How Do You Pitch a Finished Kitchen to Los Angeles Home Press

A pitch does one job: it gives an editor a reason to look at a single finished room before they have looked at anything else in the inbox. For a kitchen remodeling company in Los Angeles, CA, that reason has to be visible in the first two lines, and the working notes kept at kitchen remodeling publicity los angeles bridge music magazine begin from that point, with the story and not the contractor.

Find the story inside the project

Editors at local home and design outlets rarely run a kitchen because it is new. They run it because something about it can be told in a sentence. A 1920s bungalow in Silver Lake that kept its original window and still gained a working island is a story. A galley kitchen in a Westside condo that lost a wall and gained a pantry is a story.

Photography decides whether anyone reads

Most pitches die at the images. Shoot after the homeowner has styled the counters down to almost nothing, in daylight, with the cabinet doors closed and then a few open. Capture the wide view from the doorway, one from the opposite corner, and three detail frames. Name the files by room and angle.

Get the homeowner on record first

No project should be pitched until the homeowner has agreed in writing to be photographed in the house, to have the neighborhood named, and to be contacted by a writer. Many owners in the San Fernando Valley and in Pasadena are glad to take part, but some prefer that the street stay out of print. Ask before the final walkthrough, while the relationship is warm.

Match the pitch to the outlet

A neighborhood paper in Glendale wants the local angle and the household. A regional design publication wants the material choices and the layout problem solved. An online home site wants a clean before and after. Send each editor a short note written for that reader, with three images attached.

Timing and permits

Editors plan seasonally, so a kitchen finished in autumn may be pitched for a spring issue. Keep the permit record handy as well. A project that passed final inspection with the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, and that can show it, answers the quiet question every editor has about whether the work was done properly. In Santa Monica and other cities with their own building departments, the same record comes from the local office.

Follow up once, then move on

One follow up after a week is normal. After that, keep the room in a gallery on the company site, tag it by neighborhood, and wait for the next finished job. A steady stream of well shot, well documented projects does more for visibility across Los Angeles County than one heavily pushed kitchen ever will.