make room for boyfriend, part two: combining styles
With my boyfriend moving in to my apartment in just about two weeks, there have been a lot of home renovations and some serious spring cleaning. We purchased a great nine-drawer vintage dresser to match the nightstand, and scored an awesome knock-off of the West Elm parsons desk at overstock.com. (In brick red! Swoon!) Lucky for me, we’ve had no problems agreeing on furniture styles. The other weekend we even bought our first piece of art together: a silkscreen by Doug Groupp. It was something we both saw and instantly loved. I walked home with it giddy that we have the same taste in home décor. Sitting at home, going on about how lucky I am that my boyfriend likes all of the style choices I’d made in my apartment, my bubble was abruptly burst: he doesn’t like the living room rug! I was shocked, then defensive, then sad… and then, 15 seconds later, I got over it. We agreed to get a new rug. We’ve dicussed it here before, and it’s definitely been on my mind again: how many of you co-habitants found your styles perfectly in-sync, and how many of you battled it out over every color choice, fabric pattern and furniture style? –Erica P.
My wife and I were at complete odds for a while. Luckily we both really work hard on our relationship. I started accepting (and eventually liking) her style and she mine. We found it best to have our own areas of the house and discuss it so that it all fits together.
Cyrus
http://www.home-decorating-reviews.com/blog/
When we first got married and had our little first apartment, together we barely had enough furniture to fill the backs of two Toyota hatchbacks.
And mostly we ‘decorated’ with hand-me-downs.
It was an incredible pleasant surprise to find, years later when we bought our house, that we both love the exact same style of furnishings and are mostly in agreement in color. I’m more willing to try a new bright color (and then repaint if it doesn’t work out), while he is much more wedded to neutrals on the walls, arguing correctly that we can add color in the room in other ways.
But mostly we agree… I suppose that’s lucky for us. The big style disagreement in our house is actually between us and one of the kids, who is terribly attached to a hideous old hand-me-down recliner chair, which we would both love to toss… but alas. Perhaps when the offspring leaves home for good we can make a parting gift of the recliner. And the hand-me-down shall live on and on and on…
Our styles are somewhat compatible and somewhat different. I think the thing that helped, is he has his space that he gets to do how he wants, and I have mine. We give input on the other’s space, but let each other control our own area.
It’s tougher for him, because he moved in my place (I own so moving to a neutral place wasn’t an option), so in this case, the boy REALLY needed a space of his own, where he could control the decor decisions.
My fiance and I are pretty alike in our decorating choices and have successfully chosen living room furniture and some decor together without argument. We definitely agree on our art choices- black and white photography and before we started dating almost bought the exact same photos. He is not so fond of my large bright pink Andy Warhol daisy but after seeing it combined with some more “masculine” photos he has come to like it.
How boring it would be if we were just like our partners. I think it’s great to agree on the big stuff…neighborhood, style of house and furniture. There’s room for individual taste when you practice the art of compromise. My husband and I like to find the piece that works for both of us…it’s all about the hunt! Sounds like you are lucky to have a boyfriend who likes your style and wants to find the “rug” you both like!
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