Painting advice for rental property **title edited by MNHQ**

[MariaDingbat]

Hi all,

My tenant has sadly decided to move on after many, many years so I'm sprucing up the house before i let it again and could use some advice on colours as it's been a long time since I had to view the house to prospective tenants. I'm wondering if it's sensible to do the whole interior in white or if I should paint the living room and bedroom in a neutral colour instead? I'm going to paint the hall, kitchen and bathroom white. The house has 1930's striped pine doors, reclaimed pine picture rail and skirting in the living room, white woodwork in the hallway.

By neutral in thinking of a dupe of F&B's White Tie in the living room and Tallow on the bedrooms. Is it better to do the whole house one colour? Would white brighten it up or make it look stark? I'd be going for a matt white, not a brilliant one. Any advice would be welcome!

ah - PAINTING! :-) (thought this was about making sure the tenant has signed for all the documents...)

there is a reason for the old landlord beige (magnolia) and white ceilings; all white can look very stark. Your plan for different neutrals sounds good. Don't buy the designer paint, Wilkinsons best will be fine.

make sure you are fully up to date on all legislation - place needs the electrical check, smoke alarms etc etc. And fully insured as there is an eviction ban, paying rent is fairly optional at the moment.

D'oh! Yes Painting not printing. Bloody autocorrect! Thank you

I'm a big fan of Egyptian Cotton (I think dulux). It's a light mushroom colour that goes with everything but isn't as stark and clinical as white.

Personally I would go with painting it all white but probably all the same shade of white so it's easy for touch ups etc. Most rental properties do use magnolia or some kind of beige but myself and others I know who have rented in the past all hated it. I think it depends aswell if you're happy for your tenants to get paint to their style etc when in. We've always allowed our tenants to decorate how they liked (within reason) so white was good for us as it was easy for them to paint over

I vote all white. Depends who you're aiming it at though. I hate cream and magnolia personally.

Timeless by dulux is nice, just a bit warmer than bright white.

Thanks everyone. My instinct is all white as I'm not a fan of cream personally and I really liked white walls when I was renting, but I wasn't sure what people like in the current market! The previous tenant was able to paint her own colours as she was there so long, so I don't mind that.

Thanks for the Dulux Timeless recommendation, it looks good. Any other white recommendations? I've been told Dulux trade supermatt white is a nice chalky white and a better choice than brilliant white.

Yes to the dulux trade although I like brilliant white too. I like a milk bottle white.

I am not a fan of dulux timeless personally.
It wouldn’t put me off renting a particular property to the extent magnolia would but I much prefer white.

Soft duck egg blues are nice and go with most other colours that tenants would have in their furniture. Anything's better than white, magnolia or beige!

all white is much harder to keep though and with tenants in the house theyre not as invested in keeping it looking fresh so you'll end up with scuffs and marks that are far more noticeable far more quickly than if you go for neutrals which will be more forgiving

We’ve used Dulux Timeless with plain white on ceilings.
Would def, use it again, looks very nice.

Very matt finishes are much harder to keep free of scuffs and fingerprints, I'd go for something more durable.

I'm not sure it much matters. But I'd recommend the tough valspar paint that is actually matt and actually washable.

I’d go white with lots of bright colours (curtains, pillows, rugs...). I can’t stand magnolia or beige. Our house was painted in various shades of beige before we moved in and all the light was sapped from every room. We painted it white and the rooms are so much brighter now.

I use a durable easy to clean neutral
Colour palette.

Then I leave whatever is in the tin with a note stuck to it saying which room was decorated in this colour.

I put them all in the garage so the tenants can make repairs to scuffs if they need to.

I can't bear white, it's so stark.

We painted ours polished pebble.
Tenants in our flat have gone nuts with sea foam and gold leaf, scarlet and navy which is their choice.
We do have a clause that they are responsible for painting them back to grey.
Although the flat looks bloody marvellous I don’t think it would be everybody’s taste

I’d not do white, it’s a particular taste and unless you allow tenants to put things on the walls will look very cold ans stark.

What do people think of this? It's called chalky downs and is meant to be a dupe of F&Bs white tie. The house is not quite this grand though!

It looks like this in a bedroom.

Forgot to say - silk finish probably easier for tenants to keep clean if they have kids.

No more magnolia please, it makes everything look drab. I think the cream colour you showed still looks like magnolia.

I’d go with Dulux white and leave some in a cupboard for touch ups. The tenants can add colour with pictures to their taste. I’d use a darker shade in the hallway to avoid scuffs.

@MariaDingbat I'm not really a fan of that either sorry, it's just another shade of beige. I would definitely stick to a Matt white

Personally I don't like white. It marks really easily and can be too stark.
I've just had my rental redecorated throughout. The decorator had some spare cream paint and did the lounge in that, everywhere else was Johnstones magnolia and it looks really good. Clean, neutral and warm.

@MariaDingbat
I think that looks nice. It's not dissimilar to the final effect in my house - white woodwork and warmer/neutral walls. Estate agents loved it and I had 50+ enquiries for the house in less than 24 hours so it certainly didn't put people off.

I like the chalky downs.

A washable version of that would be best.