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Painting interior to sell and need a good neutral - Gobi Desert or?

7 years ago

I'm selling my house and I need to paint over my non-neutral walls. Most of my house is already neutral and painted in Behr's Gobi Desert. I painted it 15 years ago! I still see this color crop up every once in a while even though that was so long ago and the beiges have turned to grays and greiges. It seems like people are looking more for the neutral warm grays, like Sherwin William's Repose Gray, etc. So....is my paint job going to be easy by going with Gobi Desert over just some of my walls, or do I need to go all-out and repaint the whole thing in Repose Gray or something like that? What is everyone looking for these days? Does anyone besides me still like beige walls? I'm actually not a big fan of gray so I can't judge this, but I just want to put something that appeals to the majority of buyers.

Comments (14)

  • 7 years ago

    We just painted our house SW Accessible Beige @ 50%. It's gorgeous. Not too beige, not too gray. Very pleased with the result.

  • 7 years ago

    Our hard floors are a medium laminate that is warm, and goes well with Repose Gray (a very popular warm gray). I think it would go well with Accessible Beige, too, which is another warm gray. Our carpet is getting replaced. Our kitchen is getting painted white. Our trim is Cloud White and will stay that way. I think we are safe either way as far as coordinating with the rest of the house.

  • 7 years ago

    What has your realtor advised? Have you looked at comps online? Judging from how Gobi Desert looks on my monitor, I'd want something lighter. I like your idea of a warm gray.

  • PRO
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    I dislike beige in all its colors and especially ones that look like flesh tone. I would do a very soft grayed green much more neutral than any gray or beige IMHO. Why not look at gray wisp from BM it is the type of color I would choose with white trim


  • 7 years ago

    Photo below is Behr Gobi Desert. It's beautiful and has character. However:

    Master bedroom · More Info


    Darker beiges like this are not fashionable colors for selling in my area. The new trend is for much lighter off-whites for selling here. Gray is past its peak in my area.

    Talk to you real estate agent for advice.

  • 7 years ago

    Jean, could you please post a photo of some of your rooms in the 50% SW Accessible Beige ?

  • 7 years ago

    I had Gobi Desert in my previous home and it was a great color. As long as your home is more traditional than modern, I would leave it. The new homeowners are likely going to want to choose their own color palette anyway and Gobi Desert is light and neutral enough for selling.

  • PRO
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago



    I believe I found this suggestion in an article about what real estate agents recommend to clients for paint colors. IMO the Naturel was a bit dark. Alabaster is always safe.

    Any house that was painted 15 years ago is likely overdue for a complete paint job.




  • 7 years ago

    I have Huntington Beige which is a bit darker than yours and am in the middle of choosing a new color in a much lighter color. I'm doing this for myself, not to sell. I agree with apple pie on choosing a lighter color if you do the whole house. Someone just recommended BM China White (I have a few others). If you have time, you can get some decals from Samplize.com to test colors (no leftover paint ;), but they only have SW, BM and Farrow and Ball colors.

  • 7 years ago

    It sounds like for the most part the thing to do is just repaint almost everything in a more current neutral. My house would still sell even if I didn't, but (of course) I would like top dollar for my house, and painting a few extra rooms is not that much extra work for me. I dislike gray even though the gray trend is not over yet here, so I will probably choose one of the lighter neutrals. Love the China White, saw some other Benjamin Moore colors and looks like Dove Wing would also be great.

  • 7 years ago

    Dove Wing is also on my short list, it's a pretty color.

  • 7 years ago

    Alabaster has the light look that is popular here now.

  • 7 years ago

    I talked with my real estate agent, toured through my house in detail, and she said that the Gobi Desert is still fine in my area. I guess right now in my area as long as the walls are neutral, any neutral is ok. My new house has Repose Gray walls and I'd prefer something else, but it's fine for now. No matter which neutral I pick, I'm not going to please everyone. This real estate agent has sold a lot of houses and is very fast at selling them, and for a good price, so I trust her advice.