I often recommend that people check out Pottery Barn paint colors when trying to decide on a paint color when getting their home ready for market.  Plain white or off-white is often just too boring, and in a market with lots of other homes on market, sometimes you want to stand out a bit.

I am writing this post today for a man Kim and I visited this week who is preparing a home for market over in Shoreline.  A small home in a private, lush setting with medium colored wood trims around the wall of garden windows and for kitchen cabinetry.   I recommended that he use a little color in the high vaulted walls in the kitchen to accent the height of the space.  You don't want to use colors that are too dark anywhere in a small space.  Perhaps semolina in the kitchen and stem green in the master bedroom areas.  By painting both the bedroom and the dressing area the same color, you expand the size of the master space beyond just the bedroom.

For a small home with medium colored natural wood trims, the colors that work best together from the above list are semolina, stem green, suntan yellow, brookside moss

Due to the coloring of the millwork, I recommend from the above chart, Semolina, Stem Green.  Semolina may be a little too bright except in the kitchen where there is not much wall space due to the cabinets.  Stem Green in both the kitchen would likely work well, but I don't think semolina can carry into the bedroom.  Suntan and acadia look nice together, but you want the house to blend well with all of the lush dark greens peeking in from the outside.

A little color goes a long way in a small home and Pottery Barn clearly spends a ton of money determining which colors are popular at any given time.  You can benefit from their research dollars by emulating or choosing from their prechosen colors.

The right color can really make your millwork pop.

Here in Seattle where you want a lot of internal brightness to compensate for the lack of sun, painting only the angled accent walls, instead of the entire room, keeps everyting light and bright even when the weather says otherwise.