Thursday, February 04, 2016

Dinner Parties: Impress Your Guests?


When it comes to dinner parties, we are definitely more the 'takers' than the 'bakers'. I love going to dinner parties and get togethers, but find it such hard work hosting and worrying about the way the house looks doing them ourselves. If we do have people over for something a little more formal, we do like to make the house and table look pretty though, so I was really interested to read the research that my favourite 'Homeware-for-less' retailer HomeSense conducted and published last month, looking at how us Brits differ as dinner party hosts.

I would happily treat myself to some special new glasses, table cloths or crockery for a dinner party, but I was blown away to find out that on average, Brits spend £134 to improve their homes just for one single dinner party! 7% had actually spent OVER £500 for the occasion and a staggering 7% even purchased a new TV before hosting! 


The research polled 2000 men and women aged 18 to 60+ from all over the UK. What didn't come as a huge surprise, was that the biggest pressure to have the perfect home setting comes from family (26%), with only 7% wanting to impress their boss. I'm am surprised though that anyone wants their boss to come for dinner! The most popular items to purchase in order to 'spruce' up the dining space, were flowers, candles and cushions. The research showed that women were actually far less eager to impress their dinner guests! 

The men that completed the research, seemed much more focused on social media and the worry of pictures of their homes being shared, which made them much more likely (twice as likely in fact) to redecorate prior to the party. It seems though that the ladies were at the forefront of the shopping, with over half the men questioned asking for help from mothers and grandmothers, and 40% of men admitting their partners do all the shopping for the home.

The highest spenders geographically, were based in Bath and Gloucester, with the last of the big spenders being from Salisbury and Carlisle. 


For me, I would definitely make the house look nice, but as cosy as possible too. I would definitely invest in some decent faux flowers that I could reuse, as well as some nice new candles and squishy cushions to make my guests feel at home. Any excuse to buy cushions right? I wouldn't spend a great deal on large items though, as I would like to think my guests would just be happy to be there and eat some amazing food! I'd much rather watch a film, order in a takeaway and have everyone comfortable with fluffy blankets, cushions and some pretty flickering candles around the room. Perfect.

If you are hosting a dinner party, you can pick up everything you need from HomeSense at amazing prices. If you want to go all out and really blow your guests away, you can also pick up some beautiful new furniture and unusual food and drink items too. Xtreme hot sauce anyone?

Do you like to host dinner parties? Are you a 'Fish, chips and Netflix' diner, or do you 'Fine wine and luxury dine? 


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