Am I obliged to make my house look House Doctor bland prior to selling?

[scottishfarmlady]

I am moving house .
It is an old farm house and we are going to tidy it up, declutter etc and repaint most of the rooms.
Currently is has a variety of different colours and no doubt Ann Maurice would have us paint the whole thing cream. I think it might destroy the character.We did not have a lot of money to do it up so it is all a mix of colours and fabrics at the momnet. To me it is lovely!

Dh has already painted out the dusty red walls in one bedroom in cream. I think it looks cold and boring.
Any advice?

I'll do it cheap .

Have you checked the colours the property currently have are consistent with the pigments available when it was first build?

If you would like to go for lighter colours or the walls could do with a fresch coat of paint you can use Farrow&Ball heritage colours as a reference to choose from. But make sure the new colours match your current furniture/fabrics otehrwise you may end up with a mismatched decoration that may not help to sell the house.

I saw some lovely clay paints as well.

In 'Easy Living' magazine.

Their website is earthbornpaints.co.uk.

The mag says it's thicker than emulsion and will therefore cover dodgy walls.

People cannot see beyond the end of their noses, I say get the magnolia out, it could add thousands to the final sale price and pack up everything you can live without and get it into storage. You are competing with newbuild houses where they use 3/4 size furniture to make rooms look bigger. Anything that makes yours look smaller gives them an advantage.

Expat those clay apints are lovely.
i will get some at the weekend