Julia Child famously declared, ‘A party without cake is just a meeting.’ And for those who love to host – whether it’s a kid’s birthday or a wine-soaked dinner with your closest friends – we believe that the importance of detail very much includes your surroundings. We’ve rounded up our favourite details for how to create the perfect kitchen for party hosting pros. After all, what’s a party with cake in a kitchen with no atmosphere?
If you’re interested in seeing how a kitchen extension could benefit your home but you’re unsure how much it could set you back, try our Quick Quote Calculator.
Kitchen layouts made for hosting pros
Looking for the kind of kitchen that simply calls for parties to take place in, the kind of room that can transform from a bright sun-filled room for early afternoon mimosas and clear out for an intimate dinner with your nearest and dearest as the evening arrives.
Enough space for everyone to sit
In our experience, this key factor is one that tends to come to mind around Christmas time when seemingly hundreds of family members and friends “just pop by” on a revolving door and some settle for a few days at a time. But if summer is your hosting season of choice, you surely will have experienced the early evening, post-BBQ or big brunch slump that compels everyone to take a brief sit-down. Anticipate this and map out a layout with enough seating and space that it can accommodate the guests of your kitchen party.
One of the most favoured layouts for those who love to host is a kitchen island with an additional dining or chillout area. If you’d love to reimagine your kitchen layout but you’re feeling limited by space, a side extension that extends your existing space into any unused space to the side of your home could be a fantastic option for you. If the dead space to the side of your property is limited but you have additional space to the back of your home (such as a terraced house) then a rear extension could be more suitable for a kitchen rearrangement project.
Or, if you have available space to both the side and rear of your property, then a wraparound extension could be perfect for you. It’s essentially a combination of both a side and rear extension, significantly maximising your space. Below is a beautifully achieved example of a completed Resi wraparound project in Tooting where the space has been transformed from a dark, outdated kitchen to one perfectly poised for a kitchen party where everyone can take a pew.
© Chris Snook
Let the party spill outside
If hosting parties is your thing and summer is your preferred season, a kitchen layout that opens up your home through to your garden could be transformative. There are many innovative ways to achieve this flow – first and foremost by changing the style of your back doors to ones that open wide to limit the barrier between inside and outside.
A popular choice for this effect is bifold doors and they’re a natural partner for a patio dining area. Because of their popularity, installing them could add value to your property as well as boosting the natural light in your home and making a seamless transition with your outdoor space – especially if you opt for similar flooring on your patio. They’re also the natural choice if you have little ones running around because they open fully, limiting the amount of running-into-door incidents that seem to come with playing outside during the summer months.
Some people prefer to opt for a more traditional sliding door. This tends to be a slightly cheaper alternative to bifold doors that lets in just as much natural light and similarly offers a beautiful, uninterrupted view of the garden. One of the drawbacks is not being able to totally remove the barrier between inside and outside. However, it’s a fantastic option if you’re hoping for a more aesthetic impact and you’re on a budget.
Book a free advice call with one of our experts if you have a vision of the perfect indoor-outdoor entertaining space but you’re unsure how to achieve it.
© Matt Gamble
Get the lighting right and the rest will follow
Lighting in restaurants notoriously contributes to judgments of its atmosphere and can result in either favourable or unfavourable reviews from critics. Given this, devoted hosts will be dedicated to getting the glow for their kitchen party just right. Here are a few tricks to achieve atmospheric lighting in your home kitchen.
In-cupboard lights
If you’re hosting a kitchen party, you’ll want to keep the practical side of things ticking over as smoothly as possible. Adding in-cupboard lights to beautifully organised cupboard spaces can introduce a sense of ease to proceedings, allowing you to find what you need fast and stay relatively tidy to limit the length of the clean up later. Here’s an example from a completed Resi project in Tooting:
© Chris Snook
Energy efficiency
If you, like many of us in recent years, have become more concerned with how much energy you’re using –LED lighting could be a good choice for you to have installed. It’s increasingly popular as it’s more energy-efficient and can lower the cost of your overall bills compared to some other types of bulb. That’s one less thing to worry about while you’re hosting a kitchen party.
Patio lights
If you’re lucky enough to have a garden with a patio, get creative with how you arrange your lighting. Once the kitchen party has died down and people ooze outside into the summer evening, make sure their surroundings have a little spark of magic. We love these uplights from Pooky that point towards the sky from ground level to offer a gentle illumination. Equally innovative are these solar-powered lantern lamps that will create an effortless holiday feel right in your back garden.
Unique kitchens on an IKEA budget
Our recent Happy Home report findings suggest that the more we feel our homes reflect who we are, the happier we’re able to be in them and the more beneficial they are towards our wellbeing. This is also hugely linked to how proud we are of our homes and, for big fans of hosting, it tracks that a unique kitchen is one you’d be proud to host in. While that may be true, it’s also true that not everyone has money to throw at each of their big ideas.
Sure, some of us would relish the opportunity to build a kitchen that feels resolutely ours from the ground up but the fact is, it can cost a lot of money. Here’s a quick round up of our best tips for shining a light on your individuality within your kitchen’s interior design for less.
Bespoke-ish kitchens made for hosting
We’re big fans of IKEA but, truth be told, its appeal is largely in its relative low-cost when it comes to crafting your home on a budget rather than individuality. If you’re looking for something just that little bit more you in your kitchen design but hiring an interior designer or getting a bespoke-made kitchen is out of the question, we’ve just discovered PLYKEA.
PLYKEA is a design company that believes in making individual kitchens accessible to everyone through combining IKEA or PLYKEA cabinets with custom-built fronts to make them stand out from the crowd. The aim? Bespoke kitchens for all at a price that won’t make your eyes water and quality that’s built to last.
© PLYKEA
Quirky details that don’t cost the earth
If you’re not in a position to revamp your entire kitchen layout or cabinet combination, hone in on some of the finer details that can illuminate your individuality and contribute to that all important sense of uniqueness. This can range from tweaking the door handles on existing cabinets with standout pieces that can be simply DIY-fitted. Check out this collage of inspiration from Plank Hardware to see how you could refresh your existing kitchen cabinets with some shiny new handles.
In addition to curating your kitchen lighting to suit a range of different situations and moods, don’t be afraid to get playful with your light fittings. Particularly if you opt for pendant lighting over a dining table or a kitchen island – choose statement lampshades that draw the eye. This has been done beautifully at the completed Resi project pictured below. Homeowners Gemma and Danielle worked closely with us, alongside interior designer Mairéad Moran to bring their ideal kitchen, complete with unique light fittings, to life.
© Matt Gamble
Curating the perfect party atmosphere is an art form and if you’re hosting at home, your surroundings will play a big part in how the revelry unfolds. If you’re looking to refresh your interiors but you’re not sure where to begin, book a free advice call with one of our consultants.
© Chris Snook
© Matt Gamble
© Chris Snook
© PLYKEA
© Matt Gamble
