Tag: color inspiration

Interior Painting Projects Offer an Excellent Way to Upgrade Your Space

Are you looking for interior painting projects that boost home value? Whether you’re about to sell your house, apply for a second mortgage, refinance your existing home or simply want to spiff up the place while adding value, we can help! 

Fresh paint is one of the most impactful ways to transform the appearance of your home and make it more appealing to, well, everyone! Realtor.com puts the ROI of painting your home at 107%! One designer interviewed even described it like a “crisp new outfit without the designer price tag.” 

We’re sharing some of the top ways homeowners add value with interior paint, plus key ways to assess if new paint is right for your space. Let’s get rolling!

Upgrade Option 1: Update the Entire Interior with a Neutral Color

One of AMC Painting’s most common projects for sellers, property managers and folks working toward refinancing/upgrading is a whole-home interior repaint. A whole-home repaint is just that — every room gets a new coat of your selected color. You can see some of the most popular neutrals we use below, but beige, greige, gray and, tried and tested white, are all excellent options for creating a clean space. 

• SW 7005 Pure White (Expert Pick)
• SW 7029 Agreeable Gray (Expert Pick)
• SW 7004 Snowbound (Sep. 2022 Color of the Month)
• SW 7008 Alabaster (Apr. 2022 Color of the Month)
• SW 7015 Repose Gray (Expert Pick)
• SW 7631 City Loft
• SW 6385 Dover White
• SW 7036 Accessible Beige
• SW 7551 Greek Villa
• SW 9166 Drift of Mist (Feb. 2024 Color of the Month)

Why neutral? There’s a reason real estate agents joke about interior painting colors like “realtor gray” or “builder beige.” It’s because these foundational colors offer potential buyers the best blank canvas for all their future homeowner dreams. They offer warmth and neutrality. People can live with them happily for years before ever considering repainting. Neutrals create a space where people can envision themselves living with their stuff and their unique design choices. It’s about setting the ideal conditions for their imagination. 

Paint Color Really Can Make a Difference in a Competitive Market

That means if you’re planning to sell your home, it is not the time to show your appreciation for Prince with a Purple Rain color scheme in your main living areas. The Broncos themed basement may have to say farewell. And that all black bedroom your teenager begged for? Probably a good time for it to go, too. You’ll all get the chance to shine in your new home.

Think of it this way. Your future homeowner has two comparable homes. One has a fresh repaint with an airy neutral that is move-in ready. Maybe they’ll want to paint a bedroom or two, but the rest of the home is ready for all their pictures to be hung and furniture to be set. No nail holes to fill. Farewell scuffs on the trim. No child-height trail of fingerprints in the hall. 

And then there’s the comparable home — but with a different, bright color in every room. Discoloration where pictures used to be. Patched holes, but no new paint to cover them. Scuffed trim. Chipped walls and doors. It’s a home that’s been loved and lived in, but in a competitive market, those factors could cost you! In a refinance or HELOC situation, the lender may offer you less or even require you to repaint to secure financing, too. 

If a whole-home update is too daunting for you, there are some other options that can help you control your budget while adding value. Take a look! 

Upgrade Option 2: Kitchen Refresh

The kitchen is a key consideration for prospective buyers. It can also influence the overall value of your home for many other purposes, like HELOCs or refinancing. In fact, most realtors recommend upgrading the kitchen over any other room in the house. 

As one of the most-used rooms in the house, the paint can take a real beating. Yes, even kitchens owned by cleaning fanatics. Life happens in the kitchen and life, well, it’s messy. Some of the key places/ways your kitchen paint may be taking a hit:

• Around the trash can — spatters, scrapes, chipping paint where the can touches the wall, grime on the trim near the base of the can.
• Above the oven — back wall, under and on the surface of any cabinets around the stovetop, the ceiling above the vent hood/oven.
• Walls around counters — high prep areas, walls behind sinks, any wall behind a countertop appliance.
• General discoloration — look behind decor and check for differences in color to see if smoke, grime or UV damage has drastically changed paint color.
• Cabinets — around handles, along the tops of the doors, around hinges. 
• Walls around dine-in spaces — where tables/chairs touch walls, around high chairs, painted areas under bartops or kitchen islands.

Transform the room without construction.

Painting the kitchen can give the room new life, even if you can’t do a dramatic renovation. It covers years of wear and tear, while protecting walls, doors, trim and cabinets from new years of use. 

• Clean, fresh color
• Refreshed, open space
• Repair and hide damage
• Quantifiable improvement 
• New protection for years to come

At a loss for color selection? We’ve got some popular kitchen neutrals and cabinet colors that may help. We’ve stuck to timeless colors to ensure you won’t have to worry about getting burned by new trends. 

• SW 7008 Alabaster (Apr. 2022 Color of the Month)
• SW 7666 Fleur de Sel
• SW 9589 Limewash (Designer Color Collection)
• SW 6204 Sea Salt
• SW 0068 Copen Blue (Dec. 2021 Color of the Month)
• SW 7015 Repose Gray
• SW 9587 Mushroom (Designer Color Collection)
• SW 9588 High Sierra (Designer Color Collection)
• SW 9591 Whisper (Designer Color Collection)
• SW 7643 Pussywillow

Upgrade Option 3: Bathroom Makeover

While bathrooms aren’t as popular with homeowners as kitchens, an outdated or worn out bathroom can be a deterrent. What are some of the top challenges for homeowners trying to remodel their bathrooms? 

• Wallpaper: Few design choices have vexed homeowners the way the wallpaper trend has. It peels, it rolls down, it collects mildew where it curls … not the best for bathrooms. 
• Mildew and mold: Do you have poor ventilation that creates unsightly blotches on the walls? Dark stains around faucets?
• Carpet: Why are painters mentioning carpet? Consider that if you remove carpet (and you probably should), you will likely need to drop the trim down, leaving a space to paint where the previous trim was and subsequently needing a refresh on the base trim where it met the carpet. 
• Cabinets, doors, trim, areas by outlets and switches: Like your kitchen, this equally high-traffic area gets a lot of human interaction. The longer you’ve lived there, the more “lived in” the space.
• Peeling, bubbled paint: Moisture can cause paint to separate from the wall, creating bubbles and peeled spots. In addition to being unsightly, they also collect more water and can lead to mold and mildew on the walls.

Bathrooms  have the benefit of returning impressive results with less work. Bathrooms are often smaller and take less time to paint. They use less paint as well. Most painting companies can turn a couple of bathrooms in a home quickly, adding to the benefits of this simple upgrade. Everyone likes more time! 

Upgrade Option 4: Update Communal Spaces

There’s a reason we haven’t mentioned bedrooms in this list. It’s because they’re the spaces that people can close up if they’re not ready for their close-up. If buyers have the option to chose, they will pick a home where the public-facing rooms are ready for company over rooms no one will see without permission. That’s why communal spaces are the next recommendation for a smaller interior paint project. 

You can designate any room in the home a communal space, but the most common paint projects include:

• Living room/family room
• Dining room
• Basement 
• Playroom/ rec room
• Home theater/library
• Entryway
• Hallways, alcoves and nooks
• Mud room
• Bathrooms
• Kitchen

These are the spaces that will see a lot of guest traffic and repainting them will help buyers feel like the home is ready for entertaining. Like our other recommendations, keep it neutral. 

Assessing the Need for Interior Paint Upgrades

We know that spending the money on new interior paint can feel stressful. But, it may be a necessity for increasing home value. It’s important to be realistic about the condition and quality of your existing paint. Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can determine if you should invest in new paint.

•  If you’re debating whether or not to paint, it’s time to inspect your walls. View it from the perspective of a buyer — be realistic and analytical. Turn on your brightest lights and check paint in high traffic, high-touch areas. Look for fingerprints and grime amassed around door jams, light switches, door handles and stairwells. Look along hallways for handprints or around the bases of doors for shoe marks. Look for chips, peeling, stains, dirt and grime. Trim is especially prone to collecting dirt that won’t quit. 

While assessing these areas, determine the amount of work required to bring paint into an acceptable condition. Do you have the time? Would you have to hire someone? Consider whether or not it will damage the paint to clean or repair trouble spots properly. Is it more trouble than it’s worth to come up with a result that won’t look as fresh and new? It may be better to save time, effort and anxiety with a refresh. 

Other assessments for interior paint upgrades can include:

• Remove paintings and decor and compare the newly exposed areas to your current walls. Is there a difference in color? Fading? Stains, grime or dust? Is it a matter of cleaning or has the paint become faded by UV damage or wear? If it’s faded, it might be time for a fresh coat. 
• Assess damage. Do you have a lot of large holes from decor or picture frames? Is there a gouge in the wall where the doorknob hits? A hole from the time your daughter practiced her fast pitch indoors? A boy-shaped dent in the basement drywall? Did you or a family member smoke indoors? Do you have soot on the walls and ceiling from a fireplace? It’s not just a matter of patching these problems, but also recovering them effectively. Do you have the right paint shade? Does the end result match the old paint? 
• Be realistic about color. We talked a lot about color above. Are your current colors neutral enough to keep buyers interested? Do you have anything really dark or dramatic, like a cherry red statement wall or an all black bedroom? These are great expressions of your personal style, but prospective buyers likely only see a new chore and expense on the horizon. 

We hope these interior painting tips are helpful! Whether you commit to a whole-home repaint or just a few select rooms, you can be proud of investing in your biggest asset. And, you’ll be ready to sell, refi or simply enjoy your new space, all while knowing you’ve added real value!