How to Stage a Room for a Photo Shoot

I got an exciting e-mail from a magazine the other day.  I’ll leave it at that for now since nothing is determined at this point. But, they requested some pictures of our kitchen.  Let me tell ya’…that’s motivating!

I’m not exactly sure how the “pros” stage a room, but here’s my process (that I learned from reading how the “pros” do it!  tee hee):

First of all, realize magazine rooms aren’t reality.  Here’s reality:

And this, too…

Did I just hear you gasp?   I’m terribly sorry if you thought my house was picture perfect at all times.  Obviously, it isn’t.  But, it really didn’t take long to get it in some semblance of order once I stopped crafting got to speed cleaning.

It was much better, but then I needed to get nit picky about all the details.  I removed/ fixed the obvious unsightly things:

Once all the extra “uglies” were removed, I added in accessories where needed.  I again went to the the flower beds for some colour.

Then I just moved and mixed things around until the room seemed balanced and in order.

So, here it is (like magic??)

Before:

And after:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Ahhh…if only it could stay that way…