Puttin’ On the Ritz… Holiday Style!
Interior Designers Are Essential in Making Lasting (Positive) Impressions
November 29, 2010
From the luxury addresses and grand estates of the sprawling North Shore all the way down to the high-rise condominiums and quaint apartments of the revered Gold Coast, first impressions can be everything. For those who take entertaining for the holidays seriously, like Emmy Award-winning entrepreneur Martha Stewart, everything has to be picture perfect.
Whether the special annual occasion is Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah or New Year’s Eve, people take great pride in inviting family and friends into their homes to celebrate and enjoy each other’s company. At these special times, they want to create extraordinary visual presentations of not just holiday food, but also the interior surroundings that act as a backdrop. However, meeting these high expectations sometimes requires so much time and effort that the novice host or hostess can easily become more daunted than delighted.
Anyone who has every orchestrated a formal sit-down dinner, cocktail party or swanky soirée can tell you that there are many variables to be considered before the doorbell chimes. Television, magazines and the Internet offer up a plethora of ideas, tips and tricks with painstaking instructions for successfully bringing together just the right combination of a festive interior décor and celebratory food and drink.
But suppose you don’t have the time and/or energy to do it all yourself? Who do you call when the beloved Martha Stewart isn’t available for a one-on-one holiday party consultation? Where can you find guidance for creating the perfect social gathering that leaves guests eagerly anticipating next year’s invitation? The answer: interior designers. They are the Fred Astaires of “Puttin’ on the Ritz”!
Applying the same time management and organizational skills they use to design an entire home – not to mention using professional artistry and a veritable treasure trove of sources and resources – interior designers are experts at staging special at-home events. In addition to assisting with holiday decorations, interior designers can compose impeccable table settings with floral arrangements, china dinnerware, crystal stemware, gleaming silverware and pressed linens, all under ambient lighting worthy of the famed La Tour d’Argent in Paris. These specialized professionals are also authorities on assembling all the necessary accouterments for your sensational evening, such as valet parking, caterers, bartenders, coat attendants, servers for passed hors d’oeuvres, and the imperative cleaning service, all of which will guarantee making a positive lasting impression on your guests and putting them (and you) in a holiday mood.
If you’re planning on hosting a gathering of any size this holiday season, hire a professional who has an innate ability to turn everything he or she touches from good to great! Or, should you choose to put your own skills to the test, double your budget, triple the expected time frame for implementation, and visit some of my favorite websites for expert inspiration.
Eddie Ross – Former Senior Style Editor of Martha Stewart Living and former Associate Decorating Editor at House Beautiful - http://www.eddieross.com/eddie_ross/
Martha Stewart – The Queen of Entertaining - http://www.marthastewart.com/
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