The low-stress, high-fun way to entertain, shop, decorate and indulge your way to domestic nirvana. What is domestic bliss? It's bringing the office party home just because you have fresh mint and a secret mojito recipe. It's making your houseguest feel like he's at the Ritz even when he's crashing on your sofa. It's retreating home after a harried day and taking solace in a perfectly placed flea market find. Home is the new hot spot and in Domestic Bliss , London's favorite young style expert makes all your nesting fantasies come true. This blueprint for domestic bliss will work whether your posse is coming to your castle or you're planning an evening for one. With wit and savoir faire, Konig shows how to: Mix family hand-me-downs and new treasures - Tackle clutter with simple solutions - Turn your world around even when you feel fat, lonely and hate all your clothes and furniture. Domestic Bliss is about creating moments of perfection in an otherwise chaotic world. Emma Hagestadt "The Observer (London)" Vogue's answer to Martha Stewart, Rita Konig gives chic postmodern advice....Treat yourself to a copy of this gorgeous book. Fiona McCarthy "House Beautiful" Nature and nurture conspire to turn Rita Konig, a celebrated London designer's daughter, into a talent herself. Mallery Roberts Lane "The New York Times" Rita Konig is the design It Girl...."Domestic Bliss" puts a fun, flirty spin on throwback topics such as playing hostess and wrapping presents. Plum Sykes contributing editor, "Vogue" Dip in and giggle. Rita Konig's combination of glamour, vacuuming, and high society is as inspirational as it is witty. She may just be the Carrie Bradshaw of domesticity. Rita Konig writes lifestyle columns for Harper's Bazaar, the Saturday Telegraph Magazine, and British Vogue. She lives in London. Playing Hostess Inviting people to your home is really the very best thing. Whether they are dropping in for a drink or two or coming to stay for a long weekend or a week, there can be nothing better -- except perhaps that feeling you get when you have entertained them so successfully that they are asking when they can come again before they have even left. This chapter is about how to be around your friends in your home when you are entertaining, parts of which are really easy and parts of which are really hard. Among the latter, I would include coming out with your prerecorded "Oh, that old thing, don't even think about it, it couldn't matter less. Just let me clear away those shards of Murano glass so you don't cut yourself." This follows the smashing of your absolutely favorite piece of frightfully expensive glass by some clot in your house and you would secretly be delighted if she did cut herself on it. It is also about not panicking when the oven blows up and there are eigh-teen hungry faces looking at you and it is 10:30 at night. It does leave you wondering why on earth you would ever want to put yourself through playing hostess. But you really do, because having your friends around your kitchen table is one of the best things in life. Try to remembe: they are not the enemy, they are your friends. By entertaining, you live in your house to the full. It creates an atmosphere the likes of which nothing else can, and it allows you to hang out with your friends in your own environment. Inviting people to eat at your table is the ultimate way to seal a friendship, as offering people food and drink when they come to your door is one of the most basic customs of hospitality. I don't offer every Jehovah's Witness and door-to-door salesman who rings my bell a glass of wine and a snack, but I do love the idea that my door is always open. If you follow this route you are rewarded in the end because somebody really interesting will cross your threshold that you would never normally have met, or two people may easily meet and fall in love in your house -- and be engaged the following week! That happened here once after someone called and asked if he could bring a friend. Your guests won't always be fabulous, though -- you will have to feed a few freeloaders before you find a cracker. The perfect hostess (urrrrrrgh) Okay, so she sounds like hell, but that is actually Margot from the Good Neighbors , who I love, but for her ridiculousness. She is not a perfect hostess because she is too filled with affectations through her own insecurities and so makes everyone around her feel on edge. To my mind, the perfect hostess makes everything seem like it is a total breeze (but does scream when she burns herself on the oven door), is delighted that the house is full of people, nothing is a bother, she remembers to have a laugh, remains your friend, doesn't turn into some extraordinary form of Stepford woman -- and is quite laissez-faire about her guests. There are all sorts of different occasions for practicing one's hostessly duties. Here are my favorites. Tuesday night dinner Tuesday night is reason