5 Common Dinner Party Dilemmas, Solved!

2. Our Open-Plan Lifestyles Our homes are becoming increasingly light and airy places with open-plan layouts connecting kitchen spaces to living areas. These open environments are brilliantly sociable and relaxed, but can cause problems when you’re finding it difficult to enjoy dinner with an annoying background noise from the kitchen. One of these noise culprits is the rangehood, an appliance that’s vital in an open-plan space to prevent cooking smells wafting around the room. To keep your open-plan kitchen free from odours as well as loud sounds, invest in a rangehood with strong ventilation power that offers high performance while staying remarkably silent.Soften the sounds. Another effective way to reduce noise in an open-plan kitchen is to muffle the sounds with soft furnishings. Try a rug below the dining table, and dress windows with curtains – the fabric will dampen the sound with the added bonus of giving the space a more cosy feel.

dark wood floor, black cupboards

1. You’ve Had No Time to PrepareIt’s always lovely to have surprise guests for dinner, but what if you haven’t got anything to feed them? If you like to prepare something delicious for guests, even with short notice, it’s a good idea to invest in a microwave combination oven. It works just like a normal oven, with the added bonus of a speedy microwave feature. You can defrost a joint of meat from the freezer and roast it immediately, or quickly heat up a dish to serve in no time at all. Put the cooktop to work. A simple Italian pasta dish is always quick and delicious to make, but to get results in half the time an induction cooktop can help. With an induction cooktop you can boil two litres of water twice as quickly as you would with a ceramic cooktop – saving you time, and using less energy.