The Stars Of Unsellable Houses Prove How Taking A Risk With Bold Colors In Your Home Pays Off
Interior designers will always lean toward trends, but when you're trying something that's outside of the box, you're taking a risk. So, when Lyndsay Lamb, star of HGTV's "Unsellable Houses," told her co-host and twin sister Leslie Davis that she wanted to go with vivid blue cabinets in one of the homes they were working on, Davis was skeptical. But that risk ended in a big reward, with the pair proving that using bold colors in your home can pay off.
Davis initially thought, "I don't know if I could move into a house with a blue cabinet," but she changed her tune after trusting her partner and seeing the end result. "I could definitely move into this home, and blue cabinets are now some of my favorites," she said in an Instagram post.
The bold blue cabinets were combined with a large, custom built-in unit so that this "Unsellable House" could compete with other homes on the real estate market. "This custom feature will give us an edge over those standard new-construction homes in the area," says Davis. And buyers agreed, embracing the bold hue. The home, which was originally on the market for $600,000 before making $80,000 worth of upgrades, ended up selling for $830,000, bringing the homeowners and twin team a $75,000 profit each.
How to use bold colors to elevate your own home
In another episode, Leslie Davis and Lyndsay Lamb quarreled over painting a living room, kitchen, and dining area a unique green color for one of their projects. They compromised on just doing the kitchen and dining room in that interesting color and sold the home for the highest profit of all other homes in the show's fourth season.
Zillow and Behr partnered to use consumer data to release a palette of preferred paint hues. And the data seemed to confirm the value of paint color in increasing profits when it comes time to sell your home. For example, bedrooms painted in a dark blue color, like Behr's Sojourn Blue, were given a score of 9 out of 10 and are said to add about $1,500 in home value.
Bold colors can be incorporated into your spaces by using them in bulky blocks, as the twins did with their blue cabinetry. Things like vibrant accent walls or colorful shower tiles can look stunning when contrasted with neutral tones in the surrounding areas. This will make it stand out without making the space too overwhelming. Or you can add little pops in a room that has more muted colors with items like side tables, accent furniture, artwork, or pillows.