Staging is a process of prepping each part of a house before selling it. The purpose of this is to make a house more appealing to potential buyers. Each part of the house has a different purpose and comes with different sets of challenges. Proper guidelines have to be followed to make the staging process work.
We are coming up with a series of posts for staging a house and in this post, we have explained about the staging of a kitchen.
1. Deep Clean
A kitchen may or may not be the most used space in a house but it undergoes the most wear and tear. Whatever you do to keep the kitchen clean, slight oil stains, the raw food materials smell, a light stench from the garbage and the likes will remain part of the kitchen. So it is always better to get a professional deep cleaning done to stage a clean, sparkly kitchen.
2. Repair the necessities
It might not be economically feasible for you to give an entire makeover to the kitchen but make sure all the necessary repair works are done before the staging. If any appliances that come with the house like a chimney or dishwasher is not working properly, get it fixed. Make sure all the cabinet fixtures and drawers are in good condition. If there is any chipped paint or stains in tiles/flooring, get it fixed. The lights, faucets, stove, and all the basic amenities should be ticked off for working conditions before the staging.
3. Declutter and Depersonalise
We cannot emphasize enough on this point. We have talked in detail about the importance of this process in our previous post on staging here. Do give it a read. Remove all the bulky cookware. Arrange only a set of cutlery and plates neatly. If you keep bills, warranty cards for the appliances, post its and personal photos/magnets on the fridge, remove all that. Avoid staging bulky appliances as it might affect the aesthetics of the kitchen. Cupboards are closed spaces but the visitors will want to see inside of the cupboards to get a fair idea about the space. So arrange the cupboards neatly. Make sure nothing lies around openly, be it garbage bags, half-used paper towel rolls or cleaning sponges. The idea here is to give enough physical space for the visitors to visualize their own kitchen.
4. Add details
Though decluttering and depersonalization are important, overdoing it will kinda make your kitchen look plain. It is important to add some details to give an enhanced look to your kitchen. You can have appliances like a coffee maker/kettle and toaster which won’t really occupy much space. You can also hang 3-4 cooking pans which will add a nice touch without cluttering the space. Plants are in trend now so make sure to add some small plants here and there. Other fine touches you can add are keeping fresh hand towels, a potpourri or fresh flowers in a vase. You can also add a fruit basket or a bowl of cookies.
5. Don’t miss the obvious
When we use the kitchen space for a longer time, we will eventually convert it to as per our convenience. For example, if you have a kitchen island, you might not necessarily use it to eat your food. But you cannot keep it the same way while staging. You have to add some chairs around and accessorize it a little. You might not be using any rug in the kitchen, your windows curtains could be dark in color or your lights are very stark. You have done all this for your reasons but do change all of it to the acceptable standards to get an overall pleasing look.
