Why houses look dipped in milk

You know the drill. You open Zillow at 11 p.m., just to look, and within three scrolls you've seen forty houses and zero colors. White walls. White trim. White subway tile touching white countertops touching white cabinets.  

Why it matters: Baton Rouge has too much character — the live oaks, the shotguns, the general chaos — to be staging our houses like a dental office waiting room. White is not neutral. White is a choice that isn't.

The big picture: This isn't just a local thing. From Baton Rouge TND builds to tract homes coast to coast, white has taken over too many rooms in the United States. 

The details: There are real reasons flippers and agents default to white — and they mostly make economic sense:

• It usually skips the primer coat, which saves the flipper money they will not pass on to you.
• It pairs with any furniture, any art, any decade of stuff.
• It reads as "move-in ready" to buyers who don't want to think about paint.
• It photographs well, which matters now that your house has to perform on Zillow, Instagram and Redfin before any human walks through the door.

Zoom in: A graphic designer friend of RedEye actually makes a decent case for it: white walls are a gallery. Pick the wrong blue and you're committed. Leave it white and every piece of art you hang looks intentional.

The bottom line: The white wall isn't a trend so much as a surrender — to the algorithm, to the listing photo, to the buyer who needs to see themselves in a room without any interference from actual color. It works. It sells. It photographs. Say cheese.