Thinking of selling?

How to stage your home: The big paint job is often top of the list for vendors getting their house ready for the market. All the experts agree that when it comes to choosing colour for your walls you must try to appeal to the widest possible audience and throw personal taste out the window.

While this doesn't mean every room has to be painted in magnolia, erring on the side of caution is the best course of action. There are a few golden rules when it comes to choosing colour for your walls. Take note of the orientation of the room. Warm colours are best for north-facing rooms and cooler colours are good for south-facing rooms that tend to get a lot of light.

Generally strong, warm colours like reds, oranges and yellows are known as advancing colours because they jump out and meet the eye and tend to close space. Receding colours like blue, green and violet will make a room look larger because they "stand back" visually. Small rooms can be made to appear larger by painting them white or a light neutral colour.

If you have a long and narrow room consider painting the end walls a darker shade than the long walls. The cooler darker colours will recede and the warmer light colours will advance creating an illusion of width.

The presence of light will greatly affect colour. Fluorescent light tends to be cool lighting and brings out more green or blue in a colour. Incandescent light bulbs will bring more of the red or warmth out in a colour. Always check your paint colours in day and night, because they will appear different.

Over a large surface area most colours will appear darker so it's a good idea to choose your paint a shade or two lighter than what you want.

Never overdo it. Three colours is the absolute maximum for any room.