What colour shall I paint the bedrooms? (selling the house)

[Bluebear]

I am out of ideas and cannot get inspired at all - since we will not be living here. The decorator is being booked to come and paint 2 bedrooms in a few weeks time and I have to decide on the colour(s). It needs to be something light and non-offensive...so any ideas or shall I stick to magnolia.

Unfortunately our delightful builders didn't "knot" any of the wood, so 80% of door surrounds have yellowy knots peeking through the watery gloss, and the skirtings are looking a bit threadbare. Once one bit's done, the rest looks sad.

Must bite the bullet. Think we'll leave the kitchen though - I've just put a calico matchpot on the wall next to the units and it looks really drab. The rest MUST go though - especially the "cream" in the hall - more like E-number infested custard. Oops!

I would recommend a soft, pale taupe from the Kelly Hoppen range (perhaps Kellys Taupe)(at B&Q). Same sort of price as Dulux but colours softer and more sophisticated. Taupe also bit more classy than cream/magnolia and therefore looks more expensive. (She also does matching eggshell paint, which is much more forgiving on dodgy woodwork than gloss due to it being quite matt.) Taupe goes really well with choc, aubergine, dark pink, red and turquoise so this will help when it comes to dressing the rooms with accessories. I think it sets off other colours much more than cream, so its easier to achieve a "finished effect" in a room. HTH

It is mad to buy new carpet if you are selling IMO, unless you have swirly pub carpets! Just get them professionally cleaned. Makes a huge, huge difference and is closer to a £100 than a few thousand. I wouldn't be put off by slightly worse for wear white skirtings at all. I might be put off by a purple living room. Our house had neutral creams downstairs, but lovely blue painted kitchen units (a farrow & ball greeny blue), a pink bedroom (little girl) blue bedroom (boy) blue bathroom and the downstairs and upstairs hall and staircase have the area below the dado painted duck-egg blue. I really liked the scheme, even though it wasn't perfect, and it did play a part in our choosing this house.
The biggest no-nos for us were polystyrene tiles/artex on ceilings, very wierd layouts with tiny rooms, anaglypta in odd colours downstairs, concreted over gardens and really horrible poky kitchens with ugly tiles. Saw loads like that!

as long as it's neutral. I'm looking to let and a lot of people seem to stress neutral walls.

The last house we sold had cream shaker kitchen cupboards with a strong orange on the walls. Sounds horrible I know but was really nice.

I think letting is slightly different as you know you can't change anything. But yes, a light neutral is better than a strong colour in most cases.

Don't redecorate after the valuation though! Always before.