Something we love doing is hosting friends and family in our home. This was our second Christmas hosting a full house of family and it was so fun having everyone here and seeing how busy the kitchen always was. We skipped a year to travel for the holidays and plan to keep that cadence of traveling/hosting every other year.
The first time we hosted was in 2020 only three months after closing. The nice thing about hosting this time around was that we had already stocked up on many of the basics from last time and didn’t *need* to buy anything, even with 17 total people in the house. My four younger cousins had a slumber party in the media room with a mix of air mattress/couch/floor blankets, but otherwise everyone had a bed.
Our main floor guest room is fully furnished, but we were starting from a blank slate for the three rooms upstairs. It was also fun for everyone to see all the changes we’ve made in the home in the previous two years. It is definitely more furnished and lived in around here.
At the time I liked the idea of “crisp white hotel” linens, but if I were to do it again I would probably introduce some more color. The good news is that I can still do that with with other things in the future, like paint or curtains and accessories. The upstairs guest bedrooms are future kids’ rooms anyways, so it doesn’t really bother me!
Here is what we have in terms of simple furnishings for hosting:
- Queen memory foam mattresses
- Metal platform bed frames
- Queen air mattress with built in pump
- Sleeping cots (we bought two this year)
- Deep pocket bed sheets
- Gel pillows
- Night lights
- Towel sets (we have the same ones in different colors for ourselves)
- Makeup remover towels
- Quilt bed covers (one blue and one white)
- Guest slippers
