Present2Sell - Devon Today Sep 2008

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Kitchens are crucial

The kitchen is one of those deal-breaker areas that can pose home-sellers a dilemma - how much to spend on improvements? The new buyer will surely have their own style and will not appreciate the implied cost of a brand new one if they don't like your choice!

Quite often, new home-owners like to spend a bit of time in their new kitchen figuring out its constraints and opportunities and how to merge these with their lifestyle.

We can't second guess our buyer's personal taste but we can at least allow the space to speak for itself so that buyers can more readily see themselves in it.

This is done by removing negative distractions, so clean scrupulously, especially around the cooker and grouting, finish any unfinished DIY, and put into storage any items infrequently used.

Remove every ornament and picture and sort by colour for accessorising later.

Assess your colour choices. Ideally, there is 70% of your neutral colour, 25% of your background and 5% of one accent colour. Need to re-decorate? Choose a neutral colour at the warm end of the spectrum and relate the others to that.

Accessorise using only those objects whose colour fits your scheme. Don't place objects on their own, make collections in threes.

Save some cupboard space in which to stow an empty box to keep all in-use items not on show. You can then quickly put everything away before viewings to ensure your kitchen is looking at its very best for minimum effort!

For more advice on interior design for home-owners or property presentation for home-sellers, call Jackie Sears on 01392 670485 or see www.present2sell.co.uk