The 3 Space Minimum

I talked about this a little bit in my “The Perfect Venue” article, but I’d like to dive a little bit deeper onto an often overlooked consideration when it comes to designing the layout for your party, that I believe has a lot of value.

Any event large enough to split off into several parallel conversations wants space, but not just one big large space with shared acoustic and visual occupancy, to feel truly comfortable, it needs separate chambers. I think ideally, you’d have a minimum of three distinct areas for an excellent vibe at a party with more than 10–15 guests. The reasons for this are many: people get restless and like to move around, people enjoy exploration and variety, different spaces can cater to different needs like a variety in sound levels or light levels, and even disparate needs for temperature and airflow come into the picture. People will get bored with a specific environment and wander off, and if you have room for that wandering to happen at the event, it won’t as readily mean leaving altogether.

Even more than the above things though, having a variety of spaces to enter and exit helps alleviate one of the worst concerns people encounter in social space: feeling cornered. People need places to leave to in order to more easily exit conversations when they are feeling done with a conversation or interaction. If the only real way to get away from a chat you are no longer engaged in having is to go grab a drink, or go to the restroom, odds are you won’t stick around long unless you’re truly smitten with every person there, and happen to be getting along with all of them in that particular moment. Or worse, you might stay at such an event, but it will feel exhausting instead of rejuvenating. A good party might leave guests tired, but it should leave them feeling nourished instead of drained. This isn’t just about being introverts and extroverts — it’s often about the architecture of the event itself.

The three+ spaces don’t all need to be large, but they do need to have visual, and at least partial acoustic isolation from one another. Ideally, they all fit into your theme or overall aesthetic, while still having distinct vibes from one another. Large adjoining rooms with open archways and no hallway between them can function as a single space unless they are furnished in such a way to create a clear separation, or as separate spaces if the doorway between them is small, or things light light and furniture create a partition. An outdoor area, even a small one, can be an excellent third space, and at a house party a deck or yard should be considered before trying to convert a bedroom into an additional gathering area, as accessible fresh air provides more variety and may help satisfy other needs like a change in temperature. When it’s an option, rooms with multiple entrances and exits function the very best and make foot traffic less chaotic.

You can absolutely have a good party that only has one or two rooms, but it’s far more difficult once you have more than a dozen or so people. If you are considering a venue, look for one with multiple chambers and ideally, one larger space that serves as a central hub. If there is a tie for which space is the largest, move the furniture around to make one of them feel smaller, and one larger and more open to create this distinction. How you decorate can also really change how large or cozy a space feels, and help differentiate areas from one another.

If you’re throwing a party in a location that only has one or two large spaces in it, divide the space with a combination of lighting, furniture arrangement, curtains, and banners to break it up. If you’re getting really creative, you can utilize things like bounce-houses, geodesic domes, tents, blanket-forts, stage flats, streamer-curtains, clusters of balloons, using art or set pieces to create visual obstructions when creating full audio/visual separateness isn’t possible. What you’re doing when you introduce cozy spaces is building more intimate areas that can help foster conversation and connection in ways that are more difficult in a large open space. People seated in a small area near one another are very likely to strike up conversation with one another — people packed in similar proximity in a very large arena are much less likely to connect.