Who doesn’t love an excuse for a party? Here at Homemaker The Valley we love entertaining and inviting our loved ones into our homes to create memories and eat delicious food. Springtime is one of our favourite times of the year to entertain as the days are getting warmer, the sun is shining, and the air has that beautiful freshness to it in the evenings. Today we are sharing with you our favourite trends for entertaining at home this season and how to incorporate them for your next event!
Host a Cocktail Or Mocktail Afternoon
A cocktail or Mocktail making session is the perfect way to bring in the new season and gather all your loved ones around for a fun filled afternoon. The key to making this fun and interactive is for each person or couple to make a cocktail or mocktail recipe of their choosing. You can even judge them if you want to get competitive! We love Kitchen Warehouse’s range of Mr Consistent products that are perfect for creating a failsafe beverage that is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Have fun with the afternoon by using a variety of gorgeous glassware and cut up different fruits, herbs, and sprigs to be used as garnishes.
Decorate With Bright Colours
Bright colours are making a huge comeback in the interior decorating and design world, so get ready to embrace them in your home too! Entertaining at home can be a great place to experiment with colour and go bold with your decorations, napery, and tableware pieces. We are seeing beautiful ranges of brightly coloured tableware sets with fun lemon motifs, blue and white strips and Italian riviera inspired prints. As your dining table or alfresco settings are usually a nice neutral or timber tone, this creates the perfect backdrop to go bold when decorating. We love using a bright tablecloth or table runner in blue, pink, or green and using a complimenting colour for your placemats and napkins. Have fun with your table centre piece by mixing and matching a variety of brightly coloured vases with greenery to finish off the look. Check out Provincial Home Living and Freedom’s range of beautiful pieces that would be perfect for your next soiree.
Keep Your Food Simple
When entertaining at home it is tempting to go overboard and show off every skill you have when it comes to cooking and baking. This is often met with regret the next day as you find yourself spending majority of the time in the kitchen and are left with a huge clean up at the end. This is why we recommend keeping the food as simple as possible when it comes to Spring entertaining (Save the roasts for Winter or Christmas). A grazing platter is perfect as you can prep the layout and items the morning of the event and simply add your cheeses and meats before guests arrive. We love decorating our grazing platters with sprigs of herbs such as rosemary or a few little flowers hand-picked from the garden. Salads are a great option for food at a Spring get together as you can asks guests to bring their favourite one and it makes it a more collaborative affair. They also pair perfectly with a BBQ and make for a super easy and relaxed vibe for the perfect afternoon in the sunshine.
Host A Cuisine Specific Soirée
Here at Homemaker The Valley we love a themed party as it allows us any excuse to go all out with decorations, food and even an outfit! When planning your next soirée, we recommend starting by choosing a fun cuisine such as Italian, Mexican, or Greek and creating the event around this. As the days and nights are warming up, be sure to choose some fresh starters and salads and keep your mains and desserts quite light. When creating your tablescape we suggest avoiding a cliché look and instead drawing inspiration from the colours typical of these countries and creating an ‘atmosphere’ instead. For example, if you are hosting a Greek themed lunch, we love a blue and white striped linen tablecloth with either a bougainvillaea vine (thorns removed) or lemons and greenery lining the centre of the table. For a rustic Italian affair, be sure to use some terracotta ramekin dishes, natural timber serving boards and olive branches when decorating your tablescape. Our retailers have so many options for home decorating pieces that would be perfect for your next gathering. We recommend heading into stores such as Kitchen Warehouse, Provincial Home Living and TK Maxx for a great range on offer.
