Do you have a small house? Me too! I love my compact mid-century home, but what do you do when you want to host a dinner party? Let’s look to the OGs of entertaining for advice. I’ve compiled vintage tips from 1950s and 1960s Better Homes and Gardens and Betty Crocker to help you conquer all your fears about hosting a dinner party in a small house. Yes, some of their suggestions are a bit rediculous, but some are practical and timeless. You can do it, and Betty can help!
Be Realistic
Betty Crocker’s Hostess Cookbook from 1967 starts off by keeping it real. If you have a 15 x 15 foot room, you probably can’t realistically have a sit down dinner for thirty people. That doesn’t mean, you need give up on your dinner party dreams altogether. Instead, think about hosting fifteen people for a cocktail party or ten people for a buffet. Betty recommends keeping it to four for formal sit down affair, and entertaining more often. You could have one group on Friday night and another group on Sunday. Apparently Betty had more time on her hands than most of us do.
Prepare Your Space
Declutter, and remove any unnecessary furniture to make more space for your guests. This will make the room feel larger. If you plan on having a buffet, push your table up against a wall for maximum space. Precious table space should not be cluttered with decorations. Betty suggests pinning paper flowers to curtains and placing artificial greens around a window or mantle.
Use Other Spaces in Your Home
Utilize other parts of your home when space is at a premium. Better Homes and Garden’s Guide to Entertaining from 1969 suggests setting up the bar in another room, and using furniture like a desk or chest. Cover the surface with a tablecloth, and use a tray to help contain spills. In our house, we’ve made a temporary lounging space in our basement when we’ve had larger crowds.
Cocktail Parties Work Best for a Crowd
If you want to entertain a crowd, most vintage sources suggest having a cocktail party instead of a sit-down dinner. Guests will spend most of their time standing and mingling, and you can pack more people into your space. Choose your food wisely, so that it can be easily served, and eaten while standing. Better Homes and Gardens suggests things like nuts, chips, dips, cheese, cherry tomatoes, carrots, eggs, and small pieces of toast with spreads. Heavier options include cocktail sausages, meat balls, shrimp, and liver and bacon on cocktail skewers. Strategically place trays with finger foods on coffee and end tables, eliminating the need for a large dining table. Tiered serving plates or plate racks are also a great space saver. I have a metal frame style rack similar to the one in the link above that allows me to use different plates to fit my mood or the season.
Buffets: Keeping it Casual
Serving the meal buffet-style is less stuffy and a great option for small spaces. Use tiered serving pieces to maximize space on the serving table. Better Homes and Gardens suggests that you stand at the end of the buffet and serve each guest a drink. Have trays or small folding type TV tables available for guests seated in the living room so they don’t have to precariously balance plates on knees. Since TV trays these days have more of a nursing home vibe than a party vibe, I say let them use knees!
Image from Teen-Time Cooking with Carnation, 1959
Sit-Down Dinners
Hosting a more formal dinner party in a small house is possible even if you don’t have a dining room. Consider setting up a table in your living room. Don’t have a table? Use a piece of plywood, two saw horses, and a floor length cloth. You have saw horses, right? No, me neither.
One platter meals can save on room at the table. Mid-century mavens suggest using a large platter and artfully arrange the veggies around the main dish. Garnish with parsley. Consider using individual salad bowls, which will take up less space at the table than a large serving bowl. Better Homes also suggests a two or three tier dinner cart to stage all the food. Wheel it into your living room when you are ready to serve and use it as a sideboard. When the meal is over, place all the dishes on the cart and wheel it back into the kitchen.
I don’t have a bar or tea cart, but there are so many cute carts available these days. Here are a few ideas:
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Use Non-Traditional Seating
Don’t have a large dining set to accommodate your guests? Betty Crocker suggests providing floor cushions and sitting around a coffee table. Who knew Betty was such a hippie.
The October 1957 Better Homes and Garden’s magazine has several suggestions for additional seating. First, you can stack large cushions to provide additional floor seating. Make your own out of foam rubber, covered with fabric. You can also place the cushions on small end tables or a chest.
Another seating alternative is to use patio furniture or mismatched chairs and unify the look with matching cushions. I’ve used a garden bench with cushions for extra indoor seating.
Choose Mobile Furniture
If you are buying new furniture, consider pieces with wheels that can be easily moved. Buy two narrow matching tables that can be put together when company comes. When apart, one can serve as a desk and the other as a small dining table.
Relax!
Don’t apologize for your small space. As Better Homes says, “If you are relaxed and confident, few will notice or even care about your lack of space. . . A clever hostess knows her party limitations and plans so well even in emergencies that she seems to have a no problem or ‘special situation’ at all.” What kind of emergencies and special situations were going on at the Better Homes house?
In all seriousness, hosting a dinner party in a small house is possible. Just think a little outside the box, make food prep and service easy on yourself, and pour yourself a cup of tea… or a cocktail.
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