Living Large in Small Spaces
Who Cares About Counter Space? Bring On the Crowds

By Stefanie Berry Stark
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, November 7, 2002; Page H01

Angie White was a little nervous before her first holiday open house two years ago. An avid cook, she was plenty comfortable having six friends over for a meal. But she'd never thrown a large party in her apartment -- a studio that offers just 450 square feet. Total.

But White, 31, an investment analyst, was the proud new owner of the Adams Morgan residence she'd previously rented. A fresh coat of bold yellow paint brightened her pad, and she was ready to show it off. So out went the invites for a holiday housewarming to friends, co-workers and neighbors.

The problem? "A whole lot more people responded that they were going to come than I thought," White says. Thirty-five guests showed up, 10 more than she'd counted on.

"But it all worked out in the end," she says. So well, in fact, that she now hosts an annual holiday open house. Last year, 40 guests mingled over spiced gingered pecans, ham croquettes, homemade cookies and hot chocolate laced with peppermint schnapps.

The best part was when White's neighbor, a member of the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, stopped by with an entourage of 10 to sing. "I thought they'd stand outside like carolers do, but he said, 'Oh no, we're coming in,' " she says. "They stood diagonally in the room and sang 'Winter Wonderland' to everybody. It made my whole day."

Annie Lou Bayly, 26, has had plenty of experience throwing ambitious parties in cramped quarters too. In addition to her full-time job at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, she moonlights as a freelance events planner. She helped one client stage a sit-down birthday dinner for 30 in an apartment where the dining room normally was set up for six to eight.

"There were tables jammed together that ran from the dining room through the front hallway and into the living room, with all sorts of odd chairs brought in. You couldn't come in the front door while people were sitting at dinner, but it was one of the most fun dinner parties ever," says Bayly.

In her own studio apartment in Adams Morgan, Bayly throws cocktail parties, dinner parties, dessert parties, large summer fiestas up on the roof of her building. "People think that because they live in a small space, they can't entertain, or that they should just go to a restaurant or a bar, which is silly," she says. "Sometimes, with a smaller space, it's more fun. You have to get a little more creative with your space, which forces you to think more about the party."

Angie White certainly thinks carefully about her annual holiday gathering. To begin with, she opts for an open-house format, held from 2 to 8 p.m. on a Saturday in early December. "The whole point of an open house is that I can invite a lot of people. It makes it easier because people can come in shifts."

She makes every square inch count. Books, knickknacks and framed snapshots are cleared away to make space for glasses and plates. An end table by the sofa gets turned into a bar; the kitchen island holds a lavish food display, with two- and three-tiered serving pieces to expand countertop space. A quilt and throw pillows transform the bed into a temporary second sofa. Stacking stools are pulled from storage for extra seating, and a couple of galvanized metal buckets are ready to hold ice and cold drinks.

Coats? "I have these hooks that hang over my bathroom door that you can hang five coats on," says White. "And then I also hang them on the shower curtain rod on hangers -- in front of the curtain so you can't see all the things I've stored in the bathtub."

The bathtub-as-storage trick is a standby for determined people with more party spirit than space. Another is bathtub-as-cooler: Scrubbed clean and filled with ice, it can hold a party's worth of drinks. Dana Bontemps, 21, a senior at the University of Maryland, relied on this strategy when she and her sophomore-year roommates had friends over. And she found it had a post-party bonus: Melted ice disappears down the drain -- no need to lug heavy, sloshing containers to the sink.

This time of year, drinks can also be stored on a balcony or patio, where Mother Nature will keep them cold. Other items can be kept outside temporarily too. When Bontemps and her roommates -- four young women in a tiny two-bedroom apartment -- had 20 to 25 people over for tacos and margaritas, they stashed a coffee table outside behind their building.

Party prep was simple, because guests could assemble their own tacos and eat without forks. "But there was no place for a table in our kitchen," says Bontemps. "It was just sink, fridge, stove." So the resourceful hostesses got creative: They took a closet door off its hinges and balanced it on an ironing board: instant buffet space. (If more elegance is required, throw a tablecloth over the makeshift buffet.)

Removing a door can make tight quarters more open. For their annual Hanukah brunch last year, lawyer Beth Hirschfelder Wilensky, 29, and her husband, Jeff, 32, an independent telecommunications consultant, knew the main floor of their Bethesda townhouse couldn't comfortably accommodate the 40 to 45 people they were expecting.

"I really spent a lot of time thinking about how we were going to fit all these people," says Beth Wilensky. "We had to use every square inch of space."

They wanted to encourage guests to use the basement as well, but the open basement door blocked traffic between the kitchen and living room. So they took off the door, giving guests easier access to the downstairs space and improving the party flow. "I really think it helped a lot," she says.

If guest lists completely outgrow available space, consider cohosting a get-together with a neighbor. Bayly does this often, sharing party plans and apartments with a friend in another studio in her building.

"One apartment can be for coats and to use the powder room. The other apartment can be where the actual party is going on," she says. Excess furniture can be stored in the second apartment, and the extra kitchen used for food preparation and storage. What's more, this arrangement provides two bathrooms, so one tub can be filled with ice and drinks.

Sometimes, friends in the same building or neighborhood can join forces and host a "progressive party" -- with guests going from house to house on a set schedule: Appetizers in one apartment, dinner in a second, dessert and coffee in a third.

Matt Josephs, 34, a policy analyst, hosted the first stop of a four-stop cocktail party in Woodley Park that got bigger as the night wore on.

"We started in my one-bedroom because people tend to show up later," says Josephs, who hosted about 15 to 20 guests. (Small spaces are well suited for cocktail parties, because people tend to stand.)

As the evening progressed, the party moved to a two-bedroom apartment upstairs, where it grew to about 30, then on to a larger two-bedroom apartment in the building, where the number doubled to about 60 before things really opened up about 10 p.m. at a townhouse around the corner that accommodated about 100 guests.

Whatever the size of the gathering, a dining table and chairs are not a necessity.

Bayly recalls a fondue party for 10 that she helped throw in "a really tiny" one-bedroom apartment. Two guests brought fondue pots to augment the host's, so three were set up on a small coffee table.

"Some people were sitting on the sofa, some people were sitting on chairs and others were just kind of sitting on the floor with throw pillows," she says. "We ended up sitting there for hours because we were having so much fun eating fondue and playing charades."

When she's not traveling, White entertains at least once a month, making meals for small groups of friends. She once hosted a "waffle bar brunch" for eight. Guests brought various toppings, and White made the waffles while everyone visited. "I set out bowls with pecans, whipped cream and fruit," she says. "People could come up to the island, get whatever they wanted and then go sit down and eat."

She adds, "The good thing about this setup is I can be cooking and still facing everyone and talking to them."

Having everyone in one small room helps unify a party. Guests have no choice but to mingle, so the party gets going more quickly. And small rooms can be less intimidating than larger spaces, which might not feel as intimate and in which guests can feel isolated.

Whether you throw a sit-down dinner for six or an open house for 45, "don't be afraid or embarrassed," says Bayly. "Love your small space. If you dwell on wishing that you had a bigger space, you're ignoring the really wonderful things your small space has to offer."

The bottom line, she says: "People love going to a party, so as long as you decide that it's going to be fun, it will be fun."