Want to make your home more welcoming to guests? Here are seven ways that you can make your home more guest-friendly.
Improve your curb appeal
First impressions are everything. If your home doesn’t feel welcoming from the outside, people are likely to enter it on edge. Make sure that the front of your home doesn’t look decrepit and that paint isn’t peeling or windows are dirty. Tidy your front lawn or driveway if you have one and consider adding flowers outside as these will make your home feel more cheery. For when it gets dark, consider having some outdoor lighting and possibly a canopy over the door to provide shelter for guests waiting outside in the rain (these features will also benefit you). You can also consider welcoming signage saying ‘welcome’ or ‘home sweet home’ – you may want to avoid a ‘beware of the dog’ sign, which could have the opposite effect.
Declutter the hallway
The hallway is the next most important place for first impressions. You want to be able to welcome in guests without them tripping over shoes or hitting their hip on a protruding cabinet. Use your hallway space wisely and try to keep obstructions out of the way. It’s worth having a shoe rack or a chest for keeping shoes stored in and hooks or a coat stand to store jackets.
Have enough seating
Guests shouldn’t have to hover awkwardly – make sure that there is enough seating in your home for when guests are around. You don’t have to upsize your sofa, but it could be worth buying a few chairs to stack in another room that you can pull out and bring into the living room when there are lots of guests round. Companies like The Chair People have lots of seats to choose from. If you don’t have much room in your home, consider tessellating furniture that can be easily stacked or folding chairs that can tucked away in a cupboard.
Raise your glasses
As well as having enough chairs, make sure that you’ve also got enough glasses. Don’t worry about buying matching sets – social occasions are often great times to bring out all your fun novelty glasses. If you have people round for dinner, make sure that you’ve similarly got enough plates and cutlery. When hosting large parties, consider having a stack of paper plates and plastic cups as an emergency backup solution.
Go open-plan
Open plan homes are much more guest friendly as they allow easier communication and movement from room to room. Rather than leaving guests abandoned in the living room whilst you go to make them a drink, you can still easily talk to them and allow them to move freely. Going open plan could be expensive as it may require hiring professionals to knock down walls. Knocking down walls isn’t a job for a DIYer – you may need to consider pipes and wiring in the walls as well as weight-bearing walls.
Need a guest bed?
People will feel more comfortable staying round if you can offer them a bed and not just a sleeping bag on the floor. If you don’t have a spare bedroom, buying a sofa-bed for the living room could be the next best thing. Sites like Sofology have a large range of sofa-beds that still look stylish as a sofa. Another option could be to buy a bed with an extra pull-out bed underneath. You can even stock an airbed for guests, although you will have to go through the hassle of pumping it up every time a guest is staying round.
Show off your personal life
If you’re letting guests into your home, don’t feel that you can’t show off your personal life through photos and personal belongings. These can actually make people feel more welcome by serving as conversation starters. An exception might be if you have a guest bedroom – people like to feel as if a bedroom is their private space and you don’t want this to be cluttered with too many personal belongings.
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