We hosted an Open House for our guy with a rustic theme that complimented his college colors of black and gold.
After looking at dozens of Pinterest ideas, I embarked on my first Open House. I found some great ideas, but wish I had a few more details to avoid some of the mistakes I made. I decided to chronicle some of our steps in order to remember details for my next two Open Houses and, hopefully, help others in the process.
My friend let me borrow her chalkboard but I ran out of time to repaint it so I just covered it with black paper and printables. It sat on end of driveway with balloons but was rained on at end of the night, so it looks a little rough.
We had several seating areas in my mom's bi-level house in case of rain and to give several different groups spaces to relax.
We covered the garage walls with black and white tablecloths. You can find more details on how to do this on the next blog post. We were also able to hang his senior banners for sports and include his gift table along with some of his Academic Awards.
My husband also made various screens with chicken wire for his different activities, which made displaying pictures and awards so easy.
As guests entered from the garage, I made a chalkboard sign out of a placemat from Hobby Lobby to help direct guests.
Past the sign, we set-up a Popcorn Bar with Plain Popcorn and Kettle Corn that I ordered from Kernel Encore. It was wonderful popcorn, but I ordered way too much. I also found seasonings on Amazon in addition to a variety of candies and nuts from Costco. We also used scrapbook paper to create cones to hold the popcorn as well as little treat boxes from Party City and Hobby Lobby. The popcorn sign was found on Etsy and printed through Snapfish.
After the Popcorn Bar, we had our main food set-up and second seating area.
We had the typical sandwich trays, fruit trays, and vegetable tray. To the left of the piano, we had garden salads with dressing from my uncle's Italian restaurant. On the left was also roasters full of penne with meat sauce and alfredo pasta as well as chicken planks and bread sticks from Fazolis. I was lucky that my aunt brought gallons of sauce from their restaurant Fratelli's in St. Charles, Mo. I obviously highly recommend it if you're ever in the area.
Backyard Seating Area
My mom lives on the lake in my same neighborhood so I was lucky to have such a beautiful space and beautiful weather.
We rented several high-top tables, and the service left us a variety of pole heights so we could play around with the set-up. The smaller tables were great because people could walk around easily but also scoot tables closer for bigger groups.
I used basic black plastic tablecloths from Party City and tied them with burlap ribbon.
For centerpieces, I bought a variety of white annuals (which I've planted around my house now). I covered them with squares of burlap from a roll bought at Hobby Lobby. Then I tied them with Purdue ribbon from Etsy. I searched forever for the mini-pennants and finally found them at Sports Roses. I bought ten, which was a splurge, but I'm hoping to reuse them for other parties and let some other parents borrow them.
I also found old table-top decor from my late mother-in-law's house, which I taped to stakes found at a craft store.
Throughout the forest, we placed some of his XC signs, which were created at Spiritline for about $12. They posted these outside their XC tents during meets.
I added signs to direct adults upstairs for wine, beer and spritzers on our small patio (that could be easily monitored).
We set up a photo booth using a bulletin board with the middle cut out. It was on sale at Hobby Lobby. I added the pom pom also from Hobby Lobby and a table decoration from Party City. I also found the cute props from Etsy. My daughter helped me set it up:)
Upstairs...
Since my mom has a bi-level, I had the perfect spot to hang his class pictures. I used Jute rope and blackboard clips from Michaels to hang and label each picture. I put them on black cardstock since I had a variety of sizes and to make them look a little more substantial.
Here was the last of the screens. One for each of his sports (XC, Swim, Track) and an extra for Academics/Random pictures. My husband made them a little bigger than I expected but it was so easy to clip on favorite shirts, pictures, awards. I will definitely be using these for my other two kiddos and other parties.
To the right of the screen, we had our dessert table. One of my biggest mistakes was ordering too much, but you can get more details about that in this post.
One of my favorite Pinterest posts gave me the idea for the cupcakes (and the garage coverings). I bought the chocolate candies on Oriental Trading company and the plastic glasses on Amazon. I had 5 dozen cupcakes from a local grocery store that I decorated with black and gold sprinkles. We also had bars, bites and cookies from Costco. My son's ceramic Purdue logo also added to the decor.
On one of the dessert tables, I had my son's initials Modge-Podged with his favorite race bibs. I found the letters at JoAnn's after searching all over town. I can't wait to do one for my second son with his theater playbills. At the last minute, I made a memory jar with a mini blackboard and blackboard stickers from Hobby Lobby. I used the stickers to label popcorn toppings, the roasters of pasta, and coolers. They were easy to write on with a chalk pen and peeled off easily.
Lastly, we hung up his jacket in the garage and his new college signs. It perfectly represented the success of the past and his adventure that awaits. We are so lucky to be along for the ride.