How to Stage Your Home When Hosting Guests

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Hosting season is upon us!  Football parties, Halloween parties, Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas gatherings, New Year’s Eve soirees… these next four months will be packed with opportunities to host. 

I for one have always adored hosting and I’ve done my fair share throughout the years – wedding showers, bachelorette parties, baby showers, birthday parties, random game nights, poker nights, Christmas dinners, Sunday dinners… I’ve done them all!  Since we are now in our 30s, wedding and baby season is pretty much behind us, so I don’t get the opportunity to host as much as I used to, but I still love to host when the opportunity arises.  In the words of Monica on Friends,

I’m a big believer in setting the mood/tone for a party, and in my opinion the ambience is just as important as the people and the food.  I like for our home to feel warm, inviting, and fun… a place where people can feel comfortable, kick back, and feel relaxed.  I typed up a checklist years ago containing all of the things that I do before we have people over, and I’m going to share it with you today.

Tidy Up Your Living Space

This one pretty much goes without saying… it’s obvious that you don’t want your guests tripping over the kids’ toys or sitting on old magazines.  I always do a full sweep putting all of our things where they belong before we have company.  Just remember, everything has a place and everything in its place.  It’s a good motto to live by.  ;o)

Hide Things No One Should See

This may sound a little strange, and it also might not be something that you would have even thought of, but I’m sure that everyone has something that they don’t necessarily want their guests to see.  A baby gate?  Prescriptions?

For us, there are two things I can think of… first of all, there is a toy basket that has a permanent home in our living room.  I typically put it upstairs in the play room for the evening to give the room a less-cluttered feel.  Second of all, Maui sleeps in our guest bathroom, so her crate and bed are always in there.  While having them there doesn’t bother us on a daily basis, when we have guests over I do like to hide them to make the bathroom look like, well, a bathroom and not a doggie daycare.  I just stick the crate and bed in the bathtub behind the shower curtain and nobody ever even knows it’s there!  Unless, of course, they’re nosy and they look behind the curtain!  To which they will also find the plunger and a couple of other odds and ends.  Hehe.  #NobodyEverShowersInThere  

Clean All Surfaces

In addition to making sure that everything is tidy, I also make sure that everything is clean.  I scrub the toilets, dust and wipe down all surfaces, sweep, mop, and/or vacuum all floors.  Your guests probably won’t want to come back if they have to use a filthy toilet.  ;o)  I totally love this as an all-purpose cleaner.  It's fantastic!

Turn on Ambient Lighting

You can never have too many lamps or twinkle lights.  And I do mean any time of the year, not just at Christmas.  Ever since I moved out of my parents’ house I’ve had a ficus tree carefully wrapped in white twinkle lights somewhere in my house.  In our old house, it was in the dining room, but in our current home we have one in our dining as well as front and center in the living room where we spend the majority of our time.  I cannot stress how much a simple strand of twinkle lights can transform a space. 

Our ambient lighting includes all lamps (we have a ton of them), the light over our mantle, the twinkle lights in the ficus tree in the living room and the dining room, my marquee letters in the kitchen, and the string lights on our back porch.  It sounds like a lot, but it only takes a matter of minutes to turn them all on and have them shining brightly!

Open the Blinds

Opening the blinds and/or shutters makes the house feel more open, it lets natural light in (if the party is during daylight hours) and in my personal opinion, it just makes the house look more elegant.  Plus, that allows your guests to see your beautiful string lights on the back porch!

Light Candles

I burn candles pretty much year round.  I have a signature spring and summer scent (Limoncello), a signature fall and Christmas scent (Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin), and a signature New Year’s scent (Champagne Toast).  I also love this candle during the early months of the year.  It is seriously one of the best scented candles ever. 

These scents all make our home smell divine and that really adds to the overall ambiance of the room.  I typically light one in the kitchen so the scent wafts through the entire downstairs level, and I also light one in the guest bathroom. 

*Just be sure to keep them out of the reach of little hands if you’re hosting a party where kids will be present.

Comprise the Perfect Playlist

Music is powerful.  So very powerful.  A song can transport you back to a specific time and place in a split second.  It has always been at the forefront of my life and I play it constantly in the house, in the car, and at work.  Y’all all know that I have a very eclectic taste in music, but if I could only listen to one genre for the rest of my life it would be standards and jazz from the 40’s.  Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday… What a fantastic decade for music.  It is definitely my go-to for dinner parties.  There’s just something about a piano, a saxophone, a trumpet, and a bass combined with a sultry voice that just exudes relaxation and contentment.

My play list does vary based on the event, though!  I tend to love folksy music (think Ray Lamontagne and The Lumineers) during the spring, country music during the summer, old standards in the fall, and then, of course, Christmas tunes pretty much any time after November first. 

Music is everything and a good playlist can really set the tone for your party.  

Decorate for the Occasion

I am all about a good party theme.  All about it.  Decorations just add to the fun in my opinion, so I love to decorate – fun plates and napkins, adorable paper straws, a good table cloth, maybe even a festive banner over the fireplace.  I also love to tie-in my chalkboard in the kitchen with the theme.  So fun!

Create a Signature Cocktail

I know this is not really a part of house staging, but I thought that I would mention it because it is also something that I love for setting the mood at a party.  We are big drinkers in our family and B and I love to open a bottle of wine, try a new craft beer, or whip up a good cocktail, and I love mixing up something special for our guests.  Heck, we even have a fully stocked bar cart!  We hosted my entire extended family (30+ people) for Christmas several years in a row after we moved in our house and I always made a huge batch of Christmas punch.  Unfortunately I didn’t blog back then so the recipe isn’t already on my blog, but maybe I’ll have to remedy that this Christmas and get it up here!

I also love serving Moscow Mules in our frosty copper mugs or whipping up a batch of margaritas in our cactus margarita glasses, and I also really love this recipe for summer.  Ask my Momma… she loves it, too!

For kid-friendly parties, I love dumping bottles of lemonade in my punch bowl and lining the side of the bowl with fresh lemon wedges.  So simple, but it pacts a punch simply because of the way it’s presented.  When my mom and I hosted a baby shower for my brother and sister-in-law two years ago we even did a hot chocolate bar and it set the tone for a very cozy evening.

Well, I think that’s enough rambling for one day... I’ll leave you with a list of parties that I’ve hosted that are actually on the blog.  There aren’t many since I’ve only been blogging for a couple of years, but this should at least give you a taste of what I love.

Jacob's ABC First Birthday

Olivia's Pink & Gold Themed First Birthday (my most viewed post ever)

Jacob's Poo Poo Party (yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like)

Winter-Themed Gender Neutral Baby Shower
Christmas 2016

Also, if you would like to see the rest of our home, all links to all of the rooms including all of my holiday decorations are listed here.

And before I go, I thought that I would mention this because I found it pretty hilarious… as I was going over my list for this post, I saw that #6 said “turn on digital picture frame in kitchen.”  Haha.  That just goes to show you how old my original list is! 

Now to prepare for the football get-together that we are hosting this weekend!  Happy Tuesday, y’all!

And now it's time for the Tuesday Talk Link Up!

Hosted by:

Beth at Our Pretty Little Girls | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Crystal at Hall Around Texas | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Jessica at Sweet Little Ones | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram
Stefanie at Lexie Loo, Lily, Liam, & Dylan Too | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Stephanie at Wife Mommy Me | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Becky at BYBMG | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram
Lindsay at Lindsay's Sweet World | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram
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Justine at Full Hands, Full Heart
Christina at Waltzing In Beauty | Pinterest | Instagram
Meghan at The Adventure Starts Here | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Tina at Go Big or Go Home | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Whitney at Polka-Dotty Place | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

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