The year after the last recession started, Better Homes and Gardens said that people “gravitated towards a safe beige wall color for interiors.” And for accents? “More shades of beige were layered on almost every surface of the room.”
Sherwin-Williams saw a slightly different trend – actually, they saw two of them. “I see two extremes,” a Sherwin-Williams executive said. “While some consumers respond to tough times by cocooning and not straying too far from practical colors that they think will have longevity, others defy them by choosing bright, lively colors that lift their spirits.”
Are we in for several years of the same boring colors, over and over again? Or will people try to fight back depressing times with bright colors?
Why Beige Matters for Painting Contractors
Of course, most painting contractors are happy to apply whatever paint the homeowner wants. While painting contractors may have opinions (and most can think of at least a few terrible decisions they’ve made come to life at a homeowner’s request), most aren’t interior decorators, and they don’t keep close tabs on what the latest trends are in furniture and accent pieces.
The more important point here is that there’s a big connection between color and psychology. When people’s situations change, their moods change. When people feel like they’re losing control of the direction their life is heading, changing the way their house looks and feels is a small way to fight back.
It’s certainly true that many people will put off a paint job to save money in the coming months. It’s also true, however, that changing interior paint colors is a relatively affordable way to make a dramatic change to the way a house feels. It costs a few thousand dollars to fully repaint the interior of a house. Remodeling a single bathroom costs upwards of $10,000.
Painting contractors who remind customers that an interior repaint is an affordable way to change their surroundings will likely find customers happy to take them up on the offer. Whether they want their house to reflect a somber mood or to fight against it, you’ll be there to help.
Painting contractors have one more thing going for them during this recession. If anyone doesn’t like the color of their walls, a few months of being forced to stay at home is going to be very good for business.
To learn how ProPainter Websites can help you find more residential painting customers, call us at 919-424-6121 or email us at Team_PPW@ProPainterWebsites.com.