House Love

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

—Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Have you got a room in your house you never use? I didn’t think so. Few of us do. Most rooms these days pull double, triple, even quadruple duty—transforming in a single day, for example, from bedroom to office to yoga studio. But if you grew up in the 1960s or ’70s, you might remember a dining room or living room that was barely used and generally off limits, especially to kids.

Or raise your hand if you had a friend whose upholstered furniture was covered in thick, clear plastic. Yes, I see you and you and, yes, you in the back there. Me too. For those of you not in the know, that plastic wasn’t removed when guests came over. Oh, no. That plastic stayed on the furniture 24/7/365, and guests sat on it. Imagine how that felt in summer, in shorts. Sticky, sticky. (Eek! You shouldn’t be able to clean your couch with spray cleaner.)

While my family had no plastic-covered furniture, my childhood dining room was reserved for adult visitors and holiday use only. Our immediate family rarely ate in the dining room, say, on a random Tuesday. In fact, we so rarely ever entered the dining room that we could’ve done a weekly ten-minute clean practically year-round.

Looking back, my strongest dining room memory isn’t even eating there but helping myself to cookies. The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas were the time of year when my mom baked the most. Generally, my brother, Jarrod, and I ate carrots, apples, pretzels, and other healthy snacks my mom provided. But during the holidays, she transformed our kitchen into a bakery and our dining room into its glass case.

There we’d find small plates and napkins stacked next to Mom’s collection of vintage 1940s tins packed with her homemade treats: chocolate chip cookies, nut balls (her favorites), sugar cookies (my favorites), cutout cookies, no-bake cookies, paper-thin Spanish lace cookies, and slice-and-bake cookies called Santa’s whiskers (recipes for many of these begin in Appendix 2). And then there was her homemade cinnamon candy (which she’d let me hit with a hammer to break into pieces) and the fudges—chocolate, peanut butter, and sour cream walnut.

We never actually ate these treats in the dining room. Instead, we’d balance our little plates as we walked through the kitchen, past the breakfast area, and then up the stairs to the TV room. I remember noshing on Christmas cookies in front of holiday shows like Frosty the Snowman, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and The Homecoming, the film that introduced us to the Waltons (I still dearly love that movie). I also recall delivering cookie platters to friends and family on Christmas Eve.

Today, I not only don’t have a formal dining room, but I also don’t even have a dining room. That’s because we’ve converted ours into a den.

Do you have a dining room and, if so, is it only used for dining? Perhaps it’s transformed into an office (or two)—and is only sometimes used for dining. Or maybe your dining room is now a kid’s bedroom or guest bedroom. When a friend’s father-in-law was in hospice, the dining room became his bedroom, which allowed easy access to the kitchen and bathroom. I also know a couple of people whose childhood bedrooms were former dining rooms, with pocket doors and access to the kitchen for late-night snacks. Not too shabby.

These days when Ross and I entertain, everyone hangs out in the kitchen, takes dinner plates out onto our deck, or dines in the foyer. Yep—sometimes we eat in our foyer: Our hall table morphs into a dining room table with a leaf I store under my bed. And we set all the armless upholstered chairs, usually scattered all over our house, around the table. Plus, the foyer light hangs directly over our table—in fact, I chose the ceiling light location especially for this purpose.

HL Tip: Do you display all-white dinnerware in your china cabinet? Cool! Then you can choose whatever paint or paper you desire, even—and I’d recommend this—a multicolored pattern that includes one color from your walls, or a textured paper that grabs attention.

HL Tip: If your china cabinet doesn’t include built-in lighting, add battery-operated fairy lights or tea lights on one or more of the shelves to create a bit of ambience when entertaining.

We also, from time to time, eat in our living room. Sometimes it’s just the two of us eating at our tallish round coffee table next to the fireplace. Sometimes it’s four of us, with two on chairs and two on the sofa.

This is all to say that your dining room doesn’t have to be a dining room. Just like ignoring those bossy fabric-care labels (which I discuss in my book Laundry Love), you can make your home and its spaces work for you, not the other way around. That means the original dining room can be used for any purpose you wish and your actual dining room can be wherever you choose to eat on any given day.

Where do you eat: in the kitchen, in front of the TV, on the front porch, in the den? Perhaps you might consider creating a new spot to enjoy a meal with, say, a tiny café table and chair in a corner of your bedroom, or cushions you can pull out onto your fire escape—that is, when you’re not using it to dry clothes.

Time to Freshen Up

Whatever space you use for eating, you can breathe new life and a bit of fun into it. Let’s imagine for the moment a dining room outfitted with a china cabinet, a buffet, and a table.

To hit the refresh button, first consider what’s on display in that china cabinet. Perhaps everything has been in there since the late 1950s or at least feels like it. Then it’s time to switch it up. To begin, remove everything, wipe down the display area, and clean the glass—instantly improved!

Now for the fun part: Consider the items you own that you really love. Just because it’s called a china cabinet doesn’t mean you have to display china. Maybe you’ve got a beautiful collection of black-and-white family photos, or Mexican cereal bowls, or Senegalese baskets, or sterling-silver ornaments, or first-edition novels, or hot sauce bottles. Whatever pops into mind, start there.

I’d say truly compelling china cabinets mix two or more categories of items. Consider those framed photos again. Rather than filling your cabinet with photos, I’d suggest placing pictures on the shelf closest to eye level. But don’t pack them in—just use your favorites. Then, on the lowest shelf, stack plates or store your simple clear wineglasses. And on the top shelf? Place two china platters or one elegant platter and a complementary vase.

Or how about those vibrant empty hot sauce bottles? Perhaps crowd dozens on the top shelf of the cabinet and then, on the shelf below, display those multicolored Mexican cereal bowls. Finally, on the bottom shelf, stack a bunch of dishes, like Fiestaware, in a single, coordinating color. What you display should reflect you and your likes. The sky’s the limit.

HL Tip: If you’re entertaining, hide away a couple of extra spoons and forks, plus a serving spoon and a kitchen towel or two, in your dining room. If a guest drops an item on the floor or spills something, you’ll be ready to save the day, with no embarrassment for your guest.

DOING ONE’S HOMEWORK

When Ross isn’t conducting interviews or attending concerts (he’s a music critic and I’m his lucky plus-one), he mostly works from home, largely in the bedroom. Meanwhile, when I’m not at my store, Mona Williams, I often work at my dining table.

We’re not alone plying our trades from home. According to a McKinsey & Company 2022 report, 58 percent of Americans can work at home at least one day a week while 35 percent can work from home five days a week. And those percentages mean that millions of us have some version of a home office. If you work from home, there are lots of ways to make that space more to your liking. Let’s count them down:

Close your eyes and imagine where you’d like to work. Maybe it’s a light-filled space with a standing desk topped by a vase and matching office supplies. Or perhaps it’s a fireplace-adjacent overstuffed chair where you can flip open your laptop yet be within reach of client files, tucked into a side table with drawers. Then again, some people like switching up their workspaces, enjoying a sunny kitchen in the morning and cozying up on the couch for a change of venue in the afternoon. It’s your home—work where you want.
Next, where can you create this space? Maybe one of your kids has flown the coop, so you can revamp a bedroom. Or, if you’re fresh out of rooms, consider a corner in your dining space, kitchen, or bedroom that you can separate from the rest of the space with a sofa, room divider, or trio of plants. A closet too can be converted into an office nook; close that pocket or sliding door and your workspace is out of sight, out of mind. Some people use a similar setup in their kitchens, concealing a workspace behind kitchen cabinetry.
Now make a list of everything you need—it may only be a laptop and a giant coffee mug. After all, thanks to technology, few of us need multilevel inboxes, heavy-duty office desks, bookcases, and file cabinets these days. But you may require an ergonomic chair, a writing desk with a drawer or two, a rolling office supplies cart (that you can tuck away in a closet), and several outlets for all your tech gear. What items do you need to be productive?
Lastly, make your home office inspiring and fun. In a small space, you can be brave with color, lighting, and accessories. If it’s a closet, maybe you add a cute print in removable wallpaper or that rich paint color you’d be unlikely to use anywhere else. If it’s a corner in your living space, perhaps you splurge on a favorite chair, reupholster an old one, or just toss a new throw over it. Or maybe you find a task light that will bring you pleasure every time you flip the switch. Regardless of your choices, outfitting your home office exactly as you wish—perhaps differently than any other area in your home—will ensure you’re creating a place you love working in.

Cooler Than Cool

I remember Ed and Fred’s Desert Moon, hands down the coolest restaurant in Lexington, Kentucky, in the 1990s. It was brick, industrial, and arty, and just walking in made you feel cool yet comfortable, no matter the day—after a Friday-night movie or for Sunday brunch. It was also the first restaurant in the city that offered updated comfort food—fancy meat loaf, killer nachos, a grilled cheese to die for, and more. In truth, it gave me the confidence to serve my own souped-up grilled cheese at a dinner party. And because I’d rather impress people with my food than my tie, this was perfect for me. In truth, I’m not really a dress-for-dinner kind of guy. I may wear a tuxedo to the grocery store now and then, but I’m going to wear my jeans when you come over for dinner.

(By the way, my grilled sandwich recipe is so good that a friend requests it for his birthday every year and another friend asked to include it in a recipe booklet she handed out at her wedding. I know what you’re thinking: Can I get the recipe? Yes—yes, you can; see Patric’s Grilled Cheese. To get your mouth watering, let me share just two ingredients: Granny Smith apples and bacon. Enough said.)

All to say, what you don’t want is to create a dining space so serious or so fancy that it sucks all the fun from eating with friends and family. I remember a dinner in my twenties: I’d been invited, along with several others, to the elegant home of a friend. The dining room was crazy luxurious and bursting with candelabra, crystal, and Champagne. In total, it was a bit intimidating, putting the kibosh on a good time. Yes, we were enjoying our multicourse gourmet meal and the beautiful surroundings. But it wasn’t until we were two wineglasses in that a guest (not me!) dared crack a joke that completely altered the mood—first with shocked silence and then riotous laughter. The juxtaposition of the oh-so-proper surroundings made the joke all the funnier.

HL Tip: A friend of mine keeps her stash of truffles in an old Norwegian bridal bowl inside her china cabinet. It’s deep enough that her kids can’t see the chocolates. What can you hide in your cabinet?

The lesson? Don’t make your dining room stuffy at the cost of a good time. Leave some room for not taking your home so seriously. Put your guests at ease and let the good times roll. As I always say, good taste is better than bad taste. But bad taste is better than no taste.

Dish It Out

Once you’ve decided what to display in your dining room, it’s time to make those items pop. Let’s say you, like my mom, own a complete dinnerware collection in blue plus matching crystal. And despite all my good ideas for changing up your display, you’re sticking with the tried-and-true in your china cabinet. Fair enough. Unfortunately, the dark brown back wall of your cabinet muddies the blue tones of your lovely dishes and crystal. Do you know what might make those blue dishes pop? My favorite color: orange.

Certainly, you can paint the back wall of your china cabinet in a lively poppy, cantaloupe, or marmalade, but that’s going to take some prep work and might be messy. And what if you don’t love the color when you’re done? Instead, select peel-and-stick wallpaper and then cut it to size to fit your cabinet’s back wall. Then, when you want to change your look later, simply remove the paper.

HL Tip: Recycle those clear, simple vases that flowers are delivered in and instead keep only a few special vases that you can have out all the time—with or without flowers.

HL Tip: If you don’t already have a dimmer switch in your dining room, it’s high time you get one. Installing one is super easy—just watch a YouTube video, find a friend who’s handy, or hire an electrician for this speedy job. A dimmer switch allows you to add instant ambience. Plus, between the wine and the dimmer, no one will know they’re eating store-bought cheesecake.

For an even cheaper but still punchy solution, find a high-quality gift wrap and use two-sided tape to adhere it to the back of your china cabinet. Or, if your cabinet was owned by Louis XIV and you don’t want to mar it even with tape, cut poster board to fit the back of your cabinet and cover that with paint, peel-and-stick paper, or gift wrap. Or you might just buy a colored poster board. Whatever approach you use, a completely new look can be yours in less than two hours.

Field Day with the Buffet

Now let’s turn our attention to the buffet table—by its very nature, it offers another flat surface for display. I’m going to take a quick side trip here, but stick with me: Back in college, I used to splurge on Crabtree & Evelyn toothpaste. Sure it was pricey, but it made me happy every time I used it. As a student, I certainly couldn’t afford a daily latte (although like the internet, they weren’t actually around back then), but I could manage to buy one fancy toothpaste that lasted for months. In other words, just one simple indulgence brought me joy.

HL Tip: While the dimmer switch and candles are my atmospheric go-tos, for a unique and memorable look, line up small, battery-operated lamps—perhaps interspersed with greenery—down the center of a long dining room table.

That, in a nutshell, is my philosophy for what to display on your sideboard or buffet. For example, maybe you love nothing more than an orange-clove-cinnamon–scented candle that transports you to Istanbul. Or maybe you like the look and color of fresh lemons—like those super-fragrant Buddha’s hands that almost look like tulips—piled into a white porcelain bowl. Or maybe you fell in love with a stoneware vase you found at an estate sale that’s beautiful, with or without flowers.

By purchasing fewer items, buying only those you really love—whether or not they’re expensive—you’re being good to yourself and the planet. After all, making your dining room look good isn’t really about the furniture—it’s about those flowers in your favorite vase or that cool collection of frog figurines.

Here are nine more buffet table ideas to instill more excitement in your dining room:

Don’t have a killer table runner? Buy a fabric remnant you love, fold it lengthwise twice, iron it, and you’re good to go—no sewing needed.
Are you a candy fiend? Collect three or five clear lidded containers, and fill each with a colorful candy.
Is your dining room also your office? A buffet is a perfect place to keep your cordless printer. Just figure out where to store it quickly when unexpected guests drop by.
For more warmth in your dining room, add a small lamp or two to your buffet. There are even buffet lamps—called, wouldn’t you know it, buffet lamps—but any small lamp will do.
If you don’t drink punch every day, plant a fern in your punch bowl and give it major real estate at the center of your buffet. (Mom, I do drink punch every day, so I’d love to have your punch bowl.)
A buffet offers great storage. Since it usually has deep drawers, it can serve as your butler’s pantry, loaded up with all your entertaining items—from silverware and tablecloths to candles and serving platters. Or you might store a pillow and blanket for an overnight guest or reserve space for that cordless printer.
If you don’t have a window over your buffet, hang a framed poster, a mirror (perhaps draped with a pom-pom garland), a few plates from Grandma’s Blue Willow china, or even mismatched plates collected from yard sales. (So you don’t own Flora Danica—the world’s most expensive porcelain pattern, first created in 1790 as a gift for Catherine the Great—who cares? A cool plate from a yard sale often flips my pancake.)

WAX OFF, WAX ON

To wax your sideboard or buffet, first buff down your table with superfine steel wool, wiping in the direction of the wood grain to remove old wax if your wax isn’t self-removing. (Check your can.) Next, apply a very thin layer of clear or tinted wax (slightly lighter than your wood color) into the grain of your table in a circular motion with a rag or the pad on your orbital buffer—truly, a killer use for an orbital buffer. (Tip: You may want to open your windows to deal with the fumes from the scent.) Now go for a walk or rewatch a favorite sitcom episode while you let the wax dry for at least thirty minutes. Then buff the table, again in the direction of the grain, with a soft cotton or microfiber cloth until it shines. (You can buy these waxing items separately or as a kit.)

Bring a Lot to the Table

And now for the third star in this lineup—the dining room table. With my background in fashion, I like to think of a dining room table as a dress form, or mannequin, you can transform with linens, dinnerware, candles, and more. (That said, a lot of dining room tables are good-looking on their own, without any textiles—a nude table, if you will.)

Most of the time, your dining room table may be empty save for a potted plant, a bowl of apples, or homework and textbooks spread across its expanse. It can also be a great place for kids to hide—or for you to hide stuff—with a floor-length tablecloth. Unless you’re actually going to be dining, who’s going to know you stash odds and ends under there unless you tell them? And even if you do, they’re just going to think you’re clever and wish they’d thought of it first.

HL Tip: Wire up Grandma’s silver teapot or a great one you found at an estate sale into a charming lamp for your dining room. Or wire several silver items—a teapot, a sugar bowl, and a creamer. Just pick up DIY kits from the hardware store and they’ll be ready by teatime.

If you don’t want a naked table, here are four ideas:

A tablecloth makes, well, of course, the perfect tablecloth—especially if you buy one to your table’s exact measurements. But you can get the look of a high-quality tablecloth in a pinch: Just cover your table with a blanket. Next, top the blanket with an ironed sheet. Once the table is set, it’ll look fantastic.
A remnant from a fabric store can make a great one-of-a-kind tablecloth. And you may not need to even hem it—just iron the edges and tack them down with fabric glue. Easy!
Nonconventional tablecloth ideas include a quilt as long as it’s not an heirloom (although I could remove any stains), a souvenir throw, and a beach towel, especially for themed dinner events.
You can also put multiple linens to work for a unique look: Use a great basic tablecloth and then top it with a multicolored or textured runner across the table to serve as placemats. Or place a long runner lengthwise and then pair it with a couple of short runners across the table for a geometric look. The great thing about runners is they can be as simple as printed cotton or as glitzy as embroidered, beaded velvet with tassels on each end. Like I said—you’re dressing your table.

HL Tip: Rather than using and discarding paper napkins, elevate your everyday meals—breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and more—with fabric napkins. And that counts double if they’re vintage. Plus, doing so is kinder to the Earth. (If I had children, my dream would be Herkimer and Dorthula fighting over my vintage Christmas napkins.)

I just mentioned the word placemat, so I guess I should address the topic. And I have to be honest: I hate placemats. They tend to shift when I set a table, and I’m picky that way. I also associate placemats with the kids’ table, not a grown-ups’ table. But maybe that’s just me.

If you like placemats, there are lots of things you can use besides actual placemats—whimsical dish towels, a favorite fabric cut into rectangles (fray the edges for a cool vibe), even comics for a whimsical Sunday brunch table setting.

Fabric placemats can also be repurposed as cushions for your chairs: Just pair up two matching placemats back-to-back, fill them with poly, and sew or glue them up. (Have a stain on one side? Just flip it over for a clean side.) Or pair one set of placemats with a completely different set of placemats for the opposite side and—voilà!—you’ve got reversible seat cushions and two completely different looks. Okay, maybe placemats aren’t so bad after all.

As a kid, I loved when my mom pulled out all her linens to set the table. I still do today. As they say, she sets a great table. To set off her vintage collection of Noritake Bluedawn, Mom uses two tablecloths: a floor-length blue tablecloth and a smaller white tablecloth. She then pairs her dainty patterned china with her collection of blue crystal glassware and silverware that I sometimes help her polish. When I was young, she actually designed the dining room around her china. That meant there were floor-length blue curtains and a golden tan-striped wallpaper that covered the walls up to the chair rail. It was a formal look for her most formal room.

HL Tip: You can brighten (literally and figuratively) any meal, even frozen pizza, with candles. Just be sure kitchen and dining room candles are unscented or made of beeswax. That way, they won’t mess with the aroma and taste of your pepperoni. Salut!

During holidays or after special meals for company, it was Jarrod’s and my job to help clear the table. Honestly, I liked carrying all of those special pieces—like the sugar bowl, the gravy boat, and the serving platter—that we only saw once or twice a year. I remember the kitchen being full of the dishes, the glassware, and the silverware—all ready for us to wash and dry. For me, washing dishes is meditative, almost like going to the spa. (Call me crazy, but I know a lot of folks who love washing dishes—and doing laundry, of course.)

My last idea for the dining room table—and it’s a good one—focuses on the chairs. If your dining room is expansive and you’ve got plenty of room to have all the leaves in your table and all the chairs surrounding the table, go for it. But if you’re not expecting a party every night, you might consider tucking away those extra leaves, letting your dining room table take up a smaller footprint, and removing a few of those chairs.

Here’s the trick: Use a bunch of the dining room chairs around the house—at your kitchen desk, at your desk, even in the bathroom, stacked high with magazines. By doing this, you save money by not having to pay for extra chairs, and when you’re hosting a get-together with friends, simply reunite those matching chairs around the dining room table.

One caveat: Who says dining room chairs need to match? Mismatched chairs can add fun and whimsy to your dining room. Or swap out the chair at the head of the table for a wingback, and let the birthday kid (or you) sit on this throne. Or eschew dining room chairs on one side of the table for an upholstered bench or a love seat. Rules, schmools. Do what you want.

HL Tip: While ever-popular votives warm up any table setting, consider using tapers for a romantic touch. If you do add tapers to your candle rotation, be sure to store them flat and wrapped in tissue so they keep their shape.

Time to Clean Up

Before you ring the dinner bell—tonight or maybe tomorrow night—you’ve decided to clean your dining space. You’ll be glad you took the time to make this room feel welcoming and pleasant for everyone who enjoys it. Keeping in mind the friends and family members (even the furry ones) who share your spaces makes cleaning so much more relaxing and fun. And might I remind you that cleaning counts as a workout? Especially when you’re gearing up for dinner, that’s a good thing.

To begin cleaning your dining room, start at the ceiling, wiping away any cobwebs with a wool duster and brushing off light fixtures, including cloth shades, with a horsehair brush.
Next, place everything from your open shelves, top of your sideboard or buffet, and the top of your china cabinet onto the dining room table. Doing so enables you to dust all those other surfaces. Begin by dusting the sideboard or buffet with a feather duster or microfiber cloth. I prefer a feather duster, because the feathers grab ahold of the dust so well. But if you’ve got allergies, stick with the microfiber.
If you haven’t waxed your furniture in six months or more, it’s likely time—unless you live somewhere warm; then you only need to wax it once a year. (For how-tos, see “Wax Off, Wax On.”)
Next, if you’ve got glass items, now’s the time to wash them. Carry them to the kitchen and wash in the sink. However, if these items are just for display, not serving food, feel free to spray a microfiber cloth with the 50/50 vinegar-water solution, and then wipe them down; this treatment should make them sparkle. Clean your china cabinet’s doors the same way and instantly your entire dining room will look so much better.
If there’s a table runner on your sideboard, shake out the dust outside. If it needs a bit more TLC, run a quick load of laundry—including any cloth napkins, table runners, and tablecloths—while you finish cleaning. Before returning these items to your furniture, consider ironing and hitting them with a bit of starch, which will repel stains.
Once you’re done dusting and have returned the items to where they belong, you should have an empty table you can also wax or dust. The same holds true for your chairs if they’re wood. If they’re upholstered, check for stains and spot treat with a horsehair brush and a little laundry soap plus warm water. And don’t forget to dust the feet of the table, removing any pet hair that’s swirled around them.
If you notice a scratch on your table, touch it up with colored furniture wax or a furniture crayon. Or you can rely on an old-fashioned trick that really works: Crack a fresh walnut and break it in half. Then simply rub the meat of the nut into the scratch. The nut oil will camouflage the scratch for up to a year!
Lastly, it’s time to vacuum up all that dust, the bread crumbs, and more. Be sure to pull the chairs out of the way first.
Done! Now’s a great time to raid your candy stash. What—you don’t have one? Then now’s the perfect time to start one.

TWO CLEANS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

Got company coming for dinner? Don’t wait until the last minute to clean. You’ll feel stressed out and maybe even a bit resentful. Instead, split your cleaning sessions in two: A couple of days before they arrive, do your deep cleaning—mopping the floor, wiping down the walls and windows, dusting and vacuuming, and giving your dining room and kitchen the full treatment. Then, the day of their arrival:

Do any necessary ten-minute cleans (e.g., the powder room and the bedroom if that’s where you’ll be placing guests’ coats).
Pick up shared living spaces in your home, returning the odd item to wherever it belongs.
Wipe down kitchen counters and wash up any dirty dishes (or place them in the dishwasher).
Plunk a new bouquet of flowers in your entryway.
Voilà—you’re ready!

WHEN WAX ISN’T POETIC

To remove candle wax from a tablecloth or runner, place the item between two layers of kraft paper (or a cut-up grocery bag will work just fine). Then press with a warm iron. The wax will lift right out of the fabric and up into the kraft paper. Then wash the item as normal.

To remove wax drips from a carpet, use the kraft paper trick, and follow up with soap and a brush if needed.

To remove wax from wood furniture, don’t scrape or scratch it off. Instead, warm the wax with a hair dryer on low heat. Or you can place a warm, damp cloth inside a ziplock plastic bag and press that down on the wax. When warm enough, the wax can be rolled off, back and forth, with your hand. Then buff the wood with a microfiber cloth.

The Ten-Minute Clean: Dining Room

When’s a great time for a ten-minute clean of your dining room? When the space needs a spit-and-polish but you don’t have enough time for a thorough cleaning. Or when you’re going to be entertaining outdoors, but you worry guests might take a gander at your dining room on the way to the loo. Or when you just can’t stand the mess anymore. (It’s okay. We’ve all been there.)

CREATING A BUTLER’S PANTRY

Where’s Jeeves when you need him? I don’t know a single person who actually needs a butler, but pretty much everyone needs a butler’s pantry. Traditionally, this is a small room, usually located between the kitchen and dining room, mostly used for storing all of the things you need to make entertaining easy and for staging meals while entertaining. Rather than hiding candles under a bathroom sink, displaying platters above your cabinets, and stashing fancy serving spoons in the back of your silverware drawer, a butler’s pantry groups all these items together for easy access. If you don’t have such a designated room, get creative. It might be that narrow closet in your hallway, an armoire in the corner of your living room, the buffet table in the dining room, or an under-the-bed clear plastic box. What else might you store in there? An extra pitcher, holiday-themed plates, that Champagne bucket you got for your wedding, a centerpiece vase, a deviled egg plate—really anything that makes entertaining easier. You might even tuck a bunch of special cookies or crackers into this hideaway, so you’re ready to entertain at a moment’s notice.

Stash all office equipment or kids’ homework or whatever in the buffet, under the table, and/or under the seat cushions. (This tip doesn’t work if people will actually dine in the room soon!)
Make sure all light bulbs are working. If they’re dusty, lower the dimmer switch.
Gather up stray dishes and coffee mugs and place in the dishwasher or kitchen sink.
Wipe off your table with a microfiber cloth.
Pull out all the chairs and give the floor a once-over with a broom or vacuum.
Return the chairs to the table, lining them up nicely.
If you have a bouquet in a vase, throw out any dead flowers and, if some of the blooms are still fresh looking, refill the vase with new water and return the bouquet to the dining room.
If you’ve got an extra forty-five seconds, dump store-bought cookies on a plate and they’ll instantly look homemade. Eat one (or two).

HL Tip: Cleaning silverware right before an event feels anticipatory, even meditative, in the best way. Most people rely on silver cleaner to do the job. Other options include polish-impregnated gloves—it’s a thing. You simply slip on the gloves and clean the silverware with your hands. In a pinch, ketchup or, more specifically, the acid in the ketchup, makes a gentle silverware cleaner. After polishing, hand-wash and hand-dry it all. Doing this a couple times a year will help keep your silverware in tip-top condition.

My Ten-Minute Cleaning Playlist: Dining Room (Upbeat)

“It’s a Miracle” by Culture Club (3:24)
“Poison Arrow” by ABC (3:24)
“Venus” by Bananarama (3:48)

My Ten-Minute Cleaning Playlist: Dining Room (Mellow)

“A Little More Love” by Olivia Newton-John (3:27)
“Love for Sale” by Fine Young Cannibals (2:50)
“Your Love Is King” by Sade (3:39)

HL Tip: Love your china but hardly ever use it? Then make it really shine with a clever washing technique: Hand-wash as normal, but rinse off with a 50/50 ammonia-water solution. Your beloved china will gleam. (however, if you decide to use these dishes for dining, wash again—this time without the ammonia.) You can use this trick with any glass-fronted cabinets as well.

Chapter 3

Dining Room