carpet and tile installation and now I'm suppose to tell them that their paint job is ALL WRONG?

You see, they truly didn't know; He was not into Interior Décor (just like most man are not) and She didn't have time to watch all those HGTV shows, most women love...

What they should have done is to take couple of hours and look through current magazines, new decorating books, talk to their design savvy friends, or simply... talk to me.

The colour choice should have been easy: something light, neutral but current, perhaps even a bit trendy as their home perfectly suits a younger family. The blushing peach was IN... in the... 1980's. Now all it was doing was dating this freshly updated home.

Next the sheen level selection, (a very important no matter what your reasons are to paint your home).

Bathrooms and kitchens can be painted with eggshell or semi-gloss, never flat.

Hallways should also be painted with eggshell paint. This allows them to be washed if needed. Quality, washable paint comes into focus here. Spend the money on a good, trusted brand, and use quality brushes and rollers.

Formal areas like dining and living rooms can be painted in flat, especially if you want to be daring and go with the darker colours. (But not when you are selling your home...) Why not? You choice of colour may not be suitable for the Buyer, and yes, I know its just a paint, but have you ever tried to paint over dark burgundy or navy walls?

If you have smaller kids, large dogs or if some members of your family are simply... messy, do yourself a favour and use good quality washable eggshell paint.

If you need to visualize the sheen level... go to your fridge and grab an egg. On your wall, the paint will look "eggsactly" like that.

Lets now consider the needs of your trim, doors and window frames. This is where you need the continuity of the same colour - preferably white.

Now this may be tricky, you need to consider the undertones of the wall colour and then choose your white trim paint accordingly.

If you chosen wall colour has warm undertones, you will need to choose your white with warm undertones as well. Same thing goes for the cold, muted colours. In this case you would choose the colder white.

The point is to choose something that will work with your wall colour and still register as white to the onlooker.

This paint will go on all the trim in your home: doors and door frames, window frames, baseboards, quarter rounds, staircase spindles-if you choose to paint them...

The only trim area where it is acceptable or even recommended to go with something other than semi-gloss or gloss paint is the crown moulding that adorns your ceiling.

If you are choosing to hire someone to do this job for you, ask your friends and family or your Realtor for a recommendation. Usually when getting ready to sell, the time is of an essence, you don't want to waste it on correcting someone else's mistakes.

So choose your professional wisely, avoid the cheapest ones and get a free written estimate that lists the paint brand name, colour and colour codes as well as sheen levels, the nuber of primer couts and the number of paint couts.

It truly is not difficult at all to make paint choice when you are getting your home ready for sale.

If you need a bit more guidance with other aspects of this important home selling step, please give me a call. I will be happy to help.

*Joanna has an Interior Decorator Accreditation

Joanna Gerber

Sales Representative
HomeLife
Kempenfelt-Kelly
Realty Ltd. Brokerage*
284 Dunlop St. W.
Barrie, Ontario
L4N 1B9

(705)794-6482

O:705-722-8191
F:705-725-8232
TF: 1-877-722-8191

*Independently Owned and Operated

www.Selling-Barrie-Homes.com
joanna@selling-barrie-homes.com
MOWIE PO POLSKU