Sometimes I think all my worldly goods would fit comfortably in the Cleaver family kitchen. And while there's much to be said for cozy intimacy, when it's your turn to have the gang over for a party, you might feel like you need to pre-screen your guests for claustrophobic tendencies. Don't let a deficit of square footage keep the crowds away. There may be no danger of your guests mistaking your place for the grand ballroom at the Hyatt, but with a little planning and some strategic rearranging, you can entertain in high style.

 

Working the room

First, take a close look at your place with an eye toward maximizing your floor space. You don't have to worry about each guest having a place to sit since few do anyway at most parties, but you do need plenty of mingling room. If possible, don't just move all your furniture against the walls, which can make things look a bit too much like a theater-in-the-round. Instead, move any centrally located furniture to the corners of the room to create smaller conversation zones, grouping a chair or ottoman next to the couch and arranging a few large throw pillows around the coffee table.

 

Trading spaces

Next, take an inventory of the furniture in the other rooms of your home. Is there a piece or two you could press into living room service? In a pinch, even a desk chair can be useful to complete a conversation zone. Conversely, you can turn the bedroom into a party annex. Push the bed against the wall and cover it with a spread and pillows to double as a couch.

 

Now, it's time to kill the clutter. Remove any knick-knacks, magazines and art objects from tabletops, bookcases and end tables. While they may look great in the room, they tend to make things appear a little busy once it's filled with your guests (not to mention becoming prime targets for errant elbows). Stash that stuff in a closet for safekeeping. If it's not part of the party, it's part of the problem. Once those surfaces are clear, you can use them for food and beverage staging areas.

 

Crowd control

In any party, the kitchen exerts a peculiar gravitational pull. If yours is galley-sized you have two options.

 

• Surrender to the inevitable and make way for the horde. Clear off your counters, cramming as much as you can into cabinets. Use a cutting board placed over an open drawer or the sink to increase counter space. Stage your bar at one end of the counter or island and reserve the opposite end for food.
• Fight the bottleneck and redirect traffic elsewhere. The primary lure of the kitchen is the food and, perhaps, the host busy trying to serve it. If you move all food out into your main room, the crowd will usually follow like yellowjackets at a late-summer picnic. Move the bar to a separate part of the room to avoid maximum congestion and try to ensure an adequate path between them so that guests don't need to plow through the middle of a crowded room with their hands full of full drinks and plates. Canapés and beverages should be consumed, not worn.

 

A light touch

Use lighting to your advantage in creating the illusion of space. Bright lights illuminate the truth, softer lighting dissembles. If you don't have dimmers, rely on as few electric lights as possible and in all cases use candles at the periphery of each room, making sure they're not too close to combustibles or high-traffic areas. An auto-da-fé is inappropriate for friendly gatherings.

 

For a simple and festive decorator touch, place floral arrangements in every room. A single color works best and white is always a great choice.

 

Keep the volume low on the stereo. Loud music makes partygoers raise their voices. The louder the hubbub, the more other guests need to raise theirs until things escalate to the point of chaos, cacophony and the cops knocking at the door.

 

Feeding the multitude

Forget the sit-down dinner. Buffet-style is the only way to go. Offer your food, with small plates and tableware wrapped in napkins, on the dining table against a wall, the coffee table or even the top of a dresser and let guests help themselves. When planning your menu, keep it simple and go easy on the sauces. In close quarters, people tend to shy away from messy foods and crackers and cheese are easier to get out of the carpet than sweet and sour meatballs. 

 

Remember, it's the people who make a party. The setting is secondary. With a little attention to the details, you can send them all home at the end thinking about the great time they had and sardine analogies will be irrelevant.

Source: MSN Shopping