Last-Minute Scramble: Dinner Party Decorating

Sarah Van Arsdale - We’ve all been there: a dinner party is imminent, and yet the house looks like hell. The table is still piled with books, dishes, mail, and maybe the stray hockey stick. The portable CD player is still on the floor, where you put it only as a temporary measure six months ago when you lent the side table to your sister.

And then the phone rings, with the news that two out-of-town guests have made it after all, and the guest list has suddenly expanded from six to eight. You don’t even want to think about the mess that is your linen drawer, because you know you don’t have eight matching anything in there. Panic is setting in. How can you create a fabulous design under these conditions?

Plus, you’re up to your elbows in hummus, with a group of artists, writers, and scientists arriving in mere hours.

This was the situation on an April evening in the seaside split-level owned by a culinary whiz.

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So Long, Futon!

Daily Mail 

Gone are the days when it was okay to put your guests on a futon, or even worse, the dreaded airbed. Maybe there are some students still out there who own a futon, and the bad back to match, and we suppose we can let them off . . . but for the rest of you homeowners, it's time to upgrade.

Sofa beds these days are nothing like the ancient put-you-up-sofa-bed your grandparents used to wheel out of the garage for you on school holidays.

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