Let's talk music... My favourite playlists for dinner parties and a Panasonic Speaker Review

October 03, 2017


Now that the autumn has rolled around and our kitchen is finally finished, we've been hosting dinner parties again. Dark evenings where you light all the candles and enjoy cooking new recipes for family & friends. I always love creating new easy listening kind of playlists as the seasons change, somehow summer BBQs feel have a different vibe compared to autumnal nights spent indoors and therefore need new music. I get asked quite a lot for Spotify recommendations so today I thought I'd share with you my favourite playlist I've created especially for dinner parties that we listen to all the time and tell you about the new Panasonic HC1020 that we've been using to play music around our house.


First up, you can find my Spotify playlist online here which you should then be able to subscribe to. play and edit your own version if you'd like? I'm a huge fan of Spotify, my family and I share a family subscription which makes it just £5 a month each for our own premium account. I use it for my running playlists, it being so easy to just add new songs whenever I feel like it and equally remove them. I've got the app on my phone that I listen through and you can then download the playlists onto offline mode so you don't need wifi to listen to them. And equally for listening to at parties/dinners/just when you're at home, there's everything you could ever wish for along with tonnes of genres and popular playlists to search through. My dinner party playlist is one that I've created and will keep adding to over time when I hear new things that I like. Spotify is also great for discovering new tracks and artists.



At home, Ben and I love to listen to music and have been looking into new sound systems. We had a Sonos Play in our kitchen which we'd been bought for Christmas but it's quite small and I find the volume hard to control if we've got people over talking. It seems either too loud or too quiet. But then Panasonic got in touch about a review for the new HC1020 speaker which we couldn't wait to try.


The design is sleek, it's wall mountable {and Panasonic recommend mounting it on the wall for the best sound quality to minimise obstruction to sound waves, filling the room with sound better} and it would certainly look very smart mounted on a wall}. In our house we decided to try it on our bookshelves in the new snug room first and the sound has been incredible. I feel like we don't even need to mount it any higher right now, but may do in the future. Aesthetically I feel it looks great in here and doesn't stand out too much. We chose the black colour, there are 4 to choose from - black, blue, red, or silver which works with our Downpipe cabinets.


Since our new mustard sofa has arrived, we've spent the last few evenings sat in here listening to music. My husband is very impressed with the sound, music just sounds so much better when played on it. You'll notice a huge difference in the depth as well as the feeling that it's surrounding you completely without booming out for all your neighbours to hear. It was idiot proof to set up, you just plug the mains lead in and download an App on your phone to sync it all up. There are clear instructions about which button you should press and then it will be connected to wifi and ready to go. Through your app you can then link it to your Spotify account in just a couple of easy steps. It also works just as well with your existing audio library, the radio, Napster, Bluetooth, USB and even has a CD player! I was so pleased at this part, we still have quite a few CDs yet nothing to play them on in this digital kind of age. 


The sound is room filling and you can then add on extra devices as part of Panasonic's All Connected range which can be linked wirelessly through the house with the Panasonic Music Streaming App. It's perfect for parties. We're hosting a few big events this Christmas where we'll want music piped around the house so we're going to invest in another for either the kitchen or the lounge. They're easy to move around, unless you decide to mount it on the wall.



You can control all the music from your phone. So I just go onto Spotify and choose any playlist or song and then just make sure I choose the 'Snug' option to play it on. 



You can see more photos of our snug here with the full makeover post. And a few of you on Instagram asked about our new sofabed which is on the other side of the room. You can find it online here



I'm so happy with this room now, it feels grown up and our new favourite place to sit on cosy autumnal evenings listening to both new and old favourite songs.

You can find out more about the Panasonic HC1020 here and purchase online here.

This is a sponsored post, and I was sent this item to review, but hand on heart when we choose to buy another speaker we'll be going for another Panasonic rather than Sonos.

R <3 xx 

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4 comments

  1. I love your playlist for running!

    Beautiful couch!

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    1. Thanks Celine! So pleased you like my running playlist too, it's a really random mix with a bit of everything thrown in!

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  2. Love your snug, that sofa! I've been really pleased with Sonos so interesting to read your comments - guess it depends which products you have. You've got me signed up to Spotify, I am currently paying for Apple Music but Spotify will give us a bit more flexibility with sharing.

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    1. Hi Rachel, thanks so much! I used Apple music for a bit when it first came out on a free trial but couldn't get on with it that well. Whatever works for you though! Although I do LOVE spotify xx

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