HOT STUFF

The difference between a basic party and a lit party is mainly in how you decorate your location. For my 70's themed party, I had hundreds of options yet unfortunately little time to realize them, so I picked just a few projects (some you can spot in the pic above!) for the second step of my planning:

THE DECORATIONS

In my moodboard I have included some inspirational pictures of 70's style decorating, and once my researching process was complete I immediatly wrote a list of the things I needed to buy and of the DIY projects I wanted to realize:

1- The photobooth

The idea of a photobooth actually came from a friend of mine, and as he was telling me about it I was just thinking about how cool would it be to have a selected space in which people can take their own photos of themselves with a themed background!

As you can see in the pictures above, this was definitely my biggest project. I bought four pegboards at Leroymerlin and assembled them to create a 180x120 cm perforated panel; they were so heavy, I can't even explain how difficult this part was. Also, once I painted the panel white, I had to re-open almost all the holes with chopsticks. Extremely boring yet the final result was really satisfying.

My first thought was to buy real flowers: they're cheaper than fake ones and way more beautiful. Then I had to change my mind, because even if I ended up spending more for fake flowers, I now have a full assortment of them which I can use for future parties / projects. It was my personal flower power lover investment!

Here's the finished panel. I also added two rows of light bulbs I got from Tiger for 8€ each, which I think added the final touch to the background together with the Vinyl shown in the first picture of the post. I'm really proud of this creation! It is an extremely versatile object and I will definitely re-use this for future parties. In front of it I placed a small cabinet on which I put my iPhone on a tripod, added a bluetooth remote shutter and voilà, the photobooth was complete. Biggest attraction of the party, and the photos came out really amazing! I'll post a few of them in the next posts.

2- Fillers & garlands

In the picture you can see some more details: there's a disco ball I got from Amazon (get it here) and some silver fringe garlands, also from Amazon (here). I had also decided to get custom balloons, yet I kinda regret getting them made by the one shop i had picked because despite them being inflated with helium at 11 AM, by 8 PM they were already starting to fall down on the floor (you can spot one of them next to the silver garland in the picture). So disappointing considering how expensive they were, next time I'll definitely pick another shop... Anyway, in the left corner of the picture you can see part of my DIY garlands, unfortunately I couldn't take a proper picture and it's such a shame, considering how much work they took! I hand-cut each circle out of 6 sheets of thick felt, the result was exactly what I had imagined and it made me so happy, even if I almost lost my right hand for all the painful, non-stop cutting.

For the sofa I just used some blankets I already had, which I think completed the look perfectly. You can also spot the drinks table in these pics, but I'll show you the details in the next posts!

Another DIY: this was supposed to be a pignatta, yet once completed it was too beautiful to be smashed with a bat. I simply made it with cardboard and metallic crepe paper fringes, and I hang it on the kitchen door between my felt-circle garlands.

To complete the photobooth corner, I decided to add a clothes stand with some of my vintage-70's inspired fashion picks. Most of the clothes were actually thrifted, some are just part of my daily wear basics. I hang everything on a clothes rack i got from Ikea (get it here). I also included some funny accessories like disco ball glasses, flower crowns and fake mustaches I ordered online (here) and placed them all in a beautiful plexiglass display (here).

My guests loved it and they tried on every piece! The pictures of the party really came out good, also thanks to this idea.

Last, I got some old 70's vinyls from my grandmother's house, and I arranged them nicely on the cabinet. They added the touch of authenticity i needed!

So, it's all for this post. I hope you guys enjoy what I shared! Unfortunately I don't have many pics to show you my DIs step-by-step, but I promise I'll make sure to record everything for my next projects. See you in the next post!