Home staging help

[jent]

So our house has been on the market and we've started getting feedback from potential buyers. One of the biggest criticisms of our house is the kitchen/ dining set up: we don't have a formal dining room at all. The kitchen is big enough to eat in, but the prior owner put in a large island and we have counter-height chairs pulled up to that. The look of our kitchen, IMO, is great-- supposedly the prior owner was a hobby woodworker who did everything himself. Really nice quality wood cabinets and the island to match.

BUT we have no place for a table. (Just to explain our house a little, it's a cape with the downstairs divided into kitchen, LR, and 2 BRs and 2 more BRs upstairs. In theory, one could remove the wall between one BR and the LR and make an open LR/DR space. We talked about that but never did it-- basically DH was against it. If we have a lot of people over, I put a table in that BR and it is a makeshift DR.)

I'm pretty sure the island is freestanding. The realtor thinks we should take the island out and put in a small table. DH is against it because we would lose a lot of storage. Which we would, but we could deal-- I would just reorganize what we have and downsize a little.

So, what do you all think? Get rid of the beautiful island and show that our kitchen can hold a table? Or leave as is?

[khm]

I'd verify that it's freestanding, like actually get it out of the way and make sure it can be removed and the flooring under it looks fine.

I'd photograph the kitchen with a table (borrow one from a neighbor?).

Then, I'd bring the island back and put an 8x10 photo out with the kitchen in the alternate configuration and a brief note saying that the island is completely freestanding and removable upon the buyer's preference.

(Also, put both images on the listing site!)

[jent]

I'd verify that it's freestanding, like actually get it out of the way and make sure it can be removed and the flooring under it looks fine.

I'd photograph the kitchen with a table (borrow one from a neighbor?).

Then, I'd bring the island back and put an 8x10 photo out with the kitchen in the alternate configuration and a brief note saying that the island is completely freestanding and removable upon the buyer's preference.

(Also, put both images on the listing site!)

Great idea! I was going to photograph the island if we moved it and explain to potential buyers that we could put it back if they wanted. But this works too.

We *think* the island is moveable -- we've budged it an inch inn either direction. It's just heavy and we need to take everything out and top off to move it. As for the the floor, the vinyl is getting old and the color wouldn't match, but we could just use a rug to cover that.