I have officially reached the end of Pinterest. I have saved every kitchen that I love in my kitchens folder. I AM NOW READY TO START RENOVATING MY KITCHEN. (Do you think he heard me?)
As you already know: I am ALWAYS in design mode on my own house and looking for ideas for clients. I’m also sort of a real estate junkie and I make it my business to know the local market and am always scouting for real estate deals! What do those things all have in common? KITCHEN OBSESSION. (Yes, I love that million dollar home but the kitchen… IS… AWFUL).
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Yes, I am obsessed with kitchens. Recently, as I was staging for photographing our project in Vermont, something occurred to me: STAGING IS EVERYTHING.
Check out the before and afters on our Vermont Kitchen Project!
Whether you’re entertaining or showing your house that’s on the market, staging is the make it or break it of beautiful (or even MEH) kitchens. If you sift through your Kitchen board on Pinterest, what you’ll discover is that the ones you REALLY love are staged really well (which is why you saved it, whether you realize it or not!). They have been tricking you all this time… You saved a beautiful flower or branch arrangement that happens to be in a kitchen. But, you saved it, which is the important take away!
Don’t believe me? I’ll show you!
This kitchen, though probably stunning in person, would be a washed out BLAH in photos without the greenery and fruit. Notice how the big tin bucket with branches anchors the right side of the photo.
Just like the photo before, this kitchen is stunning. However, it has the potential in photos to appear too monochromatic and kind of cold. The branch arrangement, once again, anchors one side of the photo.
Look carefully… If you removed all of the accessories, would this space be very memorable? It’s not that it’s not an amazing kitchen, it’s breathtaking. But, in photos, it really needs some visual interest to look like a DREAM kitchen… which it certainly does here. They have arrangements on both sides here providing an interesting frame.
Would you save this photo? Of course you would!
And, wait, if you saved it… SO WILL YOUR FUTURE BUYERS! They’ll save it to their Pinterest board and obsess about it until they make you an offer over asking price and want to move in, like, yesterday!
So, how do we do that, Campers? Well, I’m going to tell you. I promise.
Step one: take everything off the countertops. Take everything off the shelves. Then add a few, specific things and shop your own stuff!
It’s really that easy: I’m going to show you how and provide links for everything we used here! Altogether, we spent $350 on staging, not including dishes (shhh, don’t tell!!!) and here is how it turned out:
A mirror in a kitchen you say? I say YES. A blank wall in between two windows was begging for a mirror. Mirrors brighten small spaces and reflect light. Win, win. Scale it BIGGER! (Unexpected can be GOOD and in this case, it’s kind of awesome). If you have a tiny kitchen, or a dark kitchen, I’m talking to you.
This mirror we found on Craig’s List for $60. (“If you stalk long enough, you will have success,” I always say!)
Don’t judge me. I have a thing for herbs in the kitchen, and this one wasn’t going without! The rails and bins are from the Kungsfors IKEA Collection. They are both beautiful and functional, and make the kitchen feel that much more cozy. The window is wider than the rails so we used scrap lumber and a Kreg Jig to install them.
Fresh herbs in the kitchen say, “There is some serious professional chef level cooking going down in this kitchen. You must buy this house.”
Don’t want to deal with hanging all those spice racks? Some fresh herbs tied with ribbon on the counter (in front of the chopping block) serves the same purpose for photos.
HOW CUTE IS THIS???
Demijohn: I’ll admit, I’m a little bit of a demijohn snob. What is a demijohn, you ask? I’ll tell you: What is a demijohn and how to use it in your decorating… I like them enough I wrote a whole post about them, because I’m an obsessive nerd. We found this perfect little demijohn at Hobby Lobby for around $20 and it’s perfect for this application!
Candlesticks: Also shown here, these TOTALLY AWESOME real Iron Candlesticks from Hobby Lobby are about $20 each (which I just went on and purchased more of because they’re on sale). Score!
Tree branch: Scalped right out of the woods on the kitchen property. FREE! (Visualize the clients AND Rainman looking at me sideways on staging/photo day walking toward the woods with pruning sheers in hand… “Where are you planning on putting a branch that big, Griswold?” But, I’ll leave it there, and keep it PG).
And that’s all you need for the corner of the island! As the photographer moves around, move your arrangement around so it’s anchoring the outside frame of the picture.
For this next corner I borrowed some items that belonged to the client (shop your own house!)… The little silver tray I used to hide the cord from the lamp. The little vases and tiny plant were also hers, and they look adorable in the spice cabinet!
And that lamp? I looked at about 500 lamps before I found this one with just enough fancy and just enough cottage-style to be convincing. And after I spent hours looking… I finally found it no place other than Amazon: The Perfectly Sized French-Style Countertop Lamp for around $30. (Some of the other sites are REALLY proud of their lamps and I’m just trying to be reasonable here).
The little oil paintings with gilded frames were a bit of a splurge and I found them on Ebay. I’m pretty sure there are some fairly convincing knockoffs at Target if you don’t want to be too extravagant and you’ll ultimately achieve the same look.
Notice how we moved the demijohn and candles for this shot? We moved them just enough so they’re anchoring an uninteresting side of the room and creating balance.
Every time we changed the camera angle, we repositioned the candles and spun the branches so they looked nice and full, but also just wild enough to be wonderful and daring.
Another angle for good measure! (Aren’t those fat candles just the coolest? Also on Hobby Lobby, if you’re looking).
Now, if you haven’t mastered the art of the shelfie, here’s a quick crash course:
Arrange in threes and in triangles. Okay, so we have a couple “twos” but it’s all about balance.
Here, everything but the new blue stripe dish towels and the White Pantry Soup Bowls and Plates from Williams Sonoma the client already had! It’s just a matter of arranging them in a pretty, uncluttered way.
There is a triangle of “tall items” and a triangle of bowls and a triangle at the top of crocks and teapots.
Believe it or not, those shelves used to be the temporary stair treads to the basement. You can find the black metal shelf brackets here if you’re looking to open up some space on your own wall!
Is your kitchen atrocious and preventing your house from selling? Check out our ideas on The Best Ways To Transform An Outdated Kitchen On A Tiny Budget.
The perfect cutting/charcuterie board corner: every one of these the client already had!
The Cambria Stoneware Kitchen Utensil Holder was from Pottery Barn but I think they may have been discontinued in that color. We displayed her wooden spoon collection in them and I think they look perfect!
Shades of blue created perfect, subtle pops of color in our staging. Wouldn’t you like to do some cooking in this kitchen?
If you’re in the market for quality RTA cabinets go to Lily Ann Cabinets and use offer code SDIY2018 to get 5% off! (The cabinets pictured are Grey Shaker Elite).
Have a house on the market? Download The Ultimate Home Showing Checklist FREE on how to get ready for and nail your real estate showings!
Can you think of some other important parts of staging a kitchen? Let us know in the comments!
Thanks for hanging out today! Cheers!
*All photos by @loganbspring on Instagram
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