Heather Nette King is a Melbourne-based interiors stylist and writer for many leading interior titles and newspapers. The hallmarks of her styling are colour and vibrancy, and she writes passionately about peoples’ homes and how they live in them.
If you’re anything like me, you won’t have a clue where 2023 went! Because just like that, the entertaining season is upon us and it’s time to get together with family and friends once again, to celebrate the year gone by as we approach 2024.
So, if you’ve put your hand up to host this year’s festivities and can already feel yourself worrying about how to get your home ready, then read on.
Here are some of my favourite ways to help you create a stylish, budget-friendly space that your guests will feel welcomed in as soon as they walk through the door.
PLAN YOUR MOVES.
Whether you’re having a large gathering or a small soiree, it’s important to think ahead and envisage how you want your guests to move around and enjoy the various areas of your home.
To get the party started, set up a separate area in your home – like the lounge or formal dining room - with a drinks station stocked with plenty of glasses, ice, drinks and nibbles. That way, your guests can keep themselves preoccupied and entertained, while you carry on preparing for the main event and working on any finishing touches.
A great way to create these entertaining zones is by layering or rearranging rugs to designate a space. When I’m entertaining, I like to pop a drinks cart on the rug in our lounge area to let people know where they need to be, so that they can mingle, enjoy a beverage, and make themselves feel right at home. If you’re concerned about food and drinks spillage, a vivid rug with busy patterns from Carpet Court’s beautiful Evoke range, will do a decent job of disguising any accidental stains.
Even outdoor spaces can benefit from zoning with rugs. In this environment, rugs can frame a casual seating area, elevate an outdoor dining setting, and even create an instant dancefloor.
My top décor piece for a home with either a Hampton’s or coastal vibe would be Carpet Court’s Seaside striped rug in Navy White. Otherwise, bring a touch of colour and luxe to your courtyard, balcony or paved space with the Amazon outdoor rug in Floral or Jungle.
THE COMFORT ZONE.
Another way to prepare your home and guarantee a successful entertaining season is to ensure that your guests are not too hot or too cold. Window furnishings can play a huge role in this, ultimately making your home and your guests feel more comfortable. Look to vertical blinds or stunning plantation shutters to allow just the right amount of light in, or my personal favourite, a set of supremely elegant sheer curtains. This will help filter just the right amount of illumination in a room to create a beautiful atmosphere and help with heat control in your home.
If you’re looking for some smaller scale entertaining hacks to make the entertaining season memorable, here are some simple budget-friendly event hacks:
- Spring cleaning - ahead of the party season, get your carpets or rugs professionally cleaned. Same for your window furnishings, and even your windows. A clean home is the best blank canvas for any kind of entertaining.
- Foliage - buy inexpensive supermarket flowers and spread them into small vases alongside garden picked greenery, so you that you have pops of colour scattered throughout your home.
- Colour scheme - select a colour theme for your decorating scheme and match everything with it; your cocktails to the flowers, tablecloth to the rugs… you get the picture.
- Scent - make sure your home smells beautiful, but not overpowering. Burn subtle scented candles or incense and just before your guests arrive, blow them out so they enter your home with a beautiful lingering scent.
- Tidying up - I refuse to waste my scarce and precious time with friends and family cleaning or doing the dishes while they’re there. So, for my last piece of advice, let those jobs wait until they’ve left!
