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advice on entertaining in a smaller home
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Posted by ma_rcia (My Page) on Sun, Aug 16, 09 at 7:59
| Ok we are probably going to build a smaller home and we love to entertain. It is not unusual for us to have a group of 12 or 15 at a time. So, the houses we are considering have only one "great" room and it will probably have seating for maybe 6. So, how can that work? What advice do you folks have? We are trying to decide if we can make it work. I guess just have fewer people at a time is the only answer right? In nice weather people could spill outside but it isn't always nice. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: advice on entertaining in a smaller home
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Marcia,
I just did a search on entertaining in this forum. There are a lot of suggestions and great tips. You'll get some more with your posting too. Do you have any pics of plans considered? Would help to know the layout too. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Entertaining links
RE: advice on entertaining in a smaller home
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| We usually have small groups, which makes it easy, but we have handled a crowd before. Our old house was 800 sq ft, and we had 24 people once! We had groups in each room, including the garage and back porch (we live in FL). The garage party was the biggest group, because that's where the bar was! Although you may only have regular seating for six, there are always movable chairs and folding chairs. We've even used outdoor furniture in a pinch. If people are your friends, they shouldn't mind. When we first moved into our house, we put BYOC (Bring your own chair) on the invitations! Most folks did, and it was a funny ice-breaker for the party. Another option, which is what we plan to do when we build our next house, is to incorporate a big room into one end of our barn for entertaining. My mother had a set-up like that at her house. It had heat and A/C, but she only ran it when the barn was actually in use. We're also going to use that room as a guest cottage, because several family members are allergic to pet dander, and we have a dog and 2 cats. The barn will be designated a 'no pet zone' so our allergic friends can visit and stay. We'll put a bathroom out there as well. The barn will also have a high ceiling, so we can put a huge Christmas tree out there. It makes no sense to me to have a big home for entertaining unless you do it all the time. We don't, so our house will be just right for two people, with expansion room for guests. |
RE: advice on entertaining in a smaller home
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| My house is about 1500 sq. feet. I can get 8 around my dining room table and another 4 at a card table in the LR when I have the family for Thanksgiving. My MIL once had a large dinner party and set up some small tables in the spare (cleaned up) bedrooms and it was just fine - nice intimate dining for 4. If you have a garage, you can manage a larger crowd if you just opt for some space heaters if it is cold out there. My neighbors down the street set up a bar with a darts game in their unused garage. I hear them down there almost every weekend. Sounds like they are having a great time. Their grill is just a few feet away and yard chairs to sit in when it's time to eat. But, oh! wouldn't a barn be nice! |
RE: advice on entertaining in a smaller home
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| We have a smaller house at 1300 SQ FT. I quickly counted and we can seat 10 in our living room dinning room as they are right now. Our living room is open to the dinning room open to the kitchen. Being creative I am sure we could easily seat 12 with no problem. I do not have a table in the dinning room I have a fold up one I haul out when we need it. |
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