8 Tips To Turn Your House Party Into A Festival Of Colours
The Festival of Colours is ‘round the corner and you are here because you are planning a party. Naturally, we have some tips for you that will make planning a breeze. You might be thinking about who to invite right about now, and that should be the priority given how busy everyone’s lives are. Make sure you factor in your house space and draw up the guest list. Once you finish with the guest list, and send out e-invites, it's time to get your home all spruced up for the big event.
1. Furniture Makeover
‘Tis the festival of colours and the occasion calls for you to bring out your urban gipsy prints and solid colours to change the cushions, bedding, sofa and table covers. If you keep different curtains depending on the occasion, upgrade them to a colourful shade too to transform your home into something that is straight out of an eclectic statement home. Keep in mind the colours that are widely used in gulal, like green, purple, pink and yellow and give your home that makeover. This is one occasion when too much colour is just perfect.
2. Rangoli and Flowers
Buy some extra gulaal and keep it aside for rangoli, employ your friends and family to use their creativity to create unique rangoli. The entrance and living room are good places to put down rangolis. As for the flowers, bring out your brass and copper pots, fill them three-quarters with water and float some seasonal flowers in them. You can also shred marigolds and use their petals in your rangoli. Pro tip: Create an eye-catching floral centrepiece for your living room for guests to appreciate and create the mood for the festivities.
3. Shimmery Windchimes
As the spring breeze blows through your house, you need to bring the desi decorations to hang on the doors, windows, and curtailed rods. These could be strings of beady decorations, latkans with motifs of horse riders and elephants on them, or tiny mirrors that reflect the light and bring delight.
4. Lights
If you have floor lamps or even the ones high up on the walls, consider changing the lampshades to fit the decor of the house. The right kind of lampshades and light will set the mood come nightfall. Post the festive revelries and smearing of colours, guests will be tired and there’s nothing like warm ambient lighting to set the mood and a peg or two in hand to unwind and get teary-eyed about the good ol’ times. This is the occasion to bring out the festive lanterns and line them up on your terrace and patio.
5. Party Utensils
You can use disposable glasses and plates for the guests so you don’t have to clean up dirty dishes later. But for the party that comes indoors, consider wooden trays and colour-coordinated utensils to serve snacks, liquor and juices to your guests. Desi calls for metal and should bring out the copper-toned ones for the party.
6. Wall and Window Decor
You could go for colourful wall accents or those translucent stickers that disperse rainbow light throughout the house. Make sure not to go overboard otherwise, it might end up looking tacky instead of chic.
7. Work in the Fragrance
Bring out your diffusers and plug them in for the day; make sure you have enough of them and essential oils. Each diffuser can cover only a certain number of square feet and beyond it, the fragrance won’t last beyond that. Automatic ones are available on most e-commerce sites and some don't even need to be plugged in as they periodically spray perfume into the air. Stick to one particular fragrance and if you are too desi, there is always incense placed in beautiful wooden and steel burners.
8. The Stall
Your patio will have all the colours and gulaal but keep a faux one indoors to immortalise the festival. We are talking about replicating those photogenic images of the festival. All you need is a proper coffee table. Make sure you won’t be needing that table for any other purpose, and line it up with brass or bronze utensils of the same size, and pile them high with heaps of colours. Keep some water guns and balloons around that guests could pick up or just add them for the aesthetics.
