3 Easy Things to Add WOW to a Kitchen Stove
Looking for extra WOW factors when staging the kitchen in your house?
There is no denying the kitchen is all important to buyers when they are considering a home. The kitchen is the heart of the home. Appliances, cabinets and flooring take priority in the kitchen when preparing to sale a home.
Minimizing items on the counter, having a fresh bowl of fruit such as lemons placed on the counter, allowing maximum natural light to flow into a kitchen are all important strategies when getting your kitchen presentation ready.
Often I am asked what item/items should be on the stove or if it is better to keep it clear from pots and pans and other items. If you are looking for an added WOW factor when presenting your kitchen, the stove is an excellent place to present a memorable picture that can draw additional positive reactions from potential buyers. You should strive for a cook top and oven that look sparkling, to reinforce the message of caring home owners and a well-maintained house.
Here are three easy things you can incorporate for the stove that help your buyer’s with a positive view of the kitchen. Giving the stove an eye-catching look engages buyers and makes the house’s kitchen more memorable:
Cleanliness of the cook top and oven. The first thing a buyer sees when moving up close to view the cook top is how clean and sparkling it is. Included in this cleanliness inspection, a majority of buyers will continue by opening the oven door. How clean these two areas are, may be interpreted by prospects of how you maintain your home over-all. For a buyer, a dirty stove may signal other house areas are not well maintained. The cook top and oven should not only be clean and spotless, they should shine. When thinking of how a deeply cleaned cook top and oven should look, picture their appearance when they were brand new. You may not be able to replicate brand new, but you can ensure you are very close to that look by keeping these areas scrupulously clean for when you are showing your house .
A gleaming stainless steel pot or pan placed on the cooking area, with a lid, attracts the eye in a positive way. You may immediately think of the traditional choice such as a tea kettle, but a more current look would be a stainless steel cooking container that is higher than it is wider, such as an asparagus steamer or a stock pot. An interesting cooking container implies this is a working kitchen. An advantage of a pot that is elevated higher than most pans, will give the cooking area a more dramatic appearance and helps buyers remember a kitchen.
An Enameled Dutch Oven draws the eye to the beauty of the stove. The Dutch Oven works well as an accent piece because of the clean design elements and color. When placing a Dutch Oven on the stove, it should never be wider than the cooking zone it is displayed on. The Dutch Oven makes a statement that this is a working kitchen. With its elegant looks it indicates durability and cooking power hallmarks of a practical kitchen. The color of the Dutch Oven can play an important role of adding an accent that boosts the ambiance of the stove area. Choose a color that adds a positive accent (Psychology of Color post); or a color that repeats a monochromatic kitchen look such as a white and stainless steel kitchen using a white Dutch Oven.
When adding a pot or pan for display (e.g., Dutch Oven, Asparagus Steamer, Stock Pot) on the cook top area, it should only be one (1) of these items, so it does not distract the buyer with overcrowding of pots and pans. The purpose of the displayed pot is to subtly enhance the positives of a kitchen by adding a small touch of warmth and good looks.
Whether a buyer likes to cook or not, they appreciate the ambiance and look of a working kitchen that has a memorable stove area. In the eyes of the buyer a house’s value increases with the possibility of a lifestyle that promotes the gathering of family and friends, and visions of shared good food.
Final Word: Look first at your own pots and pans to help stage this area.. Avoid displaying any extra items on your stove, such as salt and pepper shakers or a spice rack. Do not hang dishtowels on the oven handle. These items distract rather than enhance the look of an oven. If your kitchen design has pots and pans hanging above a stove or cook top area, do not add another pot or pan on the cook top – it will only make the area look too crowded.
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