Our kitchen and dining writer consulted several small-space experts on how to host guests comfortably for a dinner party when you don’t have a proper dining room.
I’ve lived in six different apartments over the course of a decade in New York — and though my current spot has a bit more room to entertain than any of the previous ones, I’ve always figured out how to accommodate quite a few people in small square footage.
I love to cook, and I love to host, so no kitchen and dining-room setup has ever stopped me. I’ve made sit-down birthday meals, held Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, and had friends crowd around my living room to eat. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot of what it takes to do this confidently and comfortably. I’m sharing all that here, along with the advice of several other small-space experts who specialize in making the most of shoe-box spaces.Checked stock and pricing on all products and replaced any sold-out pieces with similar ones. Added new tips and products throughout, including some durable items for eating outside and a collection of our favorite trays.What I fondly call my “dining area” holds a 61.5-inch rectangular table that seats up to five, or six if I pull it out from the wall enough to add another chair at the end. It’s also extendable; I store the leaf in a nook under our stairs . It wouldn’t work to have the larger version out at all times, coming up uncomfortably close to the radiator and my kitchen island. But when I need to, I rearrange it so that the table dominates the space — for one night, no one cares that things look wonky — and I can then squeeze up to eight. I think an extendable table is worth it if you can find a way to configure it in your space when the occasion calls for it., recommends. After trying out four different ones over the years, she had a custom version built because of particular width and length requirements — but the pedestal trick stands no matter your situation. “Pedestal tables for small spaces are really incredible because I don’t think a lot of people realize that when you have legs, it limits where people can sit and how many people can sit there,” she says. They come in round . When Strategist senior editor Hilary Reid lived in a small studio, she would pull her extendable oval kitchen table out into the middle of her space, place her desk so that it connected with the end, and cover the whole set up with a big. “Once you cover the random pieces of furniture, no one knows what’s under them,” she says. “You can set it with your nicest plates , and it will feel as special as if you had an actual dining table.”best dining chairs . From personal experience, I’ll note that the legs make a difference, too: It gets less squished if they fall in a straight line with the corners of the seat instead of splaying outward.Finally, it’s okay to utilize random chairs from around the house. “I can have a stool in the kid’s room and then bring it . Or your desk chair can also be a dining room chair, which not everyone wants to do, but I think it’s a good option,” Mazurek says.“Thankfully folding chairs have come a long way and more companies are making prettier ones that are not offensive to have in your space,” Lynch says. She even points out that some are nice-enough looking to mount on the wall when not in use. Mazurek has two extremely slim folding chairs from Resource Furniture that tuck in beside her washing machine. “They weren’t cheap, but they fold down to less than an inch, and we’ve had them for ten years,” she says. These were also recommended in Schwartz’s guide by Laura Fenton, author ofAll the experts I spoke to stressed how useful small stools are. Barberich and Yang love the original stacking Artek ones designed by Alvar Aalto, but you can findknockoffs out there. “They’re brilliant because they look beautiful stacked in a corner, and they’re also just incredibly sturdy and handy and comfortable, and they slide really far under the table,” Barberich says. They’re never in the way. They don’t look like clutter.” If a guest needs a back to their seat, she simply pulls an actual chair from another room.Mazurek loves the Aalto stools, too, but has this non-stacking one in her own home. She says it’s extra sturdy, so kids don’t knock it over.This stool from Häti Home is a recent addition to my own apartment. Instead of using it as an extra seat at the dining table, I keep it in a corner in my living room where it serves as either a seat or an extra side table for guests to place drinks or a plate when eating in there. It’s lightweight enough to easily move around, but still very sturdy.As I just mentioned, when I have more than eight guests, people sit around my living room. Lynch once again points out that small stools are great for this because they can be used for extra seatsor two is nice. It lets your guests know they can and should sit on the floor, and allows them to be more comfortable when they do so. This one is large and allows my guests to sit cross-legged comfortably without touching the floor.Mazurek and Lynch say that if you have ottomans, putting trays on top of those so people can set down a plate or drink without worry is a good move, too. I love trays myself and use them all around my house, so I’ve included some of favorites here. All of these look nice, are affordable, and — crucially if you’re using them for food and drinks — are easy to clean.There are even ottomans that come with tight-fitting removable trays on top, like this one from Softline that Mazurek recommends.Lynch says a nesting coffee table can be a very useful piece to invest in if you host enough. They can be bunched together when no one is there, but spread out when needed.“When we have multiple families over, we feed all the kids first. They pile on the bench, all the chairs. We fill the table with all the kid food and they eat in ten seconds flat usually,” says Mazurek. “And then we clear the table, and I light the candles and I set it again for the adults. The kids are running around like chaos. But at least they’re fed and we’re not worrying about them, and I’m not trying to fit 15 people in my tiny dining room.”If you have a kitchen island or a large swath of kitchen counter space, those are often the go-tos for a buffet. But if you don’t, or you’re looking for separate drinks or snacks stations, Lynch and Barberich say don’t be afraid to clear off more unusual surfaces, like a console or desk. “You could clear a bookshelf and put cocktail napkins and a bowl of nuts there along with two stools,” Barberich says. “Wherever you put a chair, people will go and sit. It’s nice to set up these little stations and then people have options, especially in a small space where you feel like you don’t have them. That’s where the creativity comes in.”When it comes to actual dinnerware, stacking is key. Plates do this naturally, but bowls and glassware can be trickier . Mazurek likes Fable’s products , and Barberich recommends Heller. As for glassware, I love classic bodega glasses, which come in multiple sizes; Our Place’s colored glass tumblers, which work well for water and cocktails; and these fun thick-stemmed wineglasses from Lenox. Serveware can prove tricker. If you have the space to store a few big bowls and platters, great. If not, I think it’s okay to serve the same dish off of two smaller vessels if need be. Mazurek loves big wood serving boards that she can pile food on — ones nice enough to lean up on the counter and keep within eyesight at all times. You can even use aso long as you treat it properly .— tiered platters can help create vertical space for more food . Recipe developer and writer“If you think about it, you’re probably selecting things for dinner that already go well with your decor, so integrating those items into the rest of your home and pulling them off of the shelves when you want to use them, then putting them back when you’re done, works great,” says Lynch. I personally keep votives,Having outdoor space is just as much of, if not more than, a privilege as having a proper dining room. Sometimes you’re blessed with both — but sometimes there’s actuallyroom outside. Such is the case at my current apartment, where the backyard can hold many friends for hanging and eating. Really, the picnic table we have is only suited for eight — but one of the joys of being outside is that it’s more casual in nature. People stand or sit on a random folding chair or bench. The key, then, is using unbreakable enamel or melamine tableware. A few favorites are below, but I haveEven if you don’t have a true backyard, a front patio works for hosting, too. Recipe developer and cookbook authoroutside of his Brooklyn apartment, where he also set out a folding table as a buffet, some lawn chairs as extra seating, and a big cooler to hold drinks, and he served the hot dogs and sides out of palm-size handheld paper trays. Still don’t have the space to do quite so much? Order pizza for your friends and eat it on your stoop. That counts as a dinner party, too.Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Noticeis designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. 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