Entertaining in a Studio Condo
Studio condos can provide access to premier locations at the lowest possible prices. But did you know they can also lend themselves to entertaining?
One of my clients, Charlene, recently purchased a studio condo as her first home in Minneapolis and has perfected the art of entertaining while making use of her large, sunny community room.
She actually threw two parties within six weeks, both in the dead of winter! Her first was a New Year’s Day event which doubled as house-warming party, something her friends had been urging her to host for months. The second was a baby shower for her sister’s child. Immediately before both, she had rented a small, three-shelved cart from a local party supply rental company, allowing her to transport food, dishes and other serving ware, beverages, games, party favors, music and a compact disc player to the party room in a matter of minutes.
The party room, reserved through her condo’s property management company, includes a microwave, sink, and countertops plus two cabinets below. It also has four sturdy wooden tables, a couch, two arm chairs and a foosball table.
For the New Year’s Day party, she actually separated the tables across the room, creating both play and craft spaces for kids but also places for adults to visit in an open-house environment. Kids in attendance also enjoyed playing on the common exercise equipment—supervised—in the room next door to the beat of loud music. Many condo developments also feature swimming pools and other amenities, adding even more possibilities for aspiring entertainers.
For the baby shower, she unfortunately didn’t get the invites out until just days before the party, but nearly all invitees accepted, thanks in part to the condo’s central location in the Twin Cities with its near access to freeways. For that event, Charlene clustered three of the tables together for a sit-down meal, leaving one table available for gifts.
At both parties, guests stayed for hours, giving Charlene an opportunity to give tours of her studio unit to small groups at a time, or right before guests said good-bye.
Since then, she has also hosted dinners for up to five adults and four kids at a time in her actual studio unit which includes a full-size refrigerator with ice-maker; microwave oven, oven, range and dishwasher and nineteen kitchen cabinets and drawers of different sizes. Charlene found that the smaller overall apartment size made it easy to move materials between the countertops and dining room table. Guests commented that the cozier environment allowed more interaction and intimacy. Closely-spaced seating—if not American traditional—seemed to encourage more people than usual to actively participate in conversations. After dinner, adults could hear the games children were playing even if they weren’t direct participants.
Studio condo living presents challenges, but simple adaptations discovered over time can make it natural—and affordable and green.
Andy Asbury’s team of lofts and condos REALTORs® help buyers sort through all of the Minneapolis condos and lofts for sale and arm their clients with the latest market information on Minneapolis condos. Visit Andy’s site at http://www.MinnesotaLoftsandCondos.com today! Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/entertaining-in-a-studio-condo-1772667.html
