What's wrong with white?

[Jack]

On the TV home improvement shows, seems like everyone hates the wall color white and replace it with funky colors like purple, orange or somesuch. Funny when a new owner comes in and repaint the existing purple wall with green, brown or other bodacious colors. In most cases, the rooms seem dark compare to white so you need to add more lighting. I like white as a blank canvas as I (more like the wife) could add splashes of colors from my furniture, paintings. door and wall trims. Painting walls in bright bold colors seem like a sensory overload to me. Doesn't anyone like white anymore?

[Charles Schuler]

Real estate agents often recommend neutral white repainting before putting a home on the market.

[Judge Seidlin]

"Jack" wrote in news:TIGdnRQPU-e9mHvYnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

That's just some gay decorating for the show. It makes me cry.

[Greg]

White is fine, though it can be boring. The trend to more colors is probably partially due to apartments tending to be all white. People like me who lived in one white-walled apartment after another tend to consider the ability to paint my wals other colors to be one of the joys of home ownership.

To be honest, I'm still not that adventurous. I still stick to fairly neutral colors and a couple of lighter colors.

Greg

[Malcolm Hoar]

An off-white/pale beige color offends the least number of people and makes a room look bright and spacious without the stark and clinical glare of pure white. That is why new home builders rarely use anything else. They KNOW (do not just think/guess) that's what sells houses.

[Oren]

In my area the builders paint most all home white inside. It hides imperfections well. These will show up; more pronounced, in darker colors. The trend for Realtors in our area is to go with a neutral earth tones... they seem to term it "beige-EE" (sp).

I lived with white walls in my last house for 10 years. After we moved across town the wife went to other colors. Some light pastel colors in two bedrooms and they look great. She faux painted the rest of the house and since she did the work - I love it.

-- Oren

"Well, it doesn't happen all the time, but when it happens, it happens constantly."

[Frank]

When I was a kid, I did a little painting for a builder. He did not like to put on 2 coats of paint - more likely with darker colors.

Also, stint as a realtor, we were told it is better to have white or off white walls and ceilings and bring color into the room in form of window treatments, furniture, etc.

Frank

[jvarner22]

The realtor stuff is a bunch of hooey. Sure, if your house is poorly decorated then a lot of realtors will tell you just to paint it white but if you have it tastefully done then it can be a positive as much as a negative. A lot of people say that having all neutral colors lets the prospective buyer imagine their own furnishings better, but most buyers aren't that imaginative. If you look at the decorating catalogs or magazines like Pottery Barn, Ethan Allan, House & Garden, you will see color used tastefully.

[Joseph Meehan]

There is nothing wrong with white. That is the reason every developer paints all the walls white and why realtors all tell you to paint everything white if you are selling. People don't "hate" and it makes rooms look a little larger. Strong colors tend to put off potential buyers, unless they happen to like the color.

Now once people buy the house, they tend to put their own mark on the home and that often means using color. So a home improvement show is not likely to use white as a change because most people already know what white looks like and consider it a little boring.

[Mark Lloyd]

I'd much rather have white than the dirty brownish yellow one room in this house was painted.

I like the walls white or a light color (NOT light sh*t color) and have smaller objects for color.

[Roger Shoaf]

I kind of like white for the outside of a house with a bolder color for the trim. For the inside I kind of like pastel walls and perhaps a white ceiling.

Also what looks pretty good is the faux painting.

[Oren]

Some years ago I walked DIRECTLY out of a house for sale.. Black and red walls with purple carpet. I just could not get past that first impression and over look it.

-- Oren

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. Thomas A. Edison

[Charlie Bress]

When we sold our previous house it was white inside. But we got comments from prospective buyers that our blue carpet would not go well with their existing living room furniture.

Charlie

[Phisherman]

I still have builder's white since 1992 in the hall, bedrooms, family room, dining room, shop. Light yellow enamel in bathrooms and kitchen. Dull dark green in the theater. My favorite color is red. White in the bedroom is not too good but I can live with it.

[Hep]

A very odd woman leased an office down the hall from mine, in a downtown office building and immediately painted the walls a very dark shade of blue. Well, she tried to paint the walls. She actually painted the walls and the carpet.

If she was happy with her decision, then she was the only one. The landlord was beside himself.

In that situation, even boring white would have been better.

H

[hallerb]

My wife doesnt like white:(

Frankly its wonderful, brite, makes rooms look larger. Off whites always look dirty to me:(

Our entire home is currently white but its been 10 years its time for repaint, my wife says the female does ALL the decorating, the husband just does the work and pays for everything.

there will be a fight:( I suggested white living room, she can select other colors for rooms I spend little time in........

she hated that compromise, awaiting bucks for remodeling

[Edwin Pawlowski]

My shop has white walls. Nice and bright. In a house, they remind me of the cheap rental units that get painted every time the last tenant skips town.

Never had white walls in the house, never will. We tend towards pastels rather than dark, rich colors.

[Oren]

White paint can be very attractive and easy on the eye. I'm thinking multi-tones of white. Ceiling, crown, chair rail, base molding, doors and casing.

Tri-color white/tone will not be boring. It's a good way to use white paint.

-- Oren

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. Thomas A. Edison

[Deke]

I love the single orange wall (not the whole room) and perhaps a fabric on an opposing wall.

But for selling, it need to be furnished with matching decor. If the house is empty, then paint it white.

[mm]

That was my plan. except to paint in a few years. Now the house is so full, it's hard to move everythign, and I certainly can't hire someone, because if he moves things it will be worse.