Summary

Do you like to entertain but lack outdoor space? This week Alicja and Dee discuss all the ways to bring the outdoors in for a cool summer celebration. Listen in for 6 easy tips you can use to make that transformation. Thoughts, questions or show topics? Send us a voice note or email at [email protected] and come back next week as we discuss tips for outdoor entertaining. Check out our website http://www.truesdalemorrison.com — This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/teaoverinteriors/support

Transcription

Episode Transcription was automatically generated and may not be reliable.

Dee: Today for D’s randomness. I am going to tell you a little bit about the ancient Egyptians. Are you familiar?

Alicja: I know who they are, but what are you going to tell me about them?A

Dee: Did you know that they really knew how to throw a party?

I’m sure they did tell me.

Dee: So they would create these elaborate parties for their friends.

And of course this was the wealthier Egyptians, the ones that could afford it. And they had like huge spreads of food, cheese, chickpeas, lentils, you know, you name it, they had it, types of cakes and goodies and things like that. And their guests used to dine on small little tables where they, had small little tables and they’d sit on benches and they would eat off of attractive implements, like cups, bowls, cups, plates, things like that.

And they were decorated with blue. Lotus flowers and things like that really fancy, you know, the ancient Egyptians also invented a lot of things like paper writing, paper , locks, keys, toothpaste. And they also invented breathe mints.

Cause if you’re going to party like a rockstar, with all that garlic and stuff. Be in everybody’s face like, Hey, how you doing today?

Alicja: And wine and beer, you know, that can kind of make your breathe smell you know, a little funky.

Dee: So I guess they were like, you know, we need to invent something to combat all this partying that we do.

They also liked to play board games. They had a game called Senet,where it was kind of like the game backgammon. So yeah, they did a lot of things. They knew how to throw a party.

So today’s topic. We’re going to talk about how to make your indoor space feel more like an outdoor party atmospheric space.

Alicja: You know, because not everybody has an outdoor space and they get, I have a friend, she was really sad.

Probably the whole time she was living in an apartment. She liked the apartment. She didn’t like the apartment, but she liked the location. It was accessible to downtown, they could get dinner. They can go to a movie. I mean, it was really nice. Anyway, I remember her main complaint was that she loved to entertain outside in the nice weather because she had moved from, private residence.

And she kept telling me, she was like, “I just can’t stand the fact that I can have people over outside.” And she wanted to do grilling outside and all of that. And she didn’t have that type of space. She felt sad like for a good seven years. So if we have some listeners who were in that boat, I think this is a great opportunity to talk about what they could do in order to make that indoor space feel like they’re doing outdoor entertaining.

Dee: I lived in an apartment for a number of years and I used to get a little sad sometimes because, you know, I want that outdoor feeling, but I don’t want the bugs. So, you know, I traveled to the beach and stuff like that. And we had, we had access to an outdoor space, but, you know, it’s, not the same because it’s not connected to your particular apartment, but some people do have patios and things like that.

Sometimes you live in an apartment you may live in a place that have really great views. And so you can take advantage of that. So I would say the first thing that you can do to make your space feel more like an outdoor space would be to bring in lots of light from the outdoors. So opening up all your windows.

Rearranging your seating and table furniture to be near the windows. And also making sure you change all the bulbs to day-lighting. So they have more of like an outdoor vibrant sunshine feel and you know, using some string lights and things like that. Just making the space really bright indoors to make you feel like you’re outdoors.

What would you suggest Alicja

Alicja: Well in reference to your window concept, I’m all about that. Raise the windows, open them up, lift the blinds. Move the curtains away, but more importantly, make sure you have screens in those windows because you might want to get the fresh air, but you don’t want the bugs.

And you said you don’t like the bugs.

Dee: Oh yeah. Yeah. I wasn’t even thinking about temperature yet. Cause that’s, part of our atmosphere, episode. If you want to go back and check that out, we talked about creating an atmosphere for a party. So you may want to use that in conjunction with these tips.

Alicja: I have an idea to piggy back on your placement of furniture along the windows. I think rearranging the furniture is a great idea. And if you could, if you have enough room in the space, put the bar in the center. So set up the bar if you’re able, so that people can walk around the bar and it would create a path of travel that is kind of circular with the bar being the focal point in the room.

If you absolutely cannot do that because of space limitations, then choose a wall, not a window wall, but a wall where you don’t have any windows interior wall possibly, and set up your bar against that wall facing out so that people could approach the bar and get their drinks, and then go back to their designated seat near the window

Dee: That is a really great one. And also what would be nice, would be to bring in some real plants and some flowers, you know, if you can set up little tables around the bar or for your seating area, place a lovely arrangement on each one. Plants in the corners and things like that to kind of work on whatever theme you’ve decided inside the room, you know, make sure you get some nice tall plants to kind of make you feel like you’re outside because outside you’re going to have some trees and some plants.

Alicja: Your local garden center is always a great. To pick up nice trees and stuff like that. But I like to go to Ikea. I haven’t been there in years, but they have these awesome big trees, decent price. Now how long I’ve never been able to purchase an Ikea plant and have it last for very long.

Dee: I, brought one, but I put it, I think it was a palm or something. And I put it in my corner. I don’t know. I didn’t know a lot about plants back then. This was like 10 years ago. I didn’t know a lot about plants and I thought I could just stick it in the corner. Cause that’s what I do. And I thought the light from the window would be enough, but it wasn’t.

I think I might’ve over watered it too. I wasn’t able to get it to last more than a year.

Alicja: Well, that’s what I was just getting ready to say. That’s what I’m saying. I’ve never been successful at purchasing one of those plants and they lasted long. I certainly don’t think it lasted a year if it lasted six to eight months.

I don’t know what the problem was. It could have been me could have been operator error, but I think at the end of the day, they do a good job price wise. So if you want to get something like that, just for the event, as opposed to going to a garden center, because you’ll spend an arm and a leg on something like that, you can always go the fake route.

I know you’re devastated. I understand clutch your pearls.

For a cohesive look. I love that white furniture look, and I know everybody doesn’t have that. So furniture chair covers. If you can get everything nicely themed so that it’s all kind of crisp. And then those pops of green with the Palm trees or plants or whatever. They really pop against those, those covers on the chairs and you can even cover your sofas so that everything is cohesive.

That is a good look.

Dee: Very good. And also it keeps your furniture cleaner because if somebody spills something on that, it’s not such a big deal.

Alicja: Anyway, you can rent those. Those can be rented from a party rental center. Cause I know nobody wants to go out and buy like all that stuff.

Dee: Yeah. But if you only have a few pieces of furniture in the room, like maybe if you just have two sofas or whatever, cause it’s a small space or you just have some chairs , that might work. Right. What else can you do? You can, bring in some plants and flowers, use some natural lighting and rearrange your seating, as well as bring in the bar to the center, rent some chair covers.

Alicja: I have another idea , I’m all about transforming the space and making it feel like you have been transported somewhere else. So how about this gauzy fabric, just drape the room in a gauzy fabric. You can even do the ceiling and that will create a cabana feel

And see that those fans in the corner and see the billowing of the fabric. And since you have like sea breezes, okay. I’m going to get corny and say, you can even get the sound effect fromthe sea or like a water washing up. Okay.

Dee: So no, maybe like a water feature.

Alicja: A water feature, but you can get , sounds too. You’re not feeling it.

Dee: Music is already playing in the background, you know. So that’s a lot of sounds competing in a small space

Alicja: Okay. Okay. We try to be outside.

Dee: But it’s a good idea. I love it. I love the cabana. I like that. You know, I was going to say drape some fabrics on the ceiling and things like that. You know, and make it feel like another place, but cabana yes, I should have thought of that.

That was really good. So yeah, I think that’s it.

Alicja: Well, wait a minute, people are thinking probably what is she talking about? This water feature.

Dee: You can buy a water fountain, maybe like a stone one with water falls in the front.

Alicja: Yeah. The ones you plug in, right? That recirculate the water.

Dee: Yeah. Plug in. You put that like somewhere, you know, so no pressure to do like this full wall water feature extravaganza.

Well, I mean, if you have the money yeah. If you’re, if you hiring someone to deck it out, like if you’re hiring us as up there to come out and play in my space, you know, then yeah.

We’ll go full out. But if you’re just doing something together on a budget, but you want to make it look good. Yeah, you could go buy a simple water feature and you could put it on a table, you know, maybe like where you have some other decorations that that’s going along with your theme or whatever. A water feature would be nice.

Yeah. Different things, different things you can Google. So bringing a water feature is 1 bringing in a real plants and flowers is 2 using natural lighting,3. Rearranging your seating to be closer to the window,4 moving your furniture so that way the bar is in the middle of the space, creating a circular flow that’s 5 and then draping furniture to make it feel like a cabana is 6and renting chair covers to cover your furniture 7.

Yeah. So there you have it 7 different ways that you can make your indoor space. feel likean outdoor space for entertaining. We’re all about that. So next week, we’re going to talk about how to make your outdoor space conducive to outdoor entertaining some tips and tricks for that. We’re not going to go into like specific themes or anything because there are some elements that you need to pin down that will work for any theme that you go for.

Alicja: I like that all about it. That’d be nice.

Dee: Yeah. Well, thanks for joining us. Thanks Alicia.

Alicja: Thanks Dee see you next week.

Dee: Tea over interiors is brought to you by Truesdale Morrison Design. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Truesdale Morrison Design, and please rate and subscribe to this podcast to help us improve and grow. Thank you for listening. We’ll see you next week.