I recently attended a holiday party hosted at a beautiful home in Red Ledges. The home was new, large, and totally incompatible with hosting. It appeared to have been designed for two people to comfortably inhabit, but little consideration had been given to the mechanics of how a party will unfold. While the space was big, that does not mean it was ready for 50 guests. For the savvy host, their guest’s comfort and enjoyment is top of mind. A variety of functions, comforts, and preferences need to be considered for owners who love to host many guests.
Acoustics
This is a big one. One large open space with large, hard, and flat surfaces is an unmitigated echo box. Vocal intelligibility becomes almost impossible without yelling. Intimacy and comfort are lost. Less-than-cathedral height ceilings, smaller interconnected spaces, and asking your interior designer to specify acoustically ablative materials all go a long way to keeping your space comfortable even when full of guests.
Sound is energy that we detect with our ears. The energy (and therefore sound) can be reduced by forcing it around corners, through mass heavy materials, or by being absorbed by specifically engineered materials. Adding a rug won’t make a noticeable difference! Look for high NRC (Noise Reduction Coefficient) materials. If the NRC is not part of the marketing then it’s not an acoustic material, and should not be expected to help shape the sound space. With NRC, you want to be as close to 1.0 as possible. There are many beautiful materials that offer 0.90 or 0.85 NRC and if you add enough materials like this your space will remain very comfortable, even when the kids are playing in the game room downstairs.
Enlarged circulation
When many people get together, spaces like hallways, foyers, and mudrooms all start to get very congested. If large parties are expected build these spaces to be more generous in size. A hallway that is only 36” will force you to flatten yourself against the wall to let someone else pass. Do yourself a favor and make the hall 48 or even 54” so that people can easily pass each other. However, apply this only where it is really needed and keep the circulation in private areas somewhat smaller to save on cost and wasted space.
Adaptability – strategic overflow
The simplest way to design is to designate each space within a home for a specific use. However, this is wasteful for most owners and spaces with narrow use cases end up empty the majority of the time. Instead, spaces can be made to be multi-functional. As one example, a modestly sized dining table can be expanded into the next space if that space is wide enough to accommodate the extra length and furniture can be temporarily moved out of the way. Thinking through the different stages of a festive event will help create opportunities for more spaces to be used in this way. Design for expansion, not excess.
Discrete party ‘zones’
The open floor plan may seem on the surface like a good party plan, but it allows for no deviation from a single focused activity. Sometimes – such as during a holiday dinner – this may be exactly what you are looking for, but after dinner energy striations will naturally develop. Introverts, extroverts, children, couples, or singles may all be looking for a different space with different energy to match their level of comfort. Smaller spaces off the main space provide places for small children to play, and more intimate conversations to occur. This also reduces seating needs in one single area as each space will have its own arrangement and many guests can be accommodated without making your home feel like a hotel lobby. If the kitchen is around the corner or through a doorway, then any mess or noise that is being made within to prepare food for guests is safely out of view. Party storage may include shoes, coats, paper goods, extra food, or beverages. Out of sight staging areas for these items is a must.
When Your Home Kitchen Turns into Commercial Food Production
During a large gathering the kitchen transforms into a small commercial kitchen and needs maximum functionality. This means that high amounts of storage, staging areas for preparation and completed dishes not yet delivered to the table, spaces to hide or stage supplies, and possibly extra ovens or warming drawers all need to be provided for. Alternatively, the island may form a long buffet style line along its length depending on hosting styles. The butler’s pantry is a common feature for many statement homes, but if the intended use is to serve large gatherings, then consideration should be made for how the butler pantry actually expands the capabilities of the host. Extra ovens in this space would make it so that multiple dishes can be made simultaneously while keeping the excess heat this generates isolated from the entertaining space. A refrigerator dedicated to drink storage ensures a steady supply of cool beverages for guests. And, extra counter space is excellent staging for completed dishes or extra supplies.
Holiday as a Deadline
Many owners express a desire to have their new home completed by a certain deadline. Often this takes the form of a favorite holiday. I caution all owners that holding this as a hard requirement may harm them and their project in the long run. Construction projects are complex and many moving parts have to fall into place for a schedule to see no extension during the process. Unforeseen problems or even the weather may create delays that are unavoidable. It can be tempting when this happens to try to push for faster delivery. However, when the schedule is pushed, cost or quality may suffer. If you end up in the home a month or two later than hoped, that is a far better outcome than being over budget or being unhappy with the quality of portions of the work.
Ask yourself: how many thousands of dollars am I willing to spend to be in the home by a specific holiday? As a host myself, I understand the desire to be moved in just in time to host that next Thanksgiving. To ensure success in this goal, set the completion date a few months in advance of the holiday to account for any delays that may occur, moving in, and getting settled before the big day arrives.
The powder room, a bottleneck
At this last party, a line formed at the powder room that did not dissipate until everyone starting leaving for home. During normal use a powder room off the living area is a wonderful and highly functional utility, but this can quickly be overwhelmed by partygoers. Separating the washing and the toilet into two separate but adjacent spaces allows guests to circulate more quickly. In larger homes, you might consider adding a second powder room that’s accessible from the party area. As a quick note, be sure to put out extra towels for hand drying. That towel got sopping wet after a couple of hours and while I didn’t really want to touch it I had no other means of drying my hands after washing.
Finishes and Fixtures
As one of our greatest assets, the long-term look and feel of our homes is an important consideration during design. Generally speaking, residential fixtures and materials are not designed for high traffic use like commercial fixtures and finishes are. This does not mean that we should sacrifice plush carpet or delicate but beautiful materials, but it does mean that we should use judgement with regard to how many guests each fixture and finish will come into contact with. Materials and fixtures that are resilient and easy to clean will go a long way to ensuring your guests get the same high-quality experience at your home this year and 5 years down the line. If you love white carpet or furniture, keeping it to private areas only may be prudent.
Entry and Storage
Before your guests can enjoy your home, they first need to find the front door. Many modern designs de-emphasize the entry to such an extent that it can be difficult to find. Work with your architect to ensure that it is obvious where the entry is. If the design leans away from bolder statements, then lighting, fire features, and garden pathways all help guests find their way.
Certain cultures require shoe removal on entry, and if that is common in your home then providing significant shoe storage at the entry should be provided as well. In the same vein, coats can really start to stack up. A nearby bedroom or den may serve as the coat room in many homes, but if space is available a generous closet at the entry is more convenient for guests and can be used at other times of year for any other storage needs. A modular coatrack may also be a good solution if a dedicated space is not desired.
Mechanical
When designing your home your Mechanical Engineer will make assumptions around how the home will be used. Cooling has to account for the body heat that we humans generate and release into the air around us. This is also accounted for during the winter by pumping less hot air through the ducts than an empty space would require. Make sure your engineer knows that at some times 50 people will be creating heat in the space rather than the normal 2/3/4. This makes a big difference to the calculations that they do and will result in a different system being installed. If the system is not engineered to account for the extra load you may find yourself opening the patio doors on Christmas Eve to cool the space off, or unable to cool the space in the summer when it gets too warm.
As with all design considerations, everything is a compromise. You may be able to incorporate some of the items above, and choose not to pursue others. This is completely ok. Along with all of this advice, I also would like to say that if the home accommodates 3 people for 360 days of the year and it is perfectly designed for those people, then the design may be considered a success even if that holiday gathering gets hectic. It’s only one day after all, and family or friends came to see you! I’m sending this a little later in the month than I hoped and many of you are likely already on vacation for the rest of the year. On that note Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!