Painting Full Log Walls Inside…The Effect Painted Logs Might Have on the Resale of Your Log Home

We are actually toying with a couple of “non-traditional” ideas when it comes to color choices for both the outside and inside of our log home.

I’ll talk more about our exterior color choices later…

For now, let’s focus on some of the color ideas that we are considering for one or two of our full-log walls inside.

What follows are some of the interior color choices we’re thinking about… and why we’ve kind of had a change of heart after considering resale values.

The photo above gives you an idea of what I currently envision most of the interior walls of our log home will look like:

• 6×12 flat logs
• no chinking
• dark stair railing
• darker brown accents throughout

First, Some Examples…

The following pictures show some of the ways that you can still have a nice log home without necessarily having “shades of brown” as your primary color scheme.

Typically, you’ll see one wall painted to serve as a focal spot or an accent wall.

I have no interest in painting all — or even most — of the log walls inside our house. Just one, maybe two of the smaller walls instead.

Like these:

Then, Reality Set In

This photo (at right) has been my inspiration for months now. It has remained front & center inside my Idea Notebook.

However, thanks to the cautious words of a general contractor friend of ours, we’ve had a slight change of heart about painting any of the log walls inside our new log home. Simply put, he thinks a log home with say… one interior wall painted red, would be harder to sell than a similar log home with that wall not painted red.

He reminded us of the fact that it’s next to impossible to get paint color out of the logs after it’s been applied. It pretty much “bleeds” deep into the log. So, you definitely can’t just “sand it out” or anything simple like that.

Your only real option would be to paint the wall an even darker color. In this case, it would probably mean painting (and/or staining) that wall a very very dark shade of brown — which would be the most “neutral” choice, as I see it.

We’re Talking About Log Walls

Of course, I’m talking about painting the actual log walls here… not sheetrock or drywall, which could be used for interior walls and thereby avoid this dilemma altogether. That’s what most people do… but not us.

In our case, we really like the look and texture of actual logs inside a log home. I mean, that is one of the biggest reasons we decided to build a log home in the first place! So we’re trying to avoid using drywall for any of our interior walls. To keep the “log look” inside, we’re planning to use a matching log siding on the few interior walls we have. (Ours is a very “open” floor-plan. There will be very little log siding inside.)

Yep, you can do anything you want with accent walls that aren’t made from actual log. So, if you’re an ultra-conservative person, drywall or sheetrock are probably your safest choices for adding color to the walls inside your log home. That way, you can personalize with paint and other unique accents to show your “true” personality and style inside your home, and still get as crazy as you want on a wall that can be repaired, replaced, or re-treated quite simply.

Other Painted Wood Options

Of course there are a couple of other ways to get around painting the actual logs inside your home, too. For one, log siding. Or, tongue & groove wood used as wall paneling. Heck, even things like beadboard and wainscoting are popular inside log homes these days! There are actually lots of great ways to add “pops” of color here & there inside your log home.

…It’s just that we were hoping it would look like 100% log inside our log home.

Plus, in my mind, it’s easier (on the front-end) to simply paint a log wall the color you want in the first place. Then, just cross your fingers and hope that others will like it, too.

Resale Values Of Log Homes With Painted Walls

I don’t know how to find the degree to which painted log walls might affect a log home’s resale value. But my gut tells me that “popular opinion” would be something along these lines: “Don’t paint your logs unless you are willing to live with the fact that someone else might not like the walls painted that particular color.”

The fact of the matter is… whenever you move from one house to another, you always have to change some things around, paint some walls, and stage your home in such a way that others can actually visualize themselves and their “stuff” inside your home.

So, color or no color on some of the log walls… if/when it comes time to sell this log home, we will probably be manipulating some things to make them appear more neutral and thereby more favorable to others anyway. I think we could probably find a satisfactory workaround for painted walls that would please most people. (Besides… there are probably more people than you think who can appreciate something as simple as a red accent wall — don’t you think?)

What We’re Going To Do

I’m actually not sure what we’re going to do at this point. But it’s still early. And we have plenty of time to decide.

In all honesty, if you’re going to build a log home — a dream home — then don’t you want to thoroughly enjoy it?… on a daily basis. If that means incorporating different colors, sizes and shapes into your “palette”, then so be it. It’s your house!

I’d hate to talk myself out of something we would truly enjoy simply for the fact that we might sell our home at some point in the far distant future. Between you & me, the chances of this are actually quite slim, because Jim and I are viewing this as our forever home at this point. But hey, never say never, right?