Get your home holiday-ready: furniture tips for seamless entertaining
Sponsored by Bassett Furniture
With holiday season drawing near, now’s a good time to begin thinking about ideas for decorating and to start making entertaining plans. It’s also a perfect opportunity to assess whether your furniture is up to the task.
A few key pieces can help make holiday meals and parties a cinch — plus, they’ll serve you, your family and your friends well throughout the year for all of life’s occasions. You can find a number of attractive, functional options at Bassett Furniture, where expert staff members are on hand to help you pick the right items for your needs. They even have a few suggestions for decorating.
A long table with leaf options. Nothing says the holidays like a beautifully decorated table filled with good food and surrounded by loved ones. If you’re going to have a lot of people over, having a table that allows you to add leaves — and extra place settings — is a plus. Festive centerpieces are great, and you can easily make one with things like Christmas tree trimmings, dried oranges, a handful of tinsel — or some combination. But if you’re planning to serve a meal family style, keep the centerpiece simple and low-profile so guests can comfortably pass dishes to one another. If you have a dark-toned wood table, brighten the space and help your centerpiece, dishes and silverware stand out by enlisting the help of a white or other light-colored napkins, table runner, tablecloth or placemats. Just be sure to take time to iron them so they look nice!
A sideboard or buffet table. To avoid crowding the table where everyone will be sitting to eat, you can opt to place dishes on a nearby sideboard or buffet, where guests can serve themselves. This will keep things from feeling cluttered with many dishes that need to be passed around — an important consideration if you have a smaller table. If you prefer to plate dishes yourself, you can still make use of a sideboard or buffet. Use it for a self-serve drink and appetizer station that guests can hit as soon as they arrive while you finish preparation. Or use it to store spare utensils, wine bottles and the like to keep the table and other spaces clean and organized. It can even just be a spot to display some extra pieces of holiday décor.
Plenty of comfy seating. This goes for both the dining table and in the living room. Make sure everybody will have a seat — and that they’ll be comfortable. You can consider upholstered dining chairs for a more formal look and feel, or go with a long bench to keep things cozy. In the living room, sectionals are great for entertaining, especially if you choose pieces that can easily be rearranged to accommodate your guests.
End tables and a coffee table. You may want to serve coffee and desserts away from the dining table for a relaxed way to wind down the evening. Or maybe you want to invite everybody to play a board game, do a gift exchange or take part in some other fun group activity. That’s where end tables and a coffee table come into play. Ensure that guests will have somewhere to sit their dishes or other items while the group hangs out in your living room.
If you need help choosing the perfect entertaining furniture ahead of this holiday season, the experts at Bassett can help. Visit them in store or online.
