So you need your dated kitchen in tip top shape in order to sell your home, but you find yourself short of the typical $30-40K for a full upgrade. What to do?
As a home stager, my experience has shown three key areas of the kitchen that are important to home buyers – appliances, counter tops and cabinets. Replacing old appliances with new working ones will make a huge difference. The buyer doesn’t have to worry about them not working or needing immediate maintenance. There are plenty of places to purchase these inexpensively, from appliance outlet centers to the big box retailers.
In a scenario where the appliances are fairly new, but the counter tops and cabinets are outdated, each will be fighting the eyes for attention! This was the case with a property that my client had been renting for some time and now was looking to sell. The fact that the appliances are fairly new gets lost with the dated cabinets and countertop. Plus the refrigerator had a slight lean toward the back wall, which made the room seem unbalanced. Lots of chaos!
I advised my client to tackle the large visual elephant in the room – the cabinets. I suggested painting all of the cabinets and the walls the same color white to brighten the room and melt the cabinets into the walls, making the kitchen feel larger. And of course, the refrigerator had to be straightened. She had both things done and this was the final result…
Look at that – the cabinets and countertops are playing nice! Notice that the countertops and floors were NOT changed, but each now becomes less of an issue with the cabinets painted. As I am becoming more familiar with Mohawk products, I do believe a nice engineered wood would have suited this kitchen quite nicely!
The good news for the seller was that she received 3 offers on the house after the first open house weekend and the house sold quickly thereafter. Perhaps by changing the floors she could have received some higher dollar offers?
Written by:
Roslyn Ashford
Professional Designer & Stager, www.rarooms.com
