A House Built for Entertaining

At Alpha Genesis Design Build, we are more than a team of architects, designers, and builders — we are a lifestyle company. We design and build homes that are an extension of your unique lifestyle. Entertaining guests is an important function for any home. For some, it’s the hallmark of what defines each room and space. 

A home built for hosting exudes a certain feel and sense of comfortability. Open spaces, areas for sitting and standing, appropriate thoughtful lighting, and other elements all work together to make a home a welcoming place for friends and family. Our design team of architects and builders collaborate with homeowners throughout the planning and building processes, considering how they will use their home for their family and entertaining.

To understand what makes a home ideal for hosting, we will showcase several of our recent projects designed with entertainment in mind. With careful consideration of the architectural and interior design elements discussed below, we can create a luxury home ideal for entertainment.

Capture a Sense of Comfort Through Scale, Size, and Space 

If you love welcoming guests into your home, it should have unique spaces that look good, feel good, and function well for entertaining. Several important elements must come together to make guests feel  relaxed and comfortable, including scale, size, use of space, and traffic flow. 

One of the first steps we take when designing a home is understanding a homeowner’s lifestyle. Some people enjoy entertaining guests at lavish parties in large spaces, while others prefer a cozy space that lends itself to intimacy and comfort. Rooms should feature the best design elements for entertaining and transform to accommodate the event’s needs. Learning your entertaining preferences allows us to tie in your personal connection with the overall design.

Consider Scale and Size in Every Design Element

Scale is a key element when designing a home for living and entertainment and is a far more important consideration than size alone. Rooms, both large and small, can feel welcoming and intimate if they are properly scaled with their furnishings and decorations that are properly sized and placed. It’s about bringing together the right size, scale, and proportions of all elements in a room.

One example is rooms with ultra-lofted ceilings. A voluminous space can pose a challenge as it can make people and furniture feel lost if elements in the room are not scaled properly. Décor should extend beyond the first 6 feet of height to encompass the scale of the room. When scaled properly with suitable furnishings, lighting, architectural details, and thoughtful decorations, even large rooms can feel inviting and engaging for homeowners and guests alike.

Careful Use of Space Allows Rooms to Feel Like They Were Built for the Occasion 

When we know a home’s purpose is for entertaining, flexibility becomes paramount. Whether you wish to accommodate a large party, an intimate gathering, or two people relaxing at home, rooms should have the flexibility for multiple uses. 

Barenhaus has a bold, Germanic architectural design with entertaining at its heart. The kitchen is the perfect example of a space designed for hosting. As the heart of the home, guests tend to congregate in the kitchen. The island, walkways, and appliances all have just the right amount of space to be functional yet accommodate many people. The Barenhaus kitchen can also serve the needs of chefs or catering staff, with plenty of room to establish workstations and move about freely. While offering a lavish living and entertaining area, this home can be quite comfortable for the family’s everyday use. 

Analyze and Incorporate Traffic Flow into the Floorplan

A house does not need to be large to serve as an excellent entertainment space. A well-designed home considers how good traffic flow can be achieved, even with small square footage. Careful consideration must be given to furniture size and placement, spacing between objects, and how guests are meant to move around and between rooms. No matter the setting, there must be enough space for people to walk around, sit down, and get up without bumping into others or squeezing through spaces. 

The Lodge is a new construction residential home tucked away in the woods of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The architect and design team took full advantage of the traditional Quaker meeting house’s long horizontal design to create ample traffic flow. A perimeter hallway directs foot traffic to the exterior walls of each space room creating intimate spaces within the centers of each space to facilitate entertainment. Guests can migrate freely from room to room without disrupting other guests, creating a more intimate feel.  

Use Outdoor Space as an Extension of Indoor Living 

Building a home that is suitable for dinner parties can be enhanced when making use of both indoor and outdoor environments. Whether in the city — where outdoor space is at a premium — or in the middle of a 50-acre estate, marrying your indoor and outdoor spaces maximizes your total entertaining area. A courtyard, deck, or patio encourages outdoor entertaining and creates a relaxed environment. If you have French doors or windows in your kitchen and living spaces, these can remain open to connect the two areas. 

The Lodge Terrace is designed to seamlessly blur the transition between indoor and outdoor living and entertaining. An outdoor courtyard is bordered on three sides by the home, guest suites, and a 3-foot wooden fence to create a spacious yet intimate area. Ample outdoor lighting illuminates the area with a gentle glow to evoke evenings of laughter and conversation. 

Create a Unique Mood Through Light and Sound

Designing a home that’s entertaining for guests is more than physical layout and furnishings. The mood is something that lingers in individuals’ memories long after the event ends. Appropriate lighting and sound can often be overlooked design elements, but can set an ideal mood for any occasion. 

Highlight the Mood Through Lighting

Lighting is one of the key features of home design as it can dramatically change the feel of a space. Lighting impacts a room’s perceived size and functionality, and it can change the mood, especially when you’re entertaining. Some lively events require bright lights to see and move with ease. Other gatherings are more intimate and work best with gentle dimmed lighting. 

Choosing the right accent lights is critical. Although they provide added illumination, these elements are decorative in nature and can be used to make a style statement or to emphasize architectural features in the space. A variety of light fixtures can be used to great effect, including cove lighting, pendants, scones, and chandeliers.  The style of these lights should be thoughtfully selected in conjunction with the overall style of the home, the room size and scale.  For example, ultra-modern oversized geometric-shaped pendants in this Vermont ski chalet were chosen as an important aesthetic and design feature in the decorative theme and create a dramatic effect.

Incorporate Sound Design Into the Architectural Process

Most people tend to overlook the importance of internal acoustics in constructing a perfect entertaining environment. Yet, great sound and acoustics make your home an inviting place to entertain. Think of a bustling restaurant where you have to speak louder to keep up with the noise level or echo in the space. This is an example of bad acoustics. Hard surfaces such as glass, mirrors, and tile increase echoes in large rooms and can create more resonance. Decorating rooms with a mix of material and soft surfaces, such as rugs, decorative pillows, and tapestries helps absorb sound and balance the room’s acoustic properties.

Music is another excellent way to enhance an event. A built-in sound system allows hosts to set the mood for each unique gathering with the right tone and atmosphere. Music can also link or separate entertaining areas. For example, the same music playing both indoors and outdoors can create continuity between the two spaces. Different music in each area, however, can signal a transition of space and mood and provide variety and set the mood and energy as guests transition from a relaxed interior room to a more lively outdoor party space. 

We Can Help You Design and Build a Home Made for Entertaining

The architects and design-build team at Alpha Genesis can design and build you a home that’s comfortable for your family and thoughtful for entertaining. While we’re based in New Hope, PA our full-service firm develops and executes unique concepts across the country. Contact us to discuss your project needs.