• What Is Staging in Real Estate?
• Staging a Kitchen for a Photoshoot (6 Actionable Tips)
• Virtual Staging – A Fast and Affordable Alternative
• Virtually Staging a Kitchen With PhotoUp Is Fast and Affordable

Sellers and real estate agents often overlook the kitchen when staging a house for a photoshoot.

Yet buyers are heavily influenced by a home’s kitchen when thinking about making an offer on a home. Staging makes every room in the house look its absolute best—so don’t forget the kitchen!

In this article, we’re going to show you how to stage a kitchen for a photoshoot, sharing 6 actionable tips to help it look stunning.

What Is Staging in Real Estate?

Staging a home means preparing it to go on the market for sale by making it look as close to perfect as possible🚪🛏️. 

Listing photography must be high-quality, and when potential buyers come to see the home, it must look its best. Home staging is one way to do this.

There are significant benefits to staging, including:

• Enhanced Curb Appeal: Staged homes tend to look more inviting, encouraging more buyers to consider viewing your property
• Staging Helps Buyers See the Property’s Potential: It’s not always easy to see the full potential of empty or cluttered rooms
• Increases the Selling Price: Staging helps sell properties faster, and often for higher selling prices

Staging typically involves cleaning, decluttering, rearranging, removing, or even adding furnishings and decor—and sometimes, renovating rooms to make the property as attractive as possible.

The kitchen is one of the most essential rooms potential buyers consider when deciding whether to view or make an offer on a house. Therefore, the kitchen should be staged to help it look amazing. 

Before we dive into our tips, here’s a cool infographic showing how to master kitchen staging before a photoshoot:

With that in mind, let’s move on to our tips on how to stage a kitchen for a photoshoot.

Staging a Kitchen for a Photoshoot (6 Actionable Tips)

Before the photographer comes with their camera, prepare the kitchen for staging using these 6 tips:

1. Depersonalize the Kitchen🍽️

Potential buyers need to be able to see themselves living in a new home, and in this case, cooking in a new kitchen. In other words, they need to be able to see this kitchen as their own.

Therefore, all personal items of the seller should be removed. These include:

• Family photos
• Vacation memorabilia
• Children’s art and school work on the refrigerator
• And don’t forget to remove personal mail

You want buyers to focus on the features of the kitchen, not the photos from your recent vacation magnetically hung on your refrigerator.

2. A Clean Kitchen Is Essential👩🏻‍🍳

An absolutely clean kitchen is essential for real estate photography. Preparing the kitchen for staging will ensure that every surface and item is as clean as possible.

This includes:

• Appliances: Remove fingerprints and smudges
• Countertops: Store away any unnecessary items
• Cabinets: Dust or polish the surfaces 
• Flooring: Wash the floors and pick up any items
• Windows: Ensure the window treatments are even, and consider washing the windows
• Sink: Even the kitchen sink should shine and sparkle

When staging the kitchen for a photoshoot, no detail, no matter how small, should be overlooked. 

3. Kitchens Make People Think About Entertaining and Socializing ☕︎

Obviously, buyers will associate the kitchen with cooking, but they will also be thinking about entertaining. The kitchen is often the room where family and friends gather to talk, eat, and socialize.

Therefore, make the kitchen look as inviting as possible by placing:

• Stools for seating in front of kitchen counter overhangs and islands
• Placemats and table settings on tables and eating areas
• Have fresh fruit out in a decorative bowl
• Flowers are always a warm and cheerful addition
• Place a bottle of wine with some wine glasses on the counter

Take the time to make the kitchen look like a welcoming place where people want to relax and unwind. 

Quick & Easy

AI Virtual Staging

Interiors. Landscapes. Commercial. Virtually transform any space.

Try AI Virtual Staging Learn More

4. Update the Hardware 🎛️

If the kitchen’s current hardware is outdated or dull, consider replacing it. Silver and brushed metals are still popular options, while gold and brass fixtures tend to look dated. 

With this in mind, don’t forget:

• Draw pulls
• Door handles
• The faucet
• Hinges
• And even the light switches

Hardware changes need not be overly expensive. Also, make sure these all match and reflect contemporary styles and tastes. 

5. A Staged Kitchen Should Look Inviting♨️

While you want the kitchen to look warm and inviting, it should also have a clean, sophisticated, and even generic look to it. Consider these tips:

• Less Is More: Don’t have too many items on counters or tabletops
• If Possible, Make Sure All the Appliances Match: Think about adding matching panels to the appliances if necessary
• Avoid Garish Colors: Stick with white and neutral shades; bright paint colors and busy wallpaper can be distracting

Of all the design themes that tend to work best in kitchens, modern, neutral design styles will stay fresh and be most powerfully appealing. 

When staging a kitchen for a photoshoot, everything should match and be soothing, nothing too eccentric or unusual. 

6. Add Interest With Simple Decor Pieces🪴

If after staging, the kitchen looks a bit bland and even sterile, add a few interesting decor pieces, but do so sparingly. For example:

• A glass or ceramic fruit bowl can add a burst of color
• Whimsical kitchen towels can be a charming extra
• Even a single flower in a vase can make the kitchen look sophisticated, without overdoing it 

Remember, buyers tend to be looking for modern, up-to-date conveniences in the kitchen — so stage the photoshoot accordingly.

Now that we’ve shared 6 tips for staging a kitchen for a photoshoot, let’s share one more piece of advice — consider virtual staging.

Virtual Staging: A Fast and Affordable Alternative🛋️

There’s an affordable and easy alternative to staging a kitchen for a photoshoot – virtually stage it!

Virtual staging is a technology that allows real estate photo editors and designers to digitally furnish and decorate a photograph of a room. 

Using the photo(s), virtual stagers can:

• Add or remove items from any kitchen
• Update appliances, countertops, and cabinets
• Virtually remodel or repair any area
• And make color changes to walls or backsplashes

Virtual staging can do almost anything you can imagine, giving the kitchen the desired look and style to help sell the home. 

Benefits of Virtual Staging

To give you a better idea, here are some key benefits of virtual staging:

• On average, virtual staging is up to 97% cheaper than traditional staging
• Virtual staging can also reduce time on the market by 50%
• The staging is done digitally and, therefore, isn’t labor-intensive. It’s less disruptive to the seller
• It’s fast—most virtual staging companies need only 24-48 hours for turnaround
• You can even digitally repair properties under construction and help buyers see the home’s full potential 

Here are more powerful staging statistics to consider:

The bottom line? Yes, traditional home staging, including the kitchen, can help sell a home at a higher price. But it takes time and quite a bit of money. 

Virtual staging is faster and less expensive. Plus, it offers greater variety and flexibility. 

After all, the point of staging in real estate is about showing the buyer the room’s potential to entice them further. 

Quick & Easy

AI Virtual Staging

Interiors. Landscapes. Commercial. Virtually transform any space.

Try AI Virtual Staging Learn More

Virtually Staging a Kitchen With PhotoUp Is Fast and Affordable

Now that you understand the value of virtual staging—including for the kitchen—let PhotoUp help make it easy without breaking the bank💸. 

PhotoUp has more than 12 years in the business and works with several hundred skilled virtual stagers and photo editors. It’s hard to surpass PhotoUp’s solid quality, outstanding service, and excellent pricing. 

Our virtual staging service is simple and easy to use, taking just a few quick steps. In 24 hours or less, we’ll send you proofs of your virtually staged kitchen for you to review, approve, and download.

Additionally, the virtually staged images are high-resolution, optimized for the web, and ready for use on your MLS or your single property websites.

PhotoUp Virtual Staging Uploader Tutorial

Want to see how easy it is to get started? Then check out our virtual staging uploader video tutorial:

It’s really that easy! And there’s more…

A One-Stop Shop for Real Estate Marketing

Except for virtual staging, PhotoUp is a complete one-stop shop for real estate marketing and also offers additional services such as:

• Real estate photo editing
• Virtual house tours
• Single property websites
• Property flyers
• House portraits
• And floor plans

We have everything you need to create impressive real estate photography that will impress clients and sell listings faster at higher rates!

Sign up for a free PhotoUp account today and leverage the faster option to stage your kitchen with our professional virtual staging service!

For a limited time, we even offer 10 free credits you can use for any of our services when signing up for an account.

We hope this blog post helped you learn how to stage a kitchen for a photoshoot. Before you go, make sure to check out the following valuable resources as well:

• Can You Do Your Own Virtual Staging?
• Does Virtual Staging Help Sell Homes Faster?
• 10 Benefits of Virtual Staging for Real Estate Agents
• How to Virtually Stage a Room in Less Than 5 Minutes
• Virtual Staging vs Real Staging: Which Home Staging Is Best?