His black leather couch sent the nails screeching down her decorative chalkboard. Her desire to coat the walls in "Touch of Lemon," rather than his preferred "White," had him wondering if he should put his foot down now on French Provencal.
As young couples blend households and decorating tastes, for better or for worse is becoming an increasingly less abstract concept. Hence the proliferation of shows such as Lifetime's "Merge," WE's "Mix it Up" and HGTV's "Designing for the Sexes."
Find me a couple who blends their two decorating styles effortlessly, and I'll show you a couple where one of them is design guru Colin Cowie. When one person's trash is another's treasure, Cupid seems to get a kick out of hooking them up.
So, in honor of the impending wedding season, here are a few tips - - some from decorating pro Allison Paladino, some from the folks at the American Furniture Manufacturers Association, and others I learned the hard way -- to help keep cohabitants from singing, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off."
Find common ground.
Instead of fighting over how much you hate his tattered leather recliner and he despises your collection of 1940s hats, focus on how much you both prefer bold colors and unfussy furniture. If you both like something, keep it.If you can afford to add a few items, shop together for them. If one partner is more into this than the other, have her (or him) take some scouting trips first, then bring in the other partner for final decision-making. If you both like something, buy it.
Another time-saver: Paladino advises couples to peruse apartment design magazines before they head out to shop, to find styles and items they can agree on ahead of time.
Give each other some space.
You must get rid of some things (see next tip), but each of you is likely to have at least something you simply can't part with. Confine his "Scarface" and "Reservoir Dogs" posters to one room and your cobalt glass collection to another. Kept apart, the collections make their respective rooms look chic.Visitors to my last home, in North Carolina, found an obscenely large collection of "Simpsons" memorabilia in one room. Meanwhile, my paintings and vintage photographs stuck to their side of the house.
Put his movie posters in thick black frames and paint the walls behind them tomato red. Sprinkle in some silver framed photos. That adds up to a retro-styled movie room. This is also a great place to stash the television, which one half often bemoans as an eyesore and the other considers a beautiful piece of sculpture.
Know when to say goodbye.
When the casa is really more of a casita, use the same rule you'd apply to accessorizing your outfits: Don't overload. Be willing to edit for the overall health of the relationship -- oops, I mean room design.You probably don't really need to save every issue of In Style printed since 1993, and he doesn't need to put his hard-earned collection of empty Stoli bottles anywhere but into the recycling bin.
Eliminating the clutter lets you focus on dealing with what's really important to both of you.
Cover up.
Nothing improves offending furniture or trinkets like not being able to actually see them.Slipcovers are lifesavers when your beloved refuses to part with the tweed couch handed down from his parents that he first made out on. Ditto when you can't concede that lavender floral prints have no place in the home of a male hipster. Find a color and/or pattern that suits both of you (check out www.surefit.net for some ideas) and let the cover-up begin.
Stash piles of gender-oriented possessions in snazzy boxes or starched linen bags from stores. Nobody needs to know that the sleek metal shoe boxes stacked in the corner cradle his collection of shot glasses from Hooters.
Take a romantic trip to Switzerland.
A neutral color palette can save relationships faster than Dr. Phil.Sure, a brown leather chair would look heinous if paired with the aforementioned brown tweed couches, but imagine how Calvin Klein Home it will look on a creme carpet under framed black-and-white photographs, next to those same couches, now slip-covered in a lovely bisque.
Take a deep breath and remember why you decided to share one roof in the first place.
Before I packed my bags and left the Big Apple, my sister and her sweetie had picked a wall color. Somewhere in between "Touch of Lemon" and "White," they remembered why they were getting married over a swatch of "Creme Brulee."
