These Moody Paint Colors Could Increase Your Home’s Value by as Much as $2,500

John Bessler

If you plan to sell your house this year, it’s time to go dark. For the last decade or so, real estate experts have advised homeowners to paint their walls in a variation of white to appeal to the broadest range of buyers, but a new paint color analysis from Zillow has found that gray is what people are looking for in 2023. And not just any gray—shoppers are looking for dark, moody walls that add a feeling of coziness and comfort. Buyers are willing to pay more for gray, too: Offers for houses with gray walls in the living room or bedroom(s) averaged $1,755 more than other colors, according to Zillow’s analysis.

Gray’s appeal doesn’t end at living room or bedroom walls. In the kitchen, where white has long been far and away the most popular color for cabinets and walls, gray has become the new hot hue. (In fact, a white kitchen could even hurt a home’s sale price by more than $600. Properties with a charcoal gray kitchen can sell for an estimated $2,512 more than similar homes, and pewter gray kitchens command $2,553 more. House with kitchens in other colors are getting bids of $612 less than those in gray.

“Gray is the color of retreat,” Mehnaz Khan, a color psychology specialist and interior designer in Albany, New York, said in a statement included in Zillow’s analysis. “As we come out of the pandemic and return to our hectic lives, buyers want home to be a refuge.”

Most homeowners will do a project or two when they decide to put their home on the market, and painting the interior is at the top of the list. Choosing the right color for interior walls can help a home sell quickly. But if you’re painting your front door, don’t pick gray. Zillow’s report found that a mid-tone gray front door, such as a