All across ‘Merica, thousands upon thousands of people are closing on their new-construction homes every day.  If 4 million such homes were sold in the US last year, I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that in at least 68% of them, the new homeowners uttered the words a designer never wants to hear:

“We don’t need to paint–this paint’s brand-new.”

Here’s the deal. You don’t have to paint over builder beige for any kind of functional reason, but you only live once. Do you really want to settle for living in Blahsville?

10 Reasons to Eliminate Builder Beige Paint

1. You’ve heard it a thousand times before, but paint is the cheapest upgrade out there. You don’t even have to paint every wall to transform your space–there are a ton of ways to use paint in minimal ways and still achieve high impact. Take this example, which Red Chair Market featured on their blog this week. Or, here’s another living room we transformed with paint, strategically leaving some of the existing builder beige alone so that we wouldn’t have to paint every inch of the massive two-story walls:

A typical living room with builder beige walls, before painting.

BEFORE

A formerly boring living room in Austin, TX comes alive with the strategic use of interior paint.

AFTER

2. A colorful or high-contrast wall behind a boring sofa makes the boring sofa suddenly look amazing. This sectional is modern and clean-lined, but its neutral shade of latte brown looks awfully dull in this builder beige room. After the walls are painted, however, the sectional’s neutral color is an asset rather than a liability:

BEFORE: A neutral, brown sectional sofa looks incredibly boring in front of builder beige walls.

BEFORE

AFTER: A neutral, brown sectional sofa comes alive in front of violet purple painted walls.

AFTER

3. Builder beige screams “rental,” and/or “temporary.” Show your home that you’ve decided to stick around a while, by personalizing your space with paint!

4. Builder beige is to home decor as sweatpants are to your wardrobe. It says, “I don’t give a crap.”

Builder beige walls are the home decor equivalent of sweatpants.

5. Color on the walls puts pep in your step. Seriously–paint one wall or a tiny powder room, and I guarantee it’ll elevate your mood when you see how much better it looks.

6. Painting the walls makes your house a reflection of you and your personality–not the builder’s. Who lives there? YOU DO! It’s not the builder’s house anymore, so there’s no point in having it look like it belongs to someone else.

7. Builder beige is–by definition–the lowest common denominator of paint colors. Don’t let your house remain dumbed down!

8. Paint is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to differentiate your home from all of your neighbors’. You don’t want your rooms to look like theirs, do you?

9. If your home feels more like “you,” you will be more comfortable in it. Does beige really say (insert your name here)?

10. In ten years, I’ve never had a client regret the money they spent painting their interiors. Not a one.

Selecting paint colors can be intimidating, so if you’d like to eradicate beige paint in your home but need a little guidance, hiring an interior designer for an hour or two can make all the difference. Taking your existing furnishings and the flow of your home into consideration, an interior designer can help you create a paint palette that pulls your home decor together–and they can recommend reputable painters in your area, too!

And if you’re wondering which should come first–paint or furniture selections, you might want to read this handy guide we put together a couple of years ago.

If you’re in the Austin area and would like Room Fu to help you select paint colors for your home, call or text us at (512) 797-5821 to set up an in-home paint consultation.