party decor

Enjoy this Halloween party post from designer guest writer Kyle Schuneman!

Halloween is the time of year where everyone gets to let loose. Juggling kids’ trick-or-treating time with adult parties is always tough. Here are some great ideas for throwing a budget chic party so everyone can stop by and celebrate.

• Photo booth fun. Using Tempaper, wallpaper a Gothic feature wall in your space to set the mood. It will be a great backdrop for a photo booth! Add a few Ikea candlestick sconces and some spider webs to complete the look; everyone can take a Polaroid memento away with them from the night!
• Scary soup buffet. For the table, think buffet style to save you money. Use a clear punch bowl and fill with a delicious butternut squash soup. On the outside of the bowl, use washable window markers to draw a Jack-O-Lantern face on the outside for an instant centerpiece! Use cheap bowls with handles from CB2 (that you can use year round) so it’s an easy soup to eat while standing up and mingling! For drinks, have classic orange soda bottles in a metal ice bucket with some dry ice for effect.
• Black carnations. Usually I wouldn’t recommend carnations, but since they are so cheap, they are a great alternative to more expensive flowers. With a coat of black floral spray paint, these ho-hum flowers can become quite the conversation piece. One can of spray will be able to cover dozens of flowers to fill the party.
• Treat tree. While the parents will enjoy their Polaroid Take-A-Way, a treat tree is a chic way to showcase candy treats for the kids. Using remnant pieces of fabric, make festive sacks to hang from a spray painted branch; it's a great alternative to that boring candy bowl!

For more design tips, be sure to follow Kyle on Twitter!

Photo Source: Woman's Day

Here's a post from designer guest writer David Stark.

New Yorkers for Children always kicks off the Fall gala season with their very chic evening each September, and we have had the honor of collaborating with them for many years now. It’s always been important for the evening to be glamorous, but in recent years, it has been critical to infuse beauty with meaning. How do we do that, you might ask?

We look for metaphor. When we sit down with the committee in the early spring for our first brainstorm on the gala, the goal is to find an overarching message. We literally banter around the table, tossing out words and phrases that inspire, try to peg our words to images, and search for a statement that feels like a call to arms, that is proactive, rather than something that is merely a statement. We look for a phrase that can both inspire and encapsulate the meaning of what the evening is about.

Case in point, the gang at New Yorkers brilliantly provides the resources and support necessary for foster kids to make the dream of a college education a reality (and so much more!), so our evening’s theme, “Launch a Star,” is both visually rich and conceptually strong. We looked to books like The Little Prince and Good Night Moon for visual inspiration as well as the romantic street scenes of the film Cinema Paradiso, and we turned Cipriani 42nd Street into a moonlit garden with a million twinkling stars, strings of vintage glowing bulbs festooned above, a grand entry moment with clouds, stars and a symbolic ladder to climb up, up, and up, and plush gardens of the most perfect blooms everywhere.

Our sincere congratulations to our friends at New Yorkers for Children for an amazing evening — we love our partnership with you and are honored to keep growing creatively each year together.

For more photographs, check out David Stark's blog.

Photos courtesy Susie Montagna

Traditionally, New Year's Eve parties everywhere are permeated with tackiness, from the metallic confetti and plastic hats (that never fit) to the super skimpy outfits. But you can still have glittery, shiny (wine-y), happy fun with your New Year's décor without bringing on the kitsch. From confetti to garlands to piñatas, I've rounded up some chic holiday decorations for your bash this week. After all, a new decade is approaching: it's time to step it up!