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I’ve asked Denise Britti, the resident decorator on my team, to explain just what a neutral color is and how you can not only brighten a room with it but also accentuate your furnishings and, most importantly, create a mood that will engage a buyer.

TRUE NEUTRALS as defined by the experts are pure white, black and the range of grays in between. These grays are very bland and without much character. This is NOT what we mean when we suggest painting your living room a neutral color before putting your home on the market.

What we DO mean is to use a COMPLEX NEUTRAL, a hue derived from the mixing of complementary colors on the color wheel. If pure orange, for example is mixed with increasing amounts of blue, a less intense version of the orange results (middle 3 columns below), but no less interesting. Equal parts of orange and blue create a brown, the center column. While there are only 5 steps illustrated here, it’s actually a continuum of thousands of tones between the two pure colors.

The most compelling complex neutrals, in my opinion, are the ones so vague in color as to be described as “-ish.” These colors are incredibly flexible with furnishings and can subtly create a warm, cozy mood or a calm, soothing one.

How do you find them? Most paint companies have curated a wide array of complex neutrals (simply referred to as “neutrals”) and you can find out what they have by visiting their websites. Sherwin Williams also has a specific section in their fan deck called “Fundamentally Neutral” which has almost 300 tones to choose from.
So when you are ready to put your house on the market and need to change bold or dark paint, turn to the wide world of neutrals to wow your new buyer!