Robert O'Byrnemeets a Dublin woman who has two rooms on permanent standby for parties.
So you want to throw a party but there's just one drawback: the upheaval this causes throughout the house. To clear space for guests, in the days leading up to the big event, furniture will have to be moved, breakables stored away, carpets taken up.
Access to your bedroom becomes difficult because the door is blocked by a displaced sofa and every surface in the kitchen seems to be covered with fragile porcelain ornaments. Shifting the sideboard has exposed a dust tundra, as well as some food particles that scientists might care to examine for evidence of molecular evolution. And once the main rooms have been emptied, it's clear they could benefit from an industrial clean followed by thorough redecoration. Throwing a party has suddenly become a chore instead of a pleasure.
But not for Patricia Tsouros. The former businesswoman turned art advisor and board member of IMMA has effectively dedicated the two groundfloor rooms of her Donnybrook home to parties. Which isn't to suggest Tsouros lives in a particularly large house; it's a typical redbrick, two-storey over garden level property that she and her husband bought in 2003.
But it already had the advantage of a downstairs extension ample enough to incorporate a kitchen, dining area and livingroom.
As a result, this is where the family spends most time and the pair of reception rooms upstairs could easily have become tastefully decorated mausolea, only used on a handful of occasions annually.
Instead of this fate, the sociable Tsouros chose to give the rooms an alternative purpose as venue for her regular parties. They also provide a backdrop for her ever-expanding art collection, part of which had to remain in storage when she lived in Clonskeagh. But as she points out, these rooms with their high ceilings, minimal furniture and clean lines "can take big, strong statement pieces" without effort.
Tsouros describes her taste as "extremely contemporary. I'm very interested in the process of how something's made. It's a very instinctive thing with me and though I like a lot of work, I won't necessarily buy it."
Among the artists represented in her collection are Spaniard Juan Usle, New Yorker Joseph Marioni and Scottish painter Callum Innes. But this country isn't neglected either, with pictures by the likes of Eithne Jordan, Abigail O'Brien, Mary Kelly and Alexis Harding. If these diverse works share any traits it's their bold use of colour and unabashed scale.
"Nobody understands my collection," jokes Tsouros. "Which makes it all the more interesting for me. I do get very strong reactions to it all from people coming in here."
If the plain white walls are covered in bold art, the rest of the space is deliberately kept simple with just a few pieces of furniture that can easily be moved around.
The putty-coloured suede sofas by Rolf Benz and two white leather armchairs all came from Houseworks on Holles Street, Dublin, while the other free-standing units, such as the coffee table and cupboard, were made by carpenter Jan Watte who's based in Navan. "They're just bits of inexpensive wood mounted on aluminium and then sprayed with high-gloss car paint. Which means if they get damaged, he can just re-spray them for me."
The floors are covered in wide boards of varnished pitch pine and the two chimneypieces are polished limestone.
There are no carpets or curtains, nothing to absorb and retain odours from the night before. All of which means there's very little to shift prior to a party, hardly a thing to pack up.
These clean, uncluttered rooms lend themselves perfectly as backdrop to a variety of occasions, whether a dinner for 10 or larger gatherings for 60-plus. If it's just a small group, the dining table is set up in the rear room. But when there's need for a larger table, it runs without trouble between the two spaces.
"I can do up to 35 sitting down to eat," says Tsouros, but at one recent event after an IMMA opening, she fitted in many more by opting for bar tables with stools clustered around.
She uses Total Events for organising her parties and Unique Dining for their catering but doesn't leave everything up to outside companies.
"I keep lots of things in store downstairs: candles and bits of table decorations and bring these out to theme each occasion."
What are the lessons to be learnt here? If you like to entertain regularly, assign one or more rooms for this purpose and then make sure the decoration is as understated as possible. That means all clutter is banned, furnishings are versatile.
In other words, think of your party room as being like a blank canvas waiting to be painted, possibly as brightly as one of the artworks hanging on Tsouros's walls.
