How To Make Your Home A Great Place For Social Gatherings
If you’re a social person, an extrovert who appreciates good company and loves going out and meeting new people, then you probably also enjoy inviting family and friends over to your home. However, your home may not be as congenial as you’d like it to be because you never had a chance to renovate it and it still reflects some of the tastes of the previous owner.
If you want your house to be a wonderful place for people to share feelings and ideas, you don’t have to renovate the whole house, just a few key places where people are most likely to gather when you throw a party or organize a small get-together.
Let’s take a closer look at 5 ideas to help make your house a great place for social gatherings.
1. Outdoor kitchen.
If you love to cook because you’re a culinary artist, then you may already have a gourmet kitchen for whipping up your exquisite dishes. Perhaps, it’s complete with a separate refrigerator, freezer, and wine cooler; dual commercial quality ovens; a 6 burner stovetop; an independent kitchen island with a microwave, warming drawer, and enough space for food preparation; and an industrial strength ventilation system. By comparison, outdoor kitchens with nothing more than a barbecue grill might seem unimaginative. However, rather than shuttling between the kitchen and your guests outdoors, you could create an outdoor kitchen with cabinets for your grill, a place for kitchen appliances and accessories, and some options for refrigeration.
2. Outdoor patios and decks.
Porches, patios, and decks are wonderful places to spend time outdoors when the weather’s nice. Now that you’ve invested in an outdoor kitchen, you might also want to convert your backyard into a paradise resort.
You could erect a porch swing to create some old-world charm and add some front porch columns to make the porch feel more comfortable, and you could plant herbs or flowers in an outdoor wall planter, and line the patio with potted plants. And, if summers get uncomfortably hot and attract a lot of insects, you could install a ceiling fan for those uncomfortably hot summer days. Besides keeping you cooler, it will help reduce problems with insects, especially mosquitoes.
3. Teen Gaming room.
While your children probably do their homework at the kitchen table, play video games with their friends in their bedroom, and watch TV in the living room, wouldn’t it be nice if they had a room of their own? Think about what you can do to make it an all-purpose room. Add a table for their homework and a TV for watching movies and for playing with the Xbox. Pick some low-level modular furniture from tables to sofas and a few floor cushions or bean bags. The advantage of modular furniture is that it can be moved around to suit their choice of activities. They will also need a storage area for their various games, CDs, and DVDs. The ambiance of the room will depend on the type of décor they like, and this can range from an interesting choice of light fixtures to the colors for the wall. Some posters might jazz up the room, too.
4. The man cave.
A man’s personal hideout is more than a fancy den or a decked out play room for an adult male. According to a study published in the Journal of Consumer Culture, a man cave serves a deep therapeutic need that men have to get some personal space after a hard day’s work. Study co-author Mariam Beruchashvili, Ph.D., says that men in the study reported that their private room in the house lets them reflect on their life and goals, relax, and express their unique qualities.
So what goes into a man cave? It doesn’t necessarily need to have a 72-inch plasma TV or something that would make Batman feel at home. However, it should have a TV, a few comfortable chairs, and, perhaps, even a well-stocked bar. The main thing is that it should be outfitted in a way that reflects a man’s personal style and interests.
5. Rec room with a wet bar.
Basements are usually the most popular choice when it comes to deciding on a rec room with a wet bar. The challenge is to make it appear bright and fun.
Here are some ideas to make it appear like a warm and friendly place:
· Nail a one-inch by six-inch pine board into the wall and add a bottle opener. Add some interesting message, something funny, a treasure map, etc.
- · Use warm wood colors for the bar.
- · Make white the favorite color for almost everything, including the bar stool covers.
- · Add customized pullout drawers so that the bottles can stand upright.
- · Choose some unique seating, from booth seating to anything quirky that you like.
- · Focus on getting the right light fixtures to make the place brighter, including under-shelf lighting.
- · Add features for entertainment—a dartboard, a pool table, a pinball machine.
In summary, then, here are the key ideas to make your house into a great place for social occasions: build an outdoor kitchen for backyard parties; remodel the outdoor patio and decks; create a gaming room for your teenagers; design a man’s cave for chilling out or hanging out with the guys during football season; and construct a rec room with a wet bar.