Make Your Desert Home Ready for Summer Entertaining

From exuberant family reunions to casual Fourth of July parties to dinner parties with your closest friends, the summer is a great time to bring people together. Before the invitations go out, make sure your home is ready to wow your guests. Transform your desert home into everyone’s favorite gathering place with these tips.  

Design With an Eye for Outdoor Comfort

As the temperatures warm up and you spend more evenings outside, now is the perfect opportunity to revitalize your favorite spaces and get them ready for your guests.  

Take a discerning eye to unshaded spaces where guests might want to mingle. As part of an extensive remodel in Scottsdale’s McCormick Ranch, the architects at UDA Ltd. added a canted roof with a tongue-and-groove wood ceiling to extend the shade over the outdoor eating area. A Sonance Landscape speaker system was also incorporated in the outdoor areas to enhance the ambience, whether in the shade or beside the pool. The residents’ audio-visual expertise at Avalon Media Systems came in handy to plan the perfect AV setup creating a premier atmosphere for entertaining.

If you’d like to add more shade to your yard, consider installing linen or canvas curtains to the deck or pergola to block the sun. A trellis with a drought-resistant climbing plant, like sweet potato vine, can also provide shade and color to your outdoor space. And consider using natural materials for pathways that stay somewhat cooler in the desert sun such as fine-grained sandstone or natural stone pavers.

If you plan to entertain poolside, consider adding cooling fans or installing a water feature to complement your desert home architecture. Not only does it create a meditative centerpiece to any space, but a water feature can also add some needed humidity to the air.

This is also a great time to do a deep clean of your outdoor space and assess the area for weathering and any updates you want to make. Identify any furniture that might have sun damage or tiles that might have cracked over the winter months. 

Update Colors for the Season

As you look at updates for your entertaining space, use this opportunity to give your home accents that match the season. Refresh your space with a new color palette for walls, pillows, flooring, and other decor.

Natural hues are a great base for any room. Not only do they allow for great flexibility for pops of color, but off-whites and neutrals also help reflect heat and keep your furniture cool. Bring a feeling of warmth to your space with textures and materials reminiscent of the outdoors, such as wood tables and linen fabrics. Don’t forget your flooring. A nice outdoor-friendly accent rug can bring additional color to your patio.

This is also a great time to find ways to incorporate new finds from your latest travels. Hang the amazing artisan lanterns from your trip to Indonesia or find a special spot for your new favorite sculpture you found while in New Zealand. 

Also think about the colors in your landscaping. Add plants that bloom throughout the summer to planters or to the walkways. Encourage your cactus plants to bloom year-round with the right conditions, and different varieties can add interest to the corners of your backyard.

Create a Welcoming Ambiance

Your choice of lighting and seating options–both inside and outside your home–can set the tone for your summer gathering. Help your guests move confidently through your space and feel encouraged to mingle by having appropriate seating, lighting, and pockets for conversation.

An open floorplan with adjustable glass walls makes it easy for your party to flow from indoors to outdoors without the bottleneck of a door to constantly open and close. Place lighting options strategically to clearly show where guests are welcome, and to help with visibility outside after the sun goes down. Wall sconces and dimmable fixtures can be adjusted based on the amount of ambient light, while solar string lights and LED lights create a fun atmosphere. And don’t forget about fire pits for light and to keep any evening chill away.

Establish spaces for conversation by grouping comfortable seating options where your guests are likely to be. UDA’s Elemental remodel in Scottsdale provides ample seating throughout the home to encourage conversation. Outdoors, include a sitooterie, a structure meant for relaxing and enjoying time with a small group of friends, in your backyard with a gazebo, pergola, or sectioned-off part of your deck with comfortable pillows and close chair.

Prepare for Delicious Dinner Parties

Food is often at the center of the best summer entertaining soirees, so get your indoor and outdoor spaces ready for great meals. Casual events call for great grilling, so make sure your outdoor kitchen is stocked with snacks and drinks. Wood fired pizzas are always an entertaining way to feed a group, and an excellent addition to any outdoor kitchen area. 

You’ll likely have a game on the TV or music in the background. At the Elemental Project, the residents enjoy the convenience of effortlessly controlling their home - from TVs to lights, shades, alarms, cameras, door locks and more - from a single app on their phone or tablet. The couple, who also owns Avalon Media Systems, explains, “incorporating high quality speakers and subwoofers that can be installed in drywall or plaster walls, that are also completely invisible, are features that haven become a popular request.”

As you plan your next casual dinner party, you don’t need to have all the food in one place. Create a natural flow through your home with food stations. For example, appetizers and drinks might be outside while the main course is in the kitchen and desserts are available in the great room. 

And if you’d rather mingle with your guests than cook the meal, a private chef makes entertaining even better. The food will be delicious and you’ll have plenty of time to catch up with friends!

Get Your Luxury Desert Home Ready For Entertaining Season

Gathering friends and family in your home is a great way to spend the summer. Once your space is refreshed and ready for the season, you’ll look for any reason to fire up the grill and invite people over for a fun evening.

If you are ready to create the entertaining space you’ve always wanted, reach out to the designers at UDA, Ltd. We’d love to hear about your project!