5 Set-Ups for Entertaining at Home

Hosting a party anytime soon? It can be a challenge figuring out the best way to set up your home for entertaining, particularly if you live in an apartment without a dining room, but don't worry — even in a small space, you've got several options...

1) Set your coffee table with appetizers, and surround it with chairs, stools or floor cushions for guests. Use another available surface (like a kitchen cart or entryway table) for the bar.

2) To set up a buffet and bar, use a sofa table, console, or credenza. This arrangement is ideal for cocktail parties, where guests can wander around the room and circle back to the bar.

3) Move your dinner party outdoors. Use an outdoor dining table or, if you're winging it, top a few sawhorses with a sheet of wood and lay down a tablecloth. For seating, you can bring your indoor chairs outside or invest in a set of folding chairs.

4) So you want to host an outdoor party, but you don't have a backyard or deck? Move your party to the roof, the sidewalk, or the walkway of your apartment building.

5) If your apartment is organized for everyday entertaining from the get-go, you won't have to think too much about how to set up a party. You can use your kitchen or dining room table to host dinners, and your living room for conversation and cocktails.

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Photos: Sarah Coffey (1), Beth Zeigler and Marissa Zajack (2-3), Jordan Ferney (4), Sarah Kate Gillingham Ryan (5)

Comments (7)

I entertained buffet style for years because I didn't have a proper dining table. Now that I do, I actually still prefer buffet -- sitting up straight around a table for three hours just isn't as fun.

Coffee table entertaining, alas, ceased to be an option when we got a dog.

great ideas! i have all these dilemmas mentioned: no yard, no dining room, etc. but i do have a deck, dock and garden entryway. here's to creative entertaining!

I like to have sit down dinner parties for groups of five to ten in my studio apartment. We usually do picnics on the floor. I sweep well, lay out a tablecloth that belonged to my grandmother and set it with plates and utensils. The food is served buffet style on my (small) dining table, and people leave when they can no longer handle sitting on the floor. Of course, I'm also twenty two and don't own a couch or a coffee table, by the time I'm thirty-two I hope I will have a couch and coffee table and maybe a dedicated dining room that can seat twelve. :)

Shiowzi - What a wonderful way to host! AT should tag along to one of your dinner parties and take photos.

Hmm, the squatting people in that first photo look anything but comfortable.

My foolproof method is to simply make a buffet on the dining room and/or kitchen tables and then move the chairs away from the table.

I've always been taught that its poor form to sit down in front of a table acting as a buffet or bar, but find it's one of those things that people do without even noticing it.

Instead, I cluster the chairs in groups of three around the room so that guests can get some food and then go socialize elsewhere in the room. It keeps both the food and guests moving.

I too no longer have a formal dining area so its buffet in the kitchen and coffee table dining.

Some times my kitchen island which is a U shape acts as a dining table. I toss a fun tablecloth over it and I bring out my folding barstools, then set it up as you would a regular dining table. I turn off the lights and have candle light only, this has been great for intimate dining parties.

I give so many brunch or dinner parties in my small apt. One time I even squezzed 21 people for dinner with full course meal in open buffet... It is all about efficieny and presentation. Instead of serving in large bowls, salad platters, I serve in small deep bowls, I do not have to keep moving between the kitchen & living room, and enjoy dinner..