At-Home Entertaining Trends for 2026, Served!ArchitecturalDigest.com
What clients want now: listening bars, hidden wet bars, Argentine grills, and spaces where every room pulls double duty for the party
By Elizabeth Fazzare
October 21, 2025
With its dramatic lighting, wicker detailing, and cheeky signage, you wouldn’t think this beachy bar designed by Meeshie Fahmy was tucked into the basement of a family home. Photo: Yoshihiro Makino
Every generation has its own way of gathering at home—the conversation pits and buffets of the ’70s, the formal dinner parties of the ’90s, the open-plan kitchens of the 2000s. So where are we now? AD PRO surveyed top interior designers about their clients’ latest requests and consulted today’s most sought-after party planners and tastemakers. Two clear trends emerged: First, entertaining spaces are becoming more experiential—think dedicated listening bars, sauna sessions with friends, and interactive outdoor grills. Second, formality remains off the guest list. Today’s hosts want their guests to feel relaxed, whether that means serving dinner buffet-style, opening up unconventional rooms for gathering, or designing bars homeowners can tuck out of sight.
If you design the perfect bar at home, there’s no reason to go out. Dallas designer Chad Dorsey has created several wine bars and cocktail lounges in private homes since the pandemic began, and demand continues to rise. Rather than annexes off the living or dining spaces, these are dedicated rooms that recreate the enveloping feeling of a favorite neighborhood watering hole. The key to their success is highly personalized details, from custom cocktail menus to monogrammed napkins.
“A listening bar I designed for an architect friend and her husband in their former screen porch is now the hottest bar in Dallas!” laughs Dorsey. “They’ve had a hundred people over on a weekend.” For an even more intimate vibe, some designers are creating at-home speakeasies, like AD PRO Directory member Meeshie Fahmy did in the basement of a family home in Redondo Beach, California. Wrapped in Schumacher grasscloth and emblazoned with a backlit sign reading “Le Bar,” the space functions as a “speakeasy-style guest suite where the homeowners ‘check in’ every Friday night to unwind,” says Fahmy.
Dinner parties remain a staple of entertaining, but these days, homeowners are leaning into a more casual version than the seated multicourse dinner. “I’m seeing cocktail parties with elaborate passed hors d’oeuvres or extravagant buffet tables,” says designer Starrett Ringbom, who is based between New York and Verbier, Switzerland.
Rebecca Gardner, founder of Houses & Parties and author of the new book A Screaming Blast, agrees. “Clients are embracing the idea of a cocktail buffet, which I think traditionally has been pretty Southern, but is a great way to have a crowd for a delicious dinner without having to set up tables,” says the Savannah-based event planner, who counts Sofia Coppola among her clients. (The director wrote the foreword to her book.) The approach involves a mix of DIY and hired help: Set the dining table with elegant dishes of food, station servers nearby to help guests fill their plates, and let guests roam and find “a place to perch around the house,” says Gardner. The format allows people to mix and mingle and works especially well in smaller homes.
While entertaining spaces are becoming more casual, kitchens are moving in the opposite direction—toward a bit more separation. “Many of our clients now prefer kitchens that are slightly removed from their entertaining spaces,” says New York–based designer Paris Forino. “It’s not about going back to the closed-off kitchens, but rather about creating a balance. They want spaces that allow for cooking and preparation without exposing guests to the inevitable mess or lingering smells.” Forino achieves this with framed glass pocket doors that create “subtle partitions” in room layouts that flow kitchen to dining room (or kitchen to patio) to help “keep the focus on the social spaces” while making it easy for a host or chef to work. For clients who entertain frequently, bicoastal AD100 and AD PRO Directory designer Ken Fulk takes it further: “We often up the ante with a full catering kitchen for out-of-the-way food prep.”
Home bar requests are on the rise, but many homeowners now want bars they don’t always have to see. “One design element we keep returning to is the hidden wet bar,” says AD100 and AD PRO Directory architect Elizabeth Graziolo. “Whether tucked off a living or dining room, it allows clients to make drinks without needing to retreat to the kitchen.” Concealed behind paneled doors or inside dedicated cabinetry, these bars can be integrated into the room’s larger material palette when closed. Open them up, and a statement color or luxe material can offer a delightful jewel box moment.
