I think either option could work, but when i bought I preferred my house being one neutral color (turns out i didnt like the color eventually but i can live with it). Sometimes mixing the colors from the card is a little harder when you have to pick the right shade for the right light.

Maybe a neutral like SW Universal Khaki or Macadamia in the main living areas and a shade lighter for the bedrooms or vice versa. It really depends on the light. I hear BM Shaker Beige being suggested a lot as well.

IMHO either option would be better than leaving it as is. A buyer will probably over-exaggerate the cost to repaint and deeply discount their offer which will be a lot less than what it will cost you to paint the house. And since you're trying to sell, you may not need to invest in the top of the line paint. The mid-grade formulas from those lines will probably be sufficient.

We just finished painting a bathroom in Valspar Oatbran, and I'm liking it. Do you think that would be an appropriate shade for widespread use? I grew up with stark white walls everywhere, so I'm slightly concerned that this'll be too dark if it's all over the place. (link below so you can see, not my blog or my house, just the first image I found)

Here is a link that might be useful: Valspar Oatbran

I recently went through a lot of model homes and they all had the same light neutral beige with white trim. I think it's hard for some buyers to look past colorful walls and picture their own things fitting in. For resale, I would go all neutral.

If it were me, I'd just keep it simple and paint everything the same neutral shade. The Valspar Oatbran looks like a good candidate.

No one is going to NOT BUY your house because you didn't vary the shades of neutral among rooms.

I also agree to paint everything a neutral light shade.

The house I bought had been heavily neutralized and staged but the single color chosen throughout was a dark khaki and it covered everything. And the trim, wall color and khaki carpet were all slightly off from each other. It looked okay in the Real Estate photos but made for a dismal experience in person. However it covered a bunch of bizarre paint combos.

After a couple years of renting it to tenants who chose Barbie colors, we painted the entire thing white right out of the can and it was quite a relief (and it's actually a bright and sun filled house). I like more color than just white but I also want to pick my own and Live there first before I select.

not stark white;
it sounds like it ought to be "clean" & "bright", but it almost always turns out chilly (unfriendly-seeming) & it makes your furniture look dirty.

I used to always recomment Behr (Home Depot) cottage white to landlords, don't even know if they still make it.

It's light, & it blends with warm & cool colors.

That oatbran looks very nice;
I'd probably take a sample home & paint a big area to see how it looks in real life, to be sure it isn't too dark with the available light in your house.

Be sure to put a Kilz or similar product over those bright colors first, so that the old color won't bleed through the new.

Light and neutral and don't worry about multiple shades from the same card - the color will look a bit different room to to room anyway because of different lighting, different directions the rooms face, color bouncing off furniture and shadows.

Definitely paint it ... when I was slumlording, I used a Glidden color called "Swiss Coffee" that was a very pale neutral taupe/tan.

Paler is better with browns and tans - some of them are verging on "baby poo" color when they get darker, and they can make a house look depressing.

My sympathies with the colors: I once had a house where the LR.DR were battleship grey, one BR was pepto bismol pink and the other BDR was Suicidal Blue. My handyman called, "We HAVE to paint NOW because I can't stand to work in here." me and said

Thanks, folks. Looks like it's pretty unanimous, so you've definitely helped us out here. :)

A house will look more spacious if all the inside walls are painted a pale beige with a warm white on the trim.