As the holidays start to roll around, holiday prep can be pretty stressful; especially with traveling here and there to visit family from all over. Our family’s love for Thanksgiving runs deep and we love sharing our own traditions with others. With being a military family, we don’t have the opportunity to spend every holiday with close family. Traveling is always expensive during the holidays, so we stay home for Thanksgiving and started some of our own family traditions.
I’m known for always having a home project going on and every year before the holidays, I’m sent into a frenzy of all the big and little projects I want to tackle around the house before the festivities begin. We love The Home Depot for all of our home improvement needs, and now for all of our entertaining needs the holiday season! The Home Depot has an insane selection of dining furniture, home accents and small appliances. Yes, you read that right. The Home Depot isn’t just for paint and lumber!
I have worked to update our home and prepare for Friendsgiving, so I’m sharing some of the design tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way.
Make Your Own Drink Bar
We love entertaining, and having an area to prepare a fruity or sweet drink is always a must. We created a make-your-own drink bar that’s adult and kiddo friendly. I used the StyleWell Kitchen Island as a bar cart in a little corner of our kitchen perfect for making drinks and keeping the kitchen free for cooking and guest mingling.
The bar cart fits perfectly next to the mini drink fridge! We made sure to stock the bar cart with glasses and mugs available for guests to make fruity drinks, hot chocolate or some hot tea.
Take a Seat
Seating is crucial when it comes to Friendsgiving, you can never have too many chairs! Our dining room isn’t the biggest so taking advantage of the breakfast nook and eat-in kitchen is crucial for us. The StyleWell Black Metal Counter Stools are great for adding extra seating while without being too bulky and taking up a ton of room.
Our dining room has been in desperate need of new chairs ever since our puppies decided to use them as chew toys a few years ago. We opted for the StyleWell Black Wood Windsor Dining Chair – a modern yet traditional piece. These were a must for us especially with being solid wood they’re sturdy enough to stand the test of time with kiddos and multiple holiday gatherings for years to come.
We couldn’t leave out the breakfast nook and claim it as the designated kids table for Friendsgiving! Growing up we always had a kids table, and to this day we all still sit at the “kids table” even as married adults with kiddos of our own. I decided to mix different woods for our breakfast nook and go with the StyleWell Unfinished Wood Dining Chair and the StyleWell Saskia Sable Brown Wood Dining Table.
Potluck Style Serving
We host a Friendsgiving at our home on Thanksgiving Day. We invite other military families and friends that aren’t able to go home for the holidays. It is a potluck-style Friendsgiving and ask all of our friends to bring their favorite family dish. So everyone has a little piece of home with them. The Home Decorators Natural Finish Buffet is perfect for hosting all of our friends’ family dishes in close reach without crowding the kitchen. The modern design and walnut finish of the buffet pairs great with the eclectic style in our home. The deeper buffet is great for storing heirloom pieces like napkins, glasses, and plates.
Casual Thanksgiving Decor
This Friendsgiving we opted for small updates and a more casual Thanksgiving tablescape. Thanksgiving is a big cooking holiday so a casual tablescape with linen tablecloths, napkins and simple dinnerware was a must.
Grabbing your favorite oversized vase and some fresh flowers and greenery makes for the perfect table centerpiece.
We even scooped up this fall wreath to welcome guests right into the dining room for Friendsgiving. You don’t have to go overboard with Friendsgiving this year, y’all. You’ll be ready for Friendsgiving this season as long as there’s good food and good friends. And a few casual updates to your home couldn’t hurt!
Are you ready for an upgrade this Friendsgiving? Make sure you shop The Home Depot at HomeDepot.com/decor first for all of your holiday entertaining needs!
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