Kitchen Staging Ideas (Counters, Table & Decor)

Staging your kitchen before listing it on the market can determine how quickly your home sells. The kitchen is one of the most important rooms in the home and its condition has a huge impact on potential buyers. A remodeled or updated kitchen can drastically improve how quickly your home is on the market and the amount a buyer is willing to spend.

Kitchen Counter Staging Ideas

The Kitchen is the heart of every home. Whether you are planning to sell your home, or you just want to create a warm, bright, and spacious space for entertaining, it is always good to know some decorating and styling tips. Before you can stage your kitchen counter you need to check your counter if there are things that need to be repaired, re-grouted, refaced, and sanded.

• Repair countertops that are chipped. If your kitchen counter is made of granite, you can repair any chipped sections with epoxy instead of opting to replace the entire slab.
• Re-grout tile countertops. Dull and discolored kitchen countertops will easily have a new look and feel by re-grouting.
• For laminate kitchen countertops, an easy fix to breathe new life into your counter is to resurface or paint over them instead of replacing your dated laminate countertop.
• For butcher block counters, it is best to sand and oil your butcher block countertop so they are in the best shape and will have a fresher look.

Once you have made some improvements to your kitchen counter, you are now ready to stage your counter.

Kitchen Island Counter Staging Ideas

Mix and Match Decor Elements – If you have a kitchen island, there are a few things you can do to make it even more appealing such as mixing and matching centerpieces at varying heights, shapes, and textures.

Display Seasonal Items – Choosing home decor pieces that represent the season of the year can add character and personality to the space. You may also display fruit and flowers of the season. Display some of your favorite dinnerware or kitchen pieces with those fun patterns and shapes.

Displaying a few of your favorite holiday decor pieces can enhance a festive mood without overdoing it.

Go with a Theme – Coordinate containers to hold your collection or group items with similar colors. You may also group items in your kitchen island in a tray even if the grouping does not have much in common – it makes it feel more intentional.

Keep Things Organized – Use baskets or serving trays to organize and group like-minded items together to create a cohesive look.

Use Textiles for Color – To brighten your interior design use table mats, dish towels, and napkins to add color and texture. Place kitchen pads or rug runners with the color you desire and tie it all in.

Create a Chopping Area – Laying your favorite cutting board across the countertop can present an appealing look that reinforces the chef’s kitchen style.

Add Greenery – Bringing in a small tray with green vegetables or a small houseplant can promote a natural feel.

Kitchen Table Staging Ideas

The kitchen table or dining room table will always be a place to touch base or have a meaningful conversation over meals. A bare table can be cold and uninviting, so it is always great to set up your table with a few place settings enough to inspire and decorate with accessories in order to create a welcoming table arrangement.

Focus on the seating and seating arrangement, it is always important to show that there is enough space where people can comfortably sit and add seating if there is a need to.

Lighting does a lot, so it is important to keep your dining area bright and breezy. It is best if there is a great deal of natural light coming into the dining area as it brings warmth into your kitchen, making it more welcoming. Instead of using heavy window treatments, try using sheer drapes or blinds.

Outdated kitchen lighting fixtures need to be updated and replaced by modern or classic style lighting fixtures to add more to the room’s ambiance. Add dimmers or upgrade to smart light bulbs which can be controlled with your phone for a more dramatic effect. For an upscale touch, install under-cabinet LED strips to highlight your countertop and serve as task lighting.

Staging Kitchen Cabinets

Updating your kitchen cabinets is the best way to give your old cabinets a makeover. Furnish them with a fresh coat of paint which will give an entirely new look and add color to your kitchen.

Choosing the Right Paint

Before painting your kitchen cabinets and drawer faces, choose the right paint to use for your type of cabinet whether it is wood, laminate or metal. Wooden kitchen cabinets are the best type of surface to paint. If your cabinets were previously painted with water-based latex paint, you might want to stick with the same type of paint.

Remember that you can opt to use latex paint over oil-based paints; but if your cabinets have been finished with latex paint, oil-based paint would not adhere well if painted over latex. If in case you are not sure of which type of old paint was used, latex will be a safe type of paint to use.

Acrylic latex-based paint is odorless, durable, and can be easily cleaned up with soap and water. It is also best to go with a semi-gloss paint for easy clean-up than if you paint your kitchen cabinets with flat or eggshell type of finish.

Kitchen Cabinets Hardware

One of the most effective kitchen staging ideas you can implement is to refresh your cabinet hardware. You can either refinish your old cabinet hardware or buy new hardware that will add to your kitchen’s new look. Choose kitchen cabinet hardware that fits your personal style and should match your kitchen theme and the type of door cabinets you have. Also, consider the color of your kitchen cabinets when deciding on the hardware.

Top Kitchen Cabinet Hardware Choices

• Contemporary Metal pull hardware is elegant and functional such as stainless-steel knobs that compliments almost any kitchen type cabinets.
• Brushed Brass hardware gives the kitchen a touch of warmth.
• Long, Smooth Tubular Kitchen Pulls compliments contemporary and modern kitchens
• Vintage and Antique Knobs
• English Brass
• Solid Copper Knobs
• Bronze Cup Pulls

Soft Close Hinges and Slides

Two sought-after features are soft close kitchen cabinet hinges and slides which are often used in contemporary designs. The hardware system allows for the kitchen cabinet doors and drawers to close softly and silently, thus reducing the noise in your kitchen. Drawers slow down with gentle automatic ease when it is at its last twenty-five degrees of closure. The soft close feature is also kid-safe and extends the life of your kitchen cabinets and drawers.

Open Shelving

Open shelving is one of the major design trends that sets your own kitchen and decorating personality style and is a way to display your most attractive kitchenware, glassware, and ceramics instead of hiding them away in cabinets. Keep things interesting by stacking your kitchenware with varying heights, color coding kitchen items, stacking ceramics in repetition in each row and incorporating some artwork and plants.

Kitchen Appliances

It is important to reconsider your kitchen appliances and ensure they have matching styles and finishes, or at least they are all the same color. Integrate your kitchen appliances with your kitchen cabinetry and make sure it compliments your kitchen design. When possible store your small appliances out of sight in a cabinet or pantry unless they are part of your overall staging theme.

Declutter Your Kitchen

Kitchen counters should be clutter-free – it is always best to have a fresh and clean space. A crowded kitchen counter may appear that there is not enough storage space. It is also not very welcoming and not aspirational at all, for potential buyers or for your guests. It is also good to depersonalize your fridge, take down fridge photos, kid’s art, and magnets, and store it away for safekeeping. Everyday appliances like coffee makers, toasters, and blenders do not need to be on display and need to be stored away.

Bring in decorative touches – If there is a windowsill in your kitchen, bring in herbs and plants in order to add some fresh elements into your kitchen. Display a bowl of fruit, dry goods, and a cookbook on the counter. Get more tips on how to declutter kitchen counters here.

Organizing Your Kitchen

Organizing your kitchen means having an efficient and functional space to cook and entertain. It is also important to have a clean cabinet and counter that is free of clutters in order to enjoy being in your kitchen. Use clear containers to store items inside kitchen cabinets such as sauce mixes, gravy mixes, cereals, gelatin, pudding mix, and pasta.

Use drawer dividers that allow you to place a spot for each cooking utensil and keep other miscellaneous things, in order to easily find things when you need them.

Defining the zones in your kitchen will make everything easily accessible. Group cabinet and drawer items that are alike into zones:

• Classify and group “Everyday Items” which includes plates, bowls, basic glassware, cups, cutlery, and serving ware.
• Put together “Cooking Items” and place them near your oven or range. These items may include pots, pans, dishes, cutting boards, baking items, measuring cups, measuring spoons, mixing bowls, and wooden spoons.
• Arrange “Accessories and Storage Items” near the fridge such as Tupperware, food storage items, food wrap, Ziploc bags, tin foil, and other “to-go” items.
• Classify items and group them in a “Coffee and Bar Zone” such as coffee cups, coffee pots, coffee accessories, wine glasses, shot glasses, and other bar accessories.
• Dry goods, spices, and large kitchen equipment can be placed and arranged in the pantry.
• Cleaning supplies, hand soaps, recycling, and garbage bags need to be put together under the kitchen sink.
• Sort and group your special items like holiday or other seasonal items which you typically use when hosting or other special serveware and keepsakes.

Make sure that you position all your items correctly when arranging them; keep items you use often at eye level and those you use a little less and be stored further away or can be placed up higher.

Make use of the wall spaces in your kitchen or ceiling rack to hang pots and pans to free up cupboard space and install magnetic knife holders. Mount a rack for spices and for fresh hanging herbs. Install hooks underneath cabinets to hold mugs or other kitchen gadgets above the countertop.

Living in a Staged Kitchen

Even if your home is not on the market, learning to stage your kitchen can be very rewarding and of course, can make a big difference when selling your house. Hanging artwork or photos on the wall gives a homey feeling. Creative placement of runners or rugs adds depth, dimension, pattern, and color to the room.

Aim for a light and bright look, maintain the staged look, and keep everything spotless clea,n and well-organized.  Lastly, living in a staged home may not be easy and may not come naturally, but if you can adjust and get in on the challenge, it can be a lot of fun and may turn out to be a great and memorable time altogether.

Finally, if you want to help your real estate listing stand out without having to purchase expensive decor or hire an interior designer there are a variety of virtual staging software programs that can help.