Kitchens are so easy to stage if they are already empty. That means vacant homes are a stagers dream when it comes to the kitchen.

For sellers still live in the home, the kitchen is the nightmare room.

The expectation of the buyer is that the kitchen counters are clean and clear at all times and the sink is shiny and water spot free at all times. Any one w ho has children big or little knows what a dilemma this is. There is always somebody, who goes off and leaves a dish in the sink! Kitchens no doubt about it can be challenging.

That is why you need a kitchen vignette for your counter that is only for the house showing. Say what?

Just like many people have towels in the bathroom that no one ever uses, they are for show. I didn’t really believe that people did this, because I never did until I accidentally used one of my daughters rolled towels, I just thought she picked up rolling towels from her staging mom and any towel was a good towel. WRONG I WAS! My faux paus! I thought at least giving birth to the sweet girl gave me enough status to use a rolled towel. But I was wrong!

Back to the kitchen vignette ideas. What makes a kitchen vignette is something that one would really use in a kitchen, but of course you are not going too, after all the house is for sale, remember! To prepare the vignette, select 2-3 items to fill in a corner or break up a very long counter. For example a small plant, a candle and a book could be arranged as a vignette. Vignette is a term used in the theatre meaning a small scene.

Here are some of my favorite items to use, a pretty cookbook with big food photos and flip to a page with a luscious dessert, a pretty plate on a stand to coordinate the color scheme of the kitchen or the breakfast area, a stainless steel bowl with shiny red apples, a stainless steel teakettle, candles, green ivy plant, live or silk.

Things you don’t need in the kitchen, I promise for staging anyway, magnets on the refrigerator, presciption bottles on top of the refrigerator, a tea towel hanging over every bar and hook, trash cans in view anywhere in the kitchen. any loved and tattered cookbooks on the counters or shelves, an overstuffed recipe box, collections of roosters, pigs, chickens, frogs, fat men, etc. I am telling you the kitchen is easy to stage. If I can see it on the counter, the odds are pretty good, I don’t want to see it on the counter for staging that is, nothing personal.

Now if you live in the home while it is for sale, use fresh fruit, just buy plenty, because those red apples sitting out will get eaten more quickly, just the nature of staging, but they look so good, I took a couple with me for my snack at work, kind of thing.

For vacant home I think fake fruit is just fine. There’s no chance that the fake stuff will rot and get smelly, That would not be good for the stager’s reputation! I have fake lemons and fake pears, and fake red apples.

Beverly Carlson