Guide to Preparing Your Home for the Entertaining Season

Having a home that is both comfortable enough to live in and to be able to host your dear ones is a win-win situation. This especially becomes important during the holiday season, when all you wish is to spend time with the ones you love and cherish. So, if you’ve always dreamt of hosting night soirees or having family and friends over for the holidays, this article is for you. Our guide for preparing your home for the entertaining season will help to get you started.

We might get you thinking of ways to style your small space for gatherings or how to find the perfect arrangement in your larger entertainment areas. So, stay tuned for our entertainment advice.

The complete guide for preparing your home for the entertaining season

When having guests over for holidays, you might worry about how to accommodate them, apart from entertaining them. You’ll soon find out that your home layouts are crucial when it comes to both of these aspects.

If, for instance, your home is a bit cramped with furniture, there’s always someone to help with this task. It would be best to hire professional furniture movers to take your unnecessary at the time belongings to safe storage space. This will help in making your home refreshed and breathable. Additionally, it will help free up space for your loved ones and ensure they won’t trip over multiple things you have lying around.

Also, if you’re a recent buyer moving into a brand-new space, our guide will aid in making your home hosting and entertaining functional. So, let’s momentarily see how to succeed in preparing your home for the entertaining season.

Create a welcoming first impression

As you start thinking about making your home enjoyable for your guests, it’s good to start from the very beginning. In most cases, the front entrance or foyer creates the first impression. Therefore, it’s worth making it welcoming and inviting.

Here are some ideas to set an inviting tone when your guests first enter your home:

• Add a statement with wall colors, a rug choice, or hang an eye-catching work of art to decorate your walls
• Add plants or flowers to make your entrance feel fresh and homey
• Set up a bench for taking off shoes, an umbrella stand, wall hooks to make your guest comfortable, and so on

Think of seating arrangements

Inviting friends and family is an opportunity to sit down, talk, and connect. That’s why ensuring your guests have options regarding seating is vital.

So, as you design the layout of your living and dining areas, make sure you create multiple sections for seating. For instance, you could put a couple of chairs and armchairs around the fireplace, near the window, and around the kitchen island.

Additionally, you can get creative with other spaces you have. You could, for example, use your dining area or your basement to host a sit-down dinner. Even the guest and exercise rooms can get another function during holidays if necessary.

Utilize your kitchen island to succeed in preparing your home for the entertaining season

When on a mission to entertain guests during holidays, your kitchen island will be your best friend. If it’s large enough, it can be used as both food and dining table. Nevertheless, even if it isn’t gigantic, no worries. Your kitchen island can be a preparation station or a welcoming buffet table.

No matter the case, people will naturally navigate toward the place where food and booze are.

Have spaces for multiple guest interests

Not everyone will want to sit around the TV and watch a football match or at the dinner table the whole night. Therefore, it would be good to think of some alternatives when it comes to entertaining your guests. Of course, you don’t have to have a fully equipped gaming room for this purpose. But, for example, you could have a pool table for more active guests or have poker tables set up.

Finally, many adults with children could say they cannot come as finding babysitters during the holiday season is pretty impossible. But, if you’re hosting families with kids, there are some things you can do to make it easier on them. You could hire someone to look after the kids or set up a children’s table with yummy snacks, markers, colored papers, glue, scissors, and play-doh to keep them entertained and in one place.

Set the mood with special features

Lights, especially during the holiday season, are vital for creating a festive mood. You can add an exciting lamp or string lights in your entryway and windows to create a jubilant atmosphere. Choosing warm-colored light bulbs that aren’t harsh to the eye and create a cozy and warm vibe would be good.

Apart from the lighting, music plays an essential role in hosting too. You could consider adding a built-in sound system to ensure each room has music or place small speakers strategically around your rooms to achieve this effect.

Ultimately, you’ll want to make your home comfy and cozy. The best way to do this is to include different throw pillows and blankets for everyone to relax, hold, or lay on.

Show your guests you care

Finally, if you have guests for just over one night or a couple of days, it’s important to go the extra mile and show them some love. Here are some ideas you can achieve this:

• Clean your bathroom, and stock it up with extra towels and toilet paper
• Add necessary toiletries, like mints, deodorants, toothpaste, disposable toothbrushes, pads, and similar things, in case your guests have forgotten to bring theirs
• Set up a coffee station in your kitchen so they can serve themselves
• Stock up on snacks and beverages
• Add extra blankets to your guest rooms
• Declutter your space of unnecessary things that will make your home look messy

The takeaway from preparing your home for entertaining season

Hosting can be wonderful and exciting, but it has its share of anxieties too. So, we hope our article helps you in preparing your home for the entertaining season and gives you a clear idea of what to expect and what to prepare for.