Furniture For Holiday Gatherings

The Best Dining Room Furniture Set for Your Holiday Gathering

We don’t often think about the furniture in our dining room until it’s absolutely necessary to do so. The furniture is typically comfortable enough for us to enjoy a quick breakfast, or a dinner with the family. But, when it comes to hosting guests, it’s easy to second guess yourself, and your furniture. Thankfully, there are a few tips you can keep in mind. Whether you’re in the market for a new dining set, or you want to spruce up your own, take into account both timeless classics, and recent trends. 

Traditions Never Fade

The holidays are all about family, warmth, and comfort. One way to provide that with dining room furniture is by focusing on something more traditional, vintage, rustic, etc. If you have an old dining set already, you might actually benefit from ‘roughing it up’ a bit more. The distressed look is not only in style right now, but it never goes out of style. Capitalize on a comforting dining set you already have by giving it a more rustic look. There are plenty of online tutorials and step-by-step guides that can help you give your furniture a welcoming farmhouse appeal. 

Modern Comfort

People also tend to think about class and sophistication at the holidays. If you’re in the market for new dining room furniture, don’t be afraid to make a bold statement. Rich, warm colors will never go out of style. Oversized tables and chairs will make every meal feel like a special occasion. Clean, smooth lines will make the dining set comfortable enough to use all year long, even for a simple, casual meal. 

Whatever you decide, know that dining room furniture should reflect your space and personality all the time. How you decorate and accent it for the holidays is also completely a personal choice. So, choose your modern flare, or timeless traditional look, and your friends and family will love it.

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How To Throw An Outdoor Party

By Towne Home Furnishings

We are entering the perfect season to spend the most of our time outdoors! Going for walks, relaxing in parks, enjoying time with friends and family while picnicking or simply barbecuing in your backyard- so many tremendous outdoor activities to keep us busy this coming summer! Let’s focus on today’s theme- How to throw your outdoor party? What are the much needed things to consider when throwing out an outdoor party?  

Place, decorations, and food are definitely the main elements to have in mind.

First, spot the perfect place. Then, get the furniture right!

Feel like making your bash in a park? Bring out your throw or blanket with you. Any colors will do, but we suggest you match it with your color theme if you have one!

Feel like staying close to home? Throw a party in your backyard without worrying about moving and shifting your furniture too far. If you don’t have any outdoor furniture: bring your dinette out!  This is a great alternative from 3 pieces to 7 pieces; our Ashley Furniture dinettes can accommodate most of your guests when eating on a table.Benches are also a good option for gathering lots of people around your table.

Smart decorating with simplicity

If you are a foodie, we have no doubt that your table will be full of unthinkable dishes, so forget about using any decorations on your table. Plenty is no plague! What about lighting?  You can set up a lively atmosphere with candles!  Lemongrass candles are so efficient - it will repulse mosquitos and give a great lemony fresh scent! The Kadeem candle holder is one of our “coup de Coeur”. This stylish holder can help set the mood with your party theme as you can incorporate stones, sand, pebbles or topiary touches thanks to its removable tray.

        

Food, food always!

The best part of outdoor parties is that you don’t need to make a complicated menu to please your guests. A BBQ is more than enough to satisfy meat or vegan lovers! Give yourself some time for preparation the night before or a few hours prior to ensure that you marinate your elements, so that you can relax and spend time with your guests. BBQ has always been a great woman’s cooking “runaway” as man loves being in control of the grill!

Let’s make the month of June the most outdoorsy partying time ever!

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Mother’s Day Gifts Ideas

By Towne Home Furnishings

Are you wracking your brain for mother’s day gift ideas? Don’t fret, you’ll have it under control in no time! Rather than spending money on cliché gifts, year after year, why not do a nice gesture that will leave an impression on your mother. Here are some great ideas to help you get started!

Bring your mother to Paris for breakfast:

Paris? “How am I supposed to pay that with my allowance?” – you ask. Kidding aside, the idea is to bring this romantic city to your home. Paris is truly conducive to romance because of its charming little-knowns. Your eyes simply won’t know where to gaze, everywhere you go. In order to recreate that beautiful scenic setting, think of an endearing French bistro with a view of the Eiffel Tower. First, begin by setting up a bistro-style table with a parasol on your balcony/deck. Ashley`s Nola dinette or a similar style is representative of a typical outdoor bistro set in Paris, but can be equally used indoor. Next, decide on a menu to serve your mother and write it out on chalkboard.

In order to recreate the Eiffel Tower, if you have access to a projector, get your hands on a caricature of the Eiffel tower and project it on a large mural. Then, trace the outline of the tower on the mural. Go over the outline again to darken it and add some color to the mural if you wish. And voilà! You have your Parisian background! As a final touch, despite being a little stereotypical, it might be fun to wear a beret while you serve your mother her meal.  

Pack your mother a delicious picnic:

With the same train of thought, if you have a little less time to prepare, here is another worthy suggestion. Consider putting together a beautiful picnic for your mother, right in your backyard. Ideally, a picnic table would be more comfortable, rather than sitting on a blanket. Ashley`s Freimore dinette set looks just like a picnic table that you would be able to use for this occasion and reuse indoor as well.

Next, pack your delicious menu of choice in a basket and make sure to prepare disposable utensils, napkins and plates, as one would use for a picnic. Finally, to create the setting, use a red plaid tablecloth and add a vase of fresh flowers on the table. Then all there is left to do is enjoy the fun in the sun!

Happy Mother`s Day!

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Spice up Your Dining Room Furniture

By Towne Home Furnishings

Are you looking to spice up your dining room? You can add character to this space by mixing an array of furniture with a Vintage Casual style. All your pieces will have some type of character to them and they don’t need to be from the same collection! Besides, being too matchy-matchy has nearly become a home décor faux pas!

The dining table

First and foremost, begin with the dining table. The Mestler dining table is a simply shaped table with a beautiful rich bisque finish. Fortunately, the simplicity of the shape allows for the rich finish to take the spotlight. In fact, the beauty of picking a table as such is that you can allow yourself to ramp up the character with the seating.

Seating options

That being said, the second task is that of selecting the dining seating. The Mestler collection offers a variety of seating choices to meet your dining room décor needs. As a first option, the side chair featuring a beautiful distressed antique blue finish, would definitely add some much needed character to the table. However, if you feel that this option is antique blue overkill, you can play with the seating style and add a touch of blue instead. In order to pull this look off, opt for a mix of distressed antique blue chairs, distressed antique white chairs and a tufted light brown upholstered chair. All three dining chairs offer a Vintage Casual style that blends perfectly with the dining table.  

The piece that ties it all together

Lastly, the final touch resonates with the buffet. The Demarlos dining room server features a vintage-inspired style. This piece is bathed in a rich finish with gentle distressed accents and antique hardware. It screams character! Despite exuding character, its relaxed sensibility avoids an overstated look. Aside from being stylish, this server offers plenty of storage space – a must for ladies that love their china!

If you’re an individual who enjoys displaying a little character in your home, then this project is for you! Enjoy mixing and matching your pieces to achieve your desired look!

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DIY: Easter Centerpieces

By Towne Home Furnishings

Hop your way into Easter with this simple & charming floral arrangement. The beautiful pastel colors will give your table setting the fresh look it needs this spring. Then, with the same eggs, you can make another thrifty craft that will look just as dainty. Follow these easy steps & you’ll have them done in no time!

Easter Floral Arrangement

What you need:

·         A wire basket

·         Speckled Easter eggs

·         Baby’s breath

·         Vase

1)      Use some speckled Easter eggs, preferably in muted colors. If you do not manage to find any that are already prefabricated, purchase some wooden or foam eggs. Then paint them in muted colors of your choice. As a final touch, use a toothbrush to speckle brown spots.  Make sure to make extra eggs for the following craft!

2)      Start by adding a few eggs in the wire basket. Don’t be afraid to mix the colors for best results! Also, include yellow, as you cannot have a happy event without the color that best represents the emotion! Next, add a glass vase in the center of the wire basket. Then arrange the eggs around the vase according to your liking. Once the wire basket is filled and the vase is surrounded, add water to the vase.

3)      Finally, add some flowers to your arrangement. Most people would consider baby’s breath a “filler” for floral arrangements, however its simplicity will not take away from the beauty of the colorful eggs in the basket. On the plus side, they are also extremely inexpensive, so your arrangement will turn out to be a bargain!

This arrangement has a rustic feel to it and would be showcased beautifully on a rustic dining table. It’s simple yet charming look will complement the natural and organic elements of the wood.

Nestled Easter Eggs

What you need:

·         A cake pedestal

·         Straw

·         Speckled Easter eggs in muted colors

1)      Begin by taking some straw and shaping into a circle. If the straw is being fussy, try to wet it a little to help shape it and stick it together. If it still does not stick together at the ends, a little dab of glue from a glue gun will do just fine.

2)      Place the straw that is now shaped into a nest onto the cake pedestal. Then, take some of the leftover eggs from the previous craft and nestle them into their cozy little nest. This centerpiece would look lovely with a Shabby Chic or Vintage Casual style, as it screams effortless elegance.

There you have it! A table with dainty and egg-citing décor. It’s quite egg-traordinary! 

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Eating Habits

By Towne Home Furnishings

We have great news for those obsessed with dieting - March is the national nutrition month this year! Nonetheless, we are not nutritionists and will not suggest what you shouldn’t eat nor give you any recipes – even if, these tips could help lots of us as spring is coming! Then why not talk about eating habits for once! What eating habits should we adopt to stay healthy and live longer? Here are our pieces of advice:

Time does matter!

Some American surveys reveal that 7.11 am is the ideal time for breakfast, 12.38pm for lunch, and 6.14pm for dinner.  Whether there is any best time to eat or not, when we are less active especially in the evening, it takes more time to burn calories- that’s a fact! Yet, what really matters is not at what time you eat, but how many times you eat on a daily basis.

Fuel up 3 times a day with a healthy meal and have some healthy snacks in between if need be. This is a great habit to develop. You don’t have to apply the famous phrase: “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper” as you know your limit. However, never overeat especially before going to bed! While eating, take your time to enjoy each bite!

Eat in the best room ever… It is always better to have a sit-down dinner than to eat on the go. Obviously, our dining room is arguably the best place to have your meals or as a second option, there’s always the kitchen! As long as you sit on a chair, you are in the right spot!

Keep the rhythm! Eating in the dining room is also great for sharing family moments. Families share about their day or/and make plans. We will always remember those times where we were all seated around the table, eating all kinds of food, even green vegetables and discussing! Everyone needs their daily portion of fruit and vegetables and if leading by example can help our kids, why not adopt this routine?  It will certainly reduce some health problems later too! So keep the rhythm…

As a last piece of advice, follow healthy eating habits more than 31 days. How long could we carry on with this challenge? You know the answer…Have the greatest and healthiest March ever!

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