Who does the decorating in your house?

[Lindagerr]

I have always liked more modern, glass, leather, silver furniture. My husband likes wood, teak, solid and especially free furniture.

We finally can afford the leather modern sofa and coffee table I want. We have agreed on that and where I want to put it in the living room, we just can't agree on what else should be there.

I want the living room to be more of a formal area to visit and talk with guest. We don't have a TV in there; we have a 60 inch in our huge bedroom, a 42 inch in the family room and a 42 inch in the sun room. ( you would be surprised how little any of these are on) so we don't need it.

We can not afford the side chairs or accent tables I want at this time, we will get them next year. We do have 2 small cheap chairs and tables we can use for now.

The problem is my husband wants to keep his stereo in the living room. I wouldn't mind if we found a small modern stand and 2 speakers , but he wants to keep his large 25 X 75 inch teak stand with 2 large teak sub woofers under it and two smaller black speakers on black metal stands beside it. I feel this is too big ( the room is only 14 X 16 ft) and does not go with the new modern decor.

We have such different taste he likes the big teak stand and says it goes fine with the leather and glass.

Also the couch is off whit so I want to paint the walls something blue and use blue and grey accents. The walls are off white with one cranberry accent wall and he says we should leave then alone. Since we only rarely have visitors come all the way out here (like 3-4 times a year) we can't get their opinion.

Part of the problem is I have gotten to the point where I want my rooms neat and minimalist, I could never afford good things and now that we are more comfortable I want to give away or sell the old stuff and my husband is still in the pack rat phase.

So who does the decorating in your house? Do you have rooms you both decorate and rooms only one decorates? we don't really have a man cave but my husband has an office I say he can do anything he wants in as long as I can shut the door if it is messy. I have my beautiful 3 season/sun room, I get to decorate it and enjoy it usually by my self.

The rest of the house is usually a collaboration and we can usually compromise, there is just something about this living room and neither of us has found a compromise that works.

So who makes these decisions in your house? Does one of you care more than the other? Is it just "her Job"? Or do you discuss and agree on all major decor choices?

[socsci]

Hi Lindagerr,

I'm new here but been reading for a while

We share the duties in our house when it comes to decor, but we have kind of an unspoken thing going on. I have my man cave, a double garage (in length) of which half is turned into a gym. I decorate it, keep it clean, and my wife doesn't venture in there much at all. We have one large room which doubles as a living room at one end, and guest area at the other. We both like minimalist stuff so it was easy to choose furniture and decor together. The main difficulty for my wife was keeping my gaming pc in here, she doesn't play games much, but she also didn't want us to be living in separate rooms. I had a big case, big speakers and huge desk for everything, so I had to rebuild into a more compact case, reduce my speakers and amplifier and get a simpler desk. It was win-win for both of us, I upgraded to better equipment, and my wife was happy with the room. The bedroom has been all her choice, I haven't really had an input other than choosing the bed together, I was happy for her to decorate how she feels. We both like to cook, so the kitchen is more functional, clean and tidy, than attractive. Other than a few pictures, the dining room was all her choice too.
All of the white goods and electronics in the house were my choice, my wife just let met get them, as long as the refrigerator was big enough, and she has her area for family movie night then she is happy.

The garden however is different, that is her space, her woman cave, and she takes care of it all. I have no input and just provide the muscle to move things, if she needs it
I'm lucky and just get to sit on the terrace with my coffee and enjoy the view.

Edited: As for the stereo equipment, I can appreciate your husband's choices. Sound quality is often more important than looks when it comes to audio. Maybe upgrading to a modern looking choice of speaker setup, while upgrading in sound quality at the same might be music to his ears
I replaced my big speakers and amps to a smaller set of active speakers, for when the wifes not at home, and a really good pair of headphones and headphone amp.

[LaterBloomer]

Okay, not only do I know nothing about decorating, I don't have a husband to blame for my poor choices. In addition, I have a tin ear. That said, how would your husband feel about wiring the house for sound? Then the big stuff can be elsewhere, but there would be discreet speakers in the living room so that guests could enjoy music.

Does that work?

Also, I think (again, all my taste is in my mouth), that leather, glass, and wood (teak) would look nice together. If the wiring of the house doesn't work, is there some way that some sort of covering could go over the shelves with the speakers to hide them? Years ago, when in Amsterdam and London, I saw a cool window treatment. Something was done over the windows in Ann Frank's house that were translucent, but they were ?painted? so that they gave the impression that you were looking out the window onto scenes from Amsterdam in the 1930s. In a London house museum, that same sort of thing was done, but I've forgotten what the screen/muslin/whatever was decorated, or what scenes were depicted.

Good luck!