How to Make Your Home Guest Ready

With the holiday season upon us, it's time to make your home ready for incoming guests. During this busy time, you want your house to look and function at its best. After all, we want our homes to not only look and feel inviting, we want them to be safe, functional, and stylish. When your home is comfortable and designed to meet your daily needs, you can enjoy time spent with family and friends in a home you'll all take pleasure in and appreciate all year long.

Make Easy Updates with Impact

Changing out your kitchen faucet is a quick and affordable update that instantly gives your kitchen a new look.

Kitchen Faucets

Now's the time to make certain your kitchen faucet and accessories are in good working order. Fix any leaks. Replace the filter in your water filtration system. If the faucet is old, outdated, and beyond repair, treat yourself to a new one. Changing out your kitchen faucet is a quick and affordable update that instantly gives your kitchen a new look. You can change the style or take advantage of new technology by installing a touch-free model. You can also add a sink-mounted pump soap dispenser next to your kitchen faucet for easy access to liquid soaps when it's time to clean up.

Give your guest and master bathrooms whole new looks without breaking the bank.

Bathroom Faucets and Accessories

Especially in your guest bathroom, you'll want to make sure all fixtures are in proper working order. Changing out your existing and worn-out fixtures is a great way to give your bath a fresh update. Increase efficiency and lower your water bills by installing a new, low-flow faucet and shower head. With so many choices, you can give your guest and master bathrooms whole new looks without breaking the bank.

Select a multi-function shower head or rain style model, and let you and your guests indulge in a spa experience in the shower. Accessories such as towel bars, wall-shelves, robe hooks, and toilet paper holders let you coordinate your whole bathroom ensemble and ensure the necessities are taken care of. Storage units and organizers will help you keep your bathroom clean and uncluttered. Wall-mounted and freestanding towel warmers are a welcome, affordable little luxury that's much appreciated in the colder months. You can pick from hydronic or electric models to suit your taste and needs.

Take stock of the lighting fixtures in each room.

Lighting

Before guests arrive and you are busy hosting holiday gatherings, check to make sure your home lighting is up to task. Take stock of the lighting fixtures in each room. Do you have a mix of lights that supply appropriate overall room lighting, task lighting, and mood lighting to create a welcoming ambiance? With a huge selection of lighting fixtures including chandeliers, pendants, semi-flush mount and flush mount ceiling lights, vanity lights, wall sconces, table and floor lamps, ceiling fans, and outdoor lighting, you're sure to find just the right type, style, and finish to fill your home with lighting you love.

Give a Warm Welcome

The ideal home should give your guests the feeling they are welcome from the moment they step in the door. No matter what your style of décor, a house that is a home will invite you to come in, sit back, relax, and enjoy a respite from a hectic, busy life. From the smallest cozy cottage to the largest stately manor, what makes a house a home is the people who inhabit it. Each room should reflect the personality of the family who lives there while being a retreat and sanctuary from the stresses of the outside world.

Amp up your home's curb appeal, especially during the holiday season.

Create Curb Appeal

A home's inviting look and feel starts on the exterior where the first impression is made. Amp up your home's curb appeal, especially during the holiday season, with decorative touches that make it stand out from the rest of the neighborhood. Add planters to your front entry, porch, or deck. You can install live plantings in the warmer months, and fill them with decorative silk and dried florals to give them a festive, seasonal look. Increase your home's outer beauty and keep your mailbox looking good and easy for the postman to find by mounting it on a decorative mailbox post. Address sign posts help people find their way and make your front yard more beautiful.

Ceiling mount fixtures and wall sconces located at your front door and side entries light the way to your home.

Light the Night

Increase outdoor security and safety by installing plenty of outdoor lighting fixtures. Ceiling mount fixtures and wall sconces located at your front door and side entries light the way to your home, deter intruders, and create an inviting, warm glow that makes visitors feel welcome. Outdoor landscape lights around your backyard garden, patio, and driveways, and pathways let you walk safely and lets you enjoy your backyard after the sun goes down.

Make your foyer or entryway ready to receive guests.

Make a Grand Entrance

When you and your guests first enter through the front door, what greets them? Make your foyer or entryway ready to receive guests and more functional on a day-to-day basis by decorating it with a console table, a bench, coat rack, foyer lighting, and other accessories to give it a cozy feel. A vase of flowers, a mirror, a bowl full of decorative orbs, and a floor plant or two all help to make a grand entrance.

Create Ambiance

A welcoming atmosphere is something people recognize when they first step into a room. It's not any one thing you can put your finger on, but an overall feeling that you know is there. It's a space that you and your guests will love spending time in no matter what style the décor or furnishings.

Adding a gas or electric insert to an existing wood-burning fireplace lets you enjoy a cozy fire without the fuss and mess.

Cast a Warm Glow

The warm glow emanating from a fireplace gives a room instant ambiance. From the time our distant ancestors first discovered fire, we have been drawn to the warmth and safety of a well-tended campfire. There's something mesmerizing and peaceful about sitting and watching the dance of firelight and the soft glow of embers. Adding an electric fireplace lets you enjoy a cozy fire without the fuss and mess. Placing strategically located candle holders will let you still enjoy the soft glow from candlelight about the room.

Stock up the home bar with a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages to appease thirsty guests.

Serve Up Some Cheer

A good host knows to keep guests well plied with food and drink. Stock up the home bar with a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages to appease thirsty guests. During family gatherings and celebrations, a portable bar cart and ice coolers let you keep refreshments handy and ready to pour. Platters and decorative serveware will make your food presentations look even more appetizing while a full selection of kitchen tools make cooking easier.

A roomy coffee table placed between chairs and sofas help create areas that invite conversation.

Make Guests Comfortable

Guests need a comfy place to sit back, relax, and enjoy conversation. If you furniture is worn or outdated, select some new, stylish and comfortable chairs, sofas, and ottomans to ensure everyone has a seat in the house. Throw in some accent pillows for support and décor to make your living areas more attractive. A roomy coffee table placed between chairs and sofas help create areas that invite conversation. Accent tables offer perfect spots to hold beverages, books, and lamps, or act as displays for favorite knickknacks and decorative accessories.