Can anyone give me tips on how to make our home cosier for dinner parties?

[HennyPennyHorror]

When we have friends over to eat, it's generally very informal...we usually as a family eat in our large kitchen...but it seems too bright and non-relaxed for friends.

We're having a friend to stay soon...and I want to introduce him to some of our other mates...but would like to make a nice ambience.

It's hard because our sitting and dining rooms are very small indeed! It's a 1920s cottage...if I put a full dining set into the dining room...with a table and chairs, there's no room for anything else...barely room to move.

What to do? It's Autumn here in Oz and eating outside won't be on.

Candles? Standard lamp?

I think eating in a kitchen is fine - wouldn’t bar an eyelid. We only have a kitchen diner. To make it cosier you need to think about lighting - lamps, candles etc, setting a nice table and comfortable seating.

The main thing affecting ambiance is probably the harsh overhead lights.

Try a table lamp and/or floor lamps and turn off the overheads. Use cheap tablecloths from Ikea (great quality), candles in holders (not tea lights) and it will be warm and cosy (and guests won’t be able to see the kitchen mess with such clarity!)

Or just squeeze into the dining room - no one needs room to cartwheel around the table. It will be cosy!

Lighting

Yes, lighting makes all the difference.

Get one of the gazebos they all seem to have in MKR, just put a patio heater in it. (assuming you have them in Oz).

Can you eat on the floor? I know it sounds ridiculous but I've done it with friends when we have indian food - just put a sheet o the floor and give everyone cushions.

I agree with the lighting, it makes the atmosphere.

Could you do a buffet and let people eat off their knees?

I'm not a fan of eating in the kitchen, and like to dine in the dining room. That said, i think lots of people prefer open plan/kitchen dining. For me, though, I don't like the lighting in the kitchen, and I don't want to eat where the cooking pots/diswasher/washing up/food prep debris is.

I would put a dinner set in the dining room. I'm not really sure what else you'd expect to have in a dining room apart from the table & chairs!

Failing that, perhaps look at lighting solutions in the kitchen - candles on the kitchen table maybe?

Sash It's just not the thing here...sitting out in the garden when it's not warm. We have so many months of warm weather that by the time Autumn rolls around (now) we're all quite glad to be indoors.

I will do as people have said...and try a few different lamp options around the kitchen. I will also have a go at rearranging the dining room to see what I can achieve there. One of them will work!

The kitchen has a big integral wooden bench/table which is attached to the floor...rustic but nice. I could cove that in some nice oilcloth I suppose...and get some nicer stools with backs to them.

That and lamps will work I think...the music is next door in the dining room so it will be ok.

Put a nice linen table cloth on the table, along with some pretty candles and matching napkins.
Put a pretty glass carafe with water and some lemon pieces on the table and use a carafe for the wine as well.

Isn't a "stool with a back on it" a chair? Agree with other PPs...lighting, candles, tablecloth will all make a difference.

I think I'm the long term I'd rewire some of the kitchen lighting so that you can pull down an overhead dining light on a separate switch. It shouldn't be expensive.

Get a little bit of a theme going with the lighting and table setting. Moroccan or Thai is easy and cheap. Check out B and M or TK Maxx (whatever the equivalent in Oz) for coloured lanterns, tea lights, floating candles in cheap mirror bowls, a Buddha head. Cheesy but fun. Off cut fabric for a table cloth, flowers, mood music, big platters of couscous and tagine or Thai curry, little china bowls and chopsticks. I love that kind of evening,

Proper well I suppose but I need tall chairs...so they're more like stools.

Sun We rent. Can't do that.

Hobb the kitchen is original 50s and very kitsch...I love it but that sort of Moroccan look wouldn't go at all...would be lovely otherwise though!

I’m in Oz. A blind/tarp enclosing the verandah and then a small bbq to heat it. A matching throw from spotlight for each chair. Or, as has been done many a time, a cotton scarf over your side lamps for atmosphere.

Pop into Vinnies for glasses and paint them and then put tea lights in.

But I have to say that IME, good food and plenty of it hides a lot. Have a good night.

Sand Our "verandah" is a mess and this is a rental so not interested in doing it up. And because of where we live, it's pretty windy at night...a small bbq would do nothing. We're very exposed. I don't want to eat outside at all...the garden's a sight.