Weather and Traffic

45
Close

6 seasonal design tips you'll use all year

By Elizabeth Mayhew/Washington Post
September 18, 2016
Bring something green or natural into your home, as in this arrangement by Suzy Latham of Designers Unlimited. Phot: Christopher Oquendo

1. Limit your color scheme

It’s likely that you trim your house for the winter with two, maybe three colors at most. If you are a traditionalist, you decorate with red and green, but if you are a modernist you might choose turquoise and silver or fuchsia and white. Regardless of the colors you choose, limiting your color palette in all your decorating endeavors not only makes the process easier because you narrow down your choices, but it also makes your rooms flow better. It can be jarring to go from a red room to a green room to a turquoise room and then to a fuchsia room. It’s better to stick to a few colors and vary their shade from one room to the next.

2. Rearrange your furniture from time to time

Most of us have to shift furniture around or even remove a piece entirely to accommodate a big Christmas tree. Although it’s a hassle, the change is good. We all get too set in our ways or lazy and forget that a different furniture arrangement can give a room a fresh look.

3. Have something green or natural in your rooms

The pleasure many of us get from having a fresh evergreen tree indoors (the smell alone!) is worth the nuisance of regularly watering it and dealing with the messy fallen needles when we forget. Something green adds texture, scent and life to your rooms.

4. Embrace ambient light

Everyone I know loves sitting in a room illuminated only by the glow of a well-lit Christmas tree. I am not advocating that you do away with all overhead lighting, but I do think that rooms (and people!) look better in less-harsh lighting. In general, opt for strategically placed table and floor lamps throughout your rooms, use candlelight when appropriate and limit overhead lighting to bathrooms, laundry rooms and kitchens.

5. Buy what you love

When you buy Christmas ornaments, you don’t buy them because they are modern or traditional; you buy them because they speak to you. Perhaps they remind you of a moment in time, a place or a person. The more you channel that gut feeling into your bigger decorating decisions, the more likely you are to love your rooms. I have always maintained that the closer you come to loving every single thing about every object in your home, the more consistent the style of your home will be.

6. Let party guests be the judge

The holiday season might indeed be the only time of the year that you entertain, but don’t let it be! The easiest way to see if your rooms work is to host a party. There is wisdom in groups, so invite people over and see how they interact with your rooms. Observe if they sit comfortably on your sofa or if they are constantly rearranging themselves. See if they move nimbly around your room or if they have to move things aside. Watch to see if anyone scoots a chair out of its place to better talk with someone and if people have a place to put their drinks. Take stock and then make adjustments.

Photo: Kyndell Harkness/Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT

Living Smart: Be prepared for overnight holiday guests

Entertaining company can be full of the unexpected. Your niece became a vegetarian. Scented laundry detergent irritates your mom’s skin. Since when? You can minimize stress and make your holiday guests feel more at home with some simple planning.

Before donning the holiday host hat, use this checklist to get your house in tiptop shape.

Clean the house.

If you don’t have time for a deep clean, focus on the areas visitors will see and use. If no one has used the guest room since last year, there’s a chance a thick layer of dust has settled on surfaces.

Light it up.

Check for burnt out bulbs, especially on the home’s exterior. Consider some night-lights or touch-lights in the hallway. Sure, you can navigate your home in total darkness, but your guests can’t.

Make it welcoming.

Throw out the welcome mat. Place a coatrack near the door or make sure there’s room in a nearby closet.

Check the guest bedroom.

Does the bedding need to be spruced? Alarm clock need to be set to the right time? Putting a fabric softener sheet in the pillowcases helps freshen them up quickly before company arrives.

Put extra blankets at the foot of the bed. Consider leaving some towels on the bed so your guests don’t have to search for them.

Check the guest bathroom.

Stock up on toiletries. If you usually keep the toilet paper in a cabinet, consider filling a basket with a few rolls.

Stack towels and washcloths somewhere visible. Place a basket on the countertop for your guests’ bathroom supplies.

Anticipate needs.

Ask your guests if they have any dietary restrictions so you can be sure to buy goodies suitable for everyone.

Satiate caffeine cravings.

There are few things worse than being the first person awake at someone’s home and not knowing where they keep the coffee. Create a coffee station with everything your guests will need: filters, grounds or beans, mugs, spoons and sugar.

If you can set your machine on a timer, program it to make a fresh pot early in the morning, or at least get it to the point where all your company has to do is press start.

Provide reading material.

Place a variety of books and magazines on the guest room nightstand.

Create a to-do list.

Make a list of interesting sights, restaurants, bars and coffee shops, so your guests can get the local experience.

Don’t forget to provide a key and the alarm code if your visitors will be venturing off on their own.

Perform final touches.

This is your opportunity to make things pretty. Pull out the decorations. Cut some fresh flowers to place in vases. Leave snacks or mints on the end table.

Don’t forget the grand tour.

Take this time to show the guests the coffee station, supplies in the bathroom, and where you keep your dishes and snacks. These steps will ensure your guests feel comfortable in your home.

-- Stephanie Figy (TNS)

Perfect parties need planning

Follow some easy steps to be ready from invite to saying “good night.”

It would be so easy to give holiday parties if it weren’t for the guests.

Guests who fail to RSVP, then show up with friends. Guests who arrive late and stay past your bedtime. Guests who clean out your shrimp cocktail but won’t touch your pasta salad. Guests who knock over drinks and nearly set their sleeves on fire reaching over your candles.

And the worst guest of all: the one who’s busy the night of your holiday party and can’t make it.

But you can outsmart them all and host a party as carefree for you as it is fun for them. Here are some tips for Party Management 101, from the invite to the “good night!”

Timing

Send the invitation for a holiday party too early and people forget. Wait too long and everyone’s booked.

Kaity Eagle, a marketing specialist with InvitationConsultants.com, recommends sending invitations “no later than one month before the party. November and December are busy months.”

Sunday evenings are a good alternative to busy Friday and Saturday nights. Yes, everyone has to go to work or school the next day, but if you schedule your party for late Sunday afternoon or early evening, you could end up with a crowd. Friends might welcome a way to relax after a busy weekend of shopping and chores, especially if you offer a dinner buffet and save them the trouble of preparing a meal.

Invites and RSVPs

Paper, electronic or phone invitations? So many options, and yet so few result in RSVPs.

The paper invite makes an impression, but it’s more work for you. It also may suggest an unintended formality or level of fuss for your party.

On the other end of the spectrum is the phone or text invite. That may be a little too casual and easy to lose track of, especially if you’re sending them several weeks out.

Electronic invitations —- Evite, email, Paperless Post, Facebook and other sites —- have become the default for many people, and may yield the most responses in our no-RSVP culture simply because responding requires just one click.

But there are always a few who never RSVP. Some have no intention of coming; others may show up unannounced with uninvited friends. And a few will pledge their attendance, then never show or cancel last-minute. How’s a hostess to cope?

Jennifer Gullins of the Boston-based Saphire Event Group suggests pinning down commitments from a few BFFs. “It’s OK to take a pulse on your core group of invitees well in advance. … This will ensure that you already know a good handful will be attending even before sending out the official invite.”

Should you make follow-up calls to those who don’t respond? Debi Lilly, entertaining expert for the supermarket chain Safeway, says a gracious call or email to sincerely say, “I wanted to make sure you got my invitation, ” is always appropriate.

Another way to go is to send out a single email reminder a week before the event to everyone you haven’t heard from. If that too is ignored, they’re probably not coming.

I’ve had luck over the years getting RSVPs to my annual Hanukkah party by including a special plea on the grounds that I want to have enough homemade latkes for everyone. Threatening that a tantalizing treat might disappear if you don’t have a reliable head count might be enough to shake the RSVPs out.

Patricia Mendez, who offers tips at ezentertaining.net and wrote a book called “Easy Entertaining for Beginners, ” says it’s prudent to assume that a few surprise guests will show up. “If you have 12 that RSVP, then plan for a few more just in case —- 16, ” she said.

She also suggests inviting a third more people than your space fits: “If your space will fit 12 to 16 people, send invitations to 20 to 24.”

Food and decor

Food that’s good at room temperature is easiest on the host, though it limits the menu.

See what prepared foods your supermarket is offering before you splurge at specialty stores; you might be surprised by the selection and quality of cold party platters and easy-to-bake frozen hors d’oeuvres. Safeway’s Lilly says it’s easy to dress up frozen puffs with fresh herbs, fruit slivers, a drizzle of balsamic cream or shaved Parmesan. “The trick, ” she said, “is to elevate them.”

And remember that variety is a virtue. I used to offer pasta salad as a side dish for potato pancakes until someone pointed out that it was just too many carbs. Fruit platters with berries, toothpicked pineapple chunks and melon balls, on the other hand, proved much more popular, as did chicken wings.

Many people have dietary issues these days, so consider offering something for the vegetarian and for the low-salt, low-fat crowd.

Lilly also advocates a self-serve drink area with a couple of fun choices in labeled pitchers so you’re not stuck making cocktails all night. Keep a few dishtowels or rolls of paper towels nearby for inevitable spills.

Lilly’s suggestions for easy, inexpensive decor include covering the table with wrapping paper instead of a tablecloth. Or decorate the table in classic holiday colors by layering evergreen boughs across the edge and scattering red rose petals over the rest.

She also fills large glass vases with layers of dried beans and nuts for a chic, organic look, then plops a candle inside.

Arrivals and departures

Some folks will come early; some will stay late. Minimize stress by having everything ready a half-hour before your start time, and deputize someone else to answer the door and take coats.

Set the tone by listing a clear start and end time on the invitation.

Exact times also are “helpful for guests that might be double-booked that day and may want to try to make both parties, ” said Gullins, of the Saphire Event Group.

To manage lingerers, Gullins recommends planting someone among the guests to help. “This friend could make casual comments to the crowd such as, ‘Wow, I can’t believe how late it is already.’ “

Eagle, of InvitationConsultants.com, suggests preparing take-home favors. “Passing out these favors — perhaps small bags of cookies or candy — at the end of the night is a subtle and sweet way to say good night, ” she said.

—Beth J. Harpaz, AP