Staging Tip: Using Cookbooks to Create Themes for Staging Your Kitchen

In my last post, I showed you some creative ways to use cookbooks right out of your own library to stage your kitchen.  Today, I’m going to show you how you can “kick it up a notch” and actually create a theme around the cookbook you choose.  Here are two examples for you to model (click on the photos to enlarge them):

In the first kitchen, I used a Pasta cookbook and carried the theme with decorative oil bottles, a bottle of olive oil with a more traditional Italian packaging, a pasta dish towel, and a pasta bowl filled with faux tomatoes, onions, garlic and dried pasta.  On the opposite side, for the eat-in peninsula/bar area, I created bowls of tri-colored corkscrew pasta and added a faux red tomato in the center.  The colors really pop against the black granite countertops.  To refine this setting, I would add a colorful placemat under each bowl to complete the look.

In the second kitchen, I used a Sweet Treats cookbook and created a combination coffee and baking theme.  As you can see, I used coffee prints and metal art that spelled out different types of coffee like latte and espresso to decorate the area where a refrigerator would have been.  This is actually a bonus tip for you.  If you have a small kitchen, to create the illusion of more space, move the refrigerator out and decorate that area.

On the opposite side of the counter, I had a glass canister filled with biscotti and a large metal mixing bowl filled with baking tools such as a rolling pin, wooden mixing spoons, a spatula and boxes of cookies.  At the other end of the counter, I created a coffee tray using espresso cups and saucers, a french press filled with coffee beans, a jar of coffee condiments like vanilla, cinnamon, and chocolate, and two wrapped biscottis (from the glass jar), all placed on top of a dish towel.  A couple of loose ivy leaves adds some color.  On both sides, I used a basket of greenery to fill space, add texture and color.

These are not expensive or difficult counterscapes to create, but as you can see, the theme makes it a lot more fun and interesting.  There are plenty of cookbooks with possible themes available…enjoy the creative process.  Feel free to post some of your creations here.  I would love to see what you come up with.