8 Entertaining Must-Haves for Your Home
With the weather cooling down and the holiday season providing entertaining opportunities, you might wonder how you can make the most of the space your home has to offer. If you are in the market for a new home or looking to renovate and love to entertain, check out these eight must-haves to be the party throwers everyone loves.
By Melanie Bunting-Seymour
1. Adequate Seating
Make sure you have a variety of seating available. Use a kitchen island with bar stools to make your kitchen a place where people can sit as they need. Factor in space for people to stand, linger around the island, and allow yourself room to cook and place food. Don’t forget how useful living room seating can be. Arrange your couches or armchairs to enable people to sit and be close enough to continue their conversations. Clustering is a great idea to create small groups of seating without just making a big circle around the perimeter of your space.
2. Open Floor Plan
Creating the perfect seating is much easier with an open floor plan. Designing or renovating a home to have an open floor plan opens up many more possibilities for entertaining. Free space lets you choose and rearrange your seating as you need for the number of guests you’ll have.
3. An Outdoor Area
Take advantage of backyard space with a patio or deck to expand your entertaining area. In the summer months, an outdoor area for grilling will allow you to cook while still allowing guests to utilize kitchen space for serving food and seating. In the winter months, a fire pit can be used to create the perfect evening ambiance. In the South, keep in mind how quickly temperatures can shift. Incorporate fans and heating elements, like a fireplace or firepit, for regulating temperature. A screened-in area has the bonus of keeping bugs at bay.
4. A Bar
Keeping the drinks flowing will definitely keep guests happy. If you have space, utilize a built-in cabinet system to store your bar items and function as a serving area. Strategic placement of built-in storage, like wine racks or a mini-fridge, can direct drink traffic away from the main kitchen area where you are cooking. If you don’t have a space to build a bar area, use a bar cart to stow liquor and items that don’t need to be refrigerated.
5. An Easily Accessible Bathroom
When building a home, take into account where guests will, well… go. Placing the bathroom near a high traffic area where people congregate doesn’t give your guests much privacy. A half-bath on the first floor in a low traffic area will be easily accessible while also providing privacy to guests.
6. Serving Space
Food is the highlight of any get-together. Make sure you have enough storage to leave countertops open. A kitchen island can serve as seating and a serving area. Built-in cabinets with smart storage are a must to keep your counter spacious. You can also incorporate storage furniture, like a side buffet, to stow away items and create surface area for serving platters. Control traffic by spacing out serving areas. This will keep guests from piling up in one area.
7. Parking
A big get-together means a lot of cars. Make sure you have an area to park them. You can discuss with a contractor how to best utilize the space you have for parking. Two ideas to consider are a circular driveway or a wider driveway to accommodate more parking. Taking up too much street parking can cause a traffic hazard or anger neighbors.
8. Coat Check
You don’t really need a “coat check,” but definitely designate a place for people to hang coats or bags. Having things lying around everywhere may cause people to forget them or create a tripping hazard. If you have a spare bedroom, keep closet space free for coats. Add hooks to hang bags and umbrellas on. If you don’t have any extra closet space, get a clothing rack that can stow away easily when you don’t need it.
Want these must-haves? Contact me to find your entertaining dream home or to work with your contractor to redesign your current home!
Melanie Bunting-Seymour 1702 Real Estate 251.463.3613
