So you’ve got the new digs, and now you want to throw open your door to all of your nearest and dearest. Newlyweds, especially young ones, often have all the ingredients for a good housewarming party—a new home, a need for quality time with friends—except they don’t have much in the way of actual décor.

Since it’ll take some time, not to mention money, to get a house full of furnishings, take matters into your own hands: Have your housewarming bash do double-duty by turning it into a decorating party. Get your buddies to create or redo your furniture by painting, embellishing or fixing up diamond-in-the-rough pieces. With some brushes, patience and creativity, you can have your friends and work them, too.

You provide the food, a festive atmosphere and maybe even some prizes for exceptionally creative work. They’ll provide great ideas and personal touches for your home. Not everyone will be able to paint a Picasso on your kitchen table, but there are enough options for folks of all skill levels to have fun.

What you’ll need

• Unfinished furniture, available at some furniture stores and at some department stories like JC Penney. You can also scour a second-hand shop for pieces that can be painted. Chairs, kitchen tables, headboards and end tables are all potential canvases.
• Fabric that you’d love to see either on a chair, sofa or wall
• Needles and thread
• Latex or acrylic fade-resistant paint in whatever colors you like.
• Bruce Shotwell, a restorer with Restorations Unlimited in Fairfax, VA, recommends paint that can be cleaned up with water. It may be a little pricier, but the time and trouble saved with the aftermath will be well worth it.
• Old throw pillows or cushions that could use recovering

What can be done

• Just about anything. Even painting mistakes can be painted over. Depending on the artistic level of friends, the possibilities go on and on. Just keep an open mind—the personal touches won’t necessarily look professional. But they will look interesting, and always unique.

What can’t (or shouldn’t) be done

• Don’t paint directly on unfinished furniture. Be sure to put a coat of varnish on the wood first to seal the surface and ensure that the paint can be removed later, Shotwell says. Unvarnished wood will also soak up too much of the paint, making for uneven painted results.
• Don’t make homemade painted pottery. This requires a kiln to set the paint, which may be available at a local paint-your-own-pottery studio. Some studios allow guests to buy paint and pottery supplies, take them home and then bring them back to the studio to be fired up. If this is available, or if you decide to take your friends to a studio, most any housewares are available for painting. Some studios, like I Made This! in Maryland, also offer tables that are inlaid with hand-painted tiles. Glass or mirrors, however, can be painted without having to be set. Paints meant for glass painting are available at arts and crafts stores. Still, don’t put the glass in the dishwasher or the paint may wash off.

Get creative

Some friends will be able to find their inner Van Gogh more easily than others will. Your less artistically inclined guests can paint a base color on a chair or table. They can also pick out fabric and re-cover a pillow or seat cushion, if they know the basics of sewing. If they want to add a decorative touch to furniture, they can paint on a favorite quote, trace a stencil, dab on paint with a sponge (creates a cool marbled effect), or make a simple pattern or design.

Let more creatively advanced friends go to town with a paintbrush—provided they comply with whatever limits you set. You and your husband are the ones who will look at the furniture day after day, so by all means restrict colors and paintings if you wish. But budding artistes can adorn tables and chairs with scenes, pictures and patterns involving flowers, suns and moons, fruit or anything else that strikes their (and your) fancy.

If you want the whole group to work on one big project, consider making a crazy quilt, which in the Victorian era was a popular way to use up odd bits of cloth. Each guest can select pieces of fabric that you’ve provided and stitch a square together, embroidering and decorating if they want to. Everyone’s squares can then be sewn together (just make sure there will be enough squares to end up with a normal-shaped quilt). For more info on crafting a quilt, check out the quilting site on About.com.

Party time

Since your friends are working for your home, make sure you make it worth their while. Create a party atmosphere with music, games and food. You can provide prizes for the most creative or best effort and may want to make a small pillow or vase for each guest as a party favor. Above all, a housewarming party is an excuse for friends to have some face time. “A lot of time, guests just come to have the time together,” says Lisa Canby, owner of I Made This! What better reason could there be?

About the Author

Gina Montefusco’s work has appeared in the features section of the Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch. She is a former editor-in-chief of The Breeze, James Madison University’s campus newspaper.