The easy way to create a festive coffee station

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A few days after I posted this last year, I was contacted by the Deputy Editor at Better Homes & Gardens about doing a shoot for this year’s December issue! The coffee bar made it into the 10-page spread, and I could not be more thrilled!

This year I switched things up by adding a simple brass rail with S hooks to hold a few mugs. Patrick’s darling girlfriend, Kate gave us these Tiled Margot Monogram Mugs at Thanksgiving; they are perfect. Seeing them at the coffee bar gave me the idea to add one more thing to hang from one of the S hooks. A simple gingerbread heart wreath.

Here’s How to Make a Simple Gingerbread Heart Wreath

You’ll need a few supplies in addition to the heart-shaped cookies. You can buy a wreath form or make one using a cardboard box.

Supplies Needed:

• 12 heart-shaped gingerbread cookies or gingersnaps
• A small flat wreath form
• hot glue or regular glue
• twine or ribbon to hang
• powdered sugar

How to Make the Simple Gingerbread Cookie Wreath

1. Use either a purchased or homemade wreath form that’s about 7-8″ inches in diameter. If you are making one, use cardboard, a lunch-size plate, and a smaller bowl inside to trace the approximate size.
2. Glue six of the hearts onto the wreath form, then stagger and layer the remaining six heart cookies on top and glue them to the original layer of cookies.
3. Add a ribbon or baker’s twine to hang.
4. Lightly dust with powdered sugar.

A Simple Holiday Treat Using Store-Bought Brownies

Use Chipboard Letters to Decorate

I always have a few boxes of Ghirardelli dark chocolate brownie mixes in my pantry. I love to dress them up a bit using homemade cut-out letters or these chipboard letters from Amazon. Place them on top to spell a greeting, and you’ve got a festive dessert in no time! Making individual monogrammed brownies or someone’s name for a birthday would be fun!

The easy way to create a festive coffee station for entertaining starts with the right piece of furniture. Today I’m joining my friends Mary Ann and Cindy and a few friends to show our take on setting up a festive holiday drink station. I will share how I set up my coffee bar for a festive get-together. Everyone else is doing some sort of cocktail, so you’ll have plenty of inspiration from coffee to spritzers.

I’ve been doing a version of a coffee bar for years using the same hutch. When we moved to this house, I made it a more permanent coffee bar.

What makes it a more permanent coffee bar?

The hutch was a piece we had for years. We bought it at RJ Imports in San Juan Capistrano, CA. It’s a simple piece that Brent could have made, but it was not very expensive, and I knew I could use it somewhere for dish storage.

It was in our dining room in New Canaan, and we used it to store our large collection of Apiclo dishes and serving pieces. I would set it up for a coffee bar or drink station occasionally, but then it would return to just a piece of furniture in the dining room.

When we moved to this house, we added a stone top that made it much more substantial and practical for a coffee bar. You can read more in this post.

We added shelves from the kitchen supply store for coffee and drink-related storage. We also have our Sonos speaker on one shelf since it’s in the middle of the house. The zone is called a “coffee bar,” naturally.

We store cups, mugs, plates, and other dishes on the two shelves below. I only recently added the curtain panel on a tension rod. It helps keep things dust-free, and I like the look. It’s a little less to keep organized since it’s hidden.

Setting up the everyday Coffee Bar for a festive get-together

There wasn’t much I needed to do to convert our everyday coffee bar into a party coffee bar, but here’s what I did:

• Top Shelf – Removed items from the shelf and replaced them with an assortment of clear glass jars with treats from Trader Joe’s. They would have all been homemade treats like my gingerbread Madeleines in a perfect world.
• Second Shelf – Kept the Schoolhouse lamp and added in cups and saucers for cappuccinos and smaller cups and saucers for espresso.
• The countertop – The Nespresso machine, coffee pods in a silver footed bowl, sugar bowl, milk frother, extra milk, Smeg Tea Kettle, cake, working glass with silverware, a stack of small plates and pressed napkins folded into squares. Tea packets are in a vintage McCoy planter.

How I made the coffee bar festive with Pandoro

I added fresh garland to frame the coffee bar (It’s the garland from our front door).

I also made a last-minute garland of cinnamon stars, dried orange slices, and frayed ribbon, all simply tied to jute twine.

Added a jug of festive water with tangerine slices and fresh cranberries with a stack of tumblers.

The Pandoro cake was sliced and served like a star with layers of mascarpone cream and fresh berries. Once the stores display all the boxes of Pandoro Cake and Panettone stacked to the ceiling, you know it’s the start of the holidays!

Coffee Bar Garland with cinnamon sticks & Orange Slices

I bought cinnamon sticks in bulk at my local market and made stars as I did with the twig stars. The cinnamon and dried orange slices seemed perfect for the kitchen and dining room.

Supplies needed to make kitchen garland

• cinnamon sticks (5 per star)
• glue gun and glue sticks
• 2 small oranges, sliced and dried
• frayed ribbon or cloth
• natural jute twine

Nespresso Coffee

If you love coffee and haven’t switched to Nespresso, stop by a boutique and have their barista make you a cup. They are very knowledgeable and will ask many questions before making coffee. We switched from drip coffee to Nespresso about 15 years ago after a trip to Paris in the winter. We stopped at so many cafes to warm up with a coffee, and when we returned, we switched to Nespresso. It’s so easy to pop into a pod and press the button. We love a cappuccino, so we use the attached milk frother or a separate milk frother. Either works beautifully, and if you close your eyes, you might even think you’re in Paris sipping coffee at a cafe.

Now let’s see what Cindy, Mary Ann, Kim & Juliet have in store for holiday drink stations! Cheers!

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