Friday, August 01, 2008

Decorating Revisited

I know! You're sick of it, so am I! But, I have a question. Before I ask, I need to clarify since you can't see me face to face and some of you have never met me face to face. This question is in no way meant to tear my husband down, hurt his feelings or anything. I am just curious.

How much input does your husband have in the decorating of your house?

In our house, Drew has a lot of say. The final word kind of say. And there is good reason for that. He is trained as an architect. He has ideas and opinions and would like them expressed in his house. And normally, we share tastes. I like what he likes and don't have too many opinions of my own.

And usually, if I do have an opinion, he likes it and wants to make it happen. For example, I was flipping through the new Pottery Barn catalog (the designers bible for me, not so much for him) and said "Ooh, lets paint the kitchen this orange color!" And he said, "Sure, babe, and then I can do the cabinets at the same time."

The most frustrating part for me has been our walls in our living room. We have one large blank wall that needs something. We have blown up pictures of the kids above the fireplace so we need something different. I'm really wanting a painting type something because we have a lot of photographs, which I love, I just want something different on this wall.

And, I am coming up empty with throw pillows. I am not seeing anything I like!

That is all, enough complaining about decorating.

At first, I said we need to finish painting the rest of the house, but now, I'm thinking we should just paint the kitchen this weekend!

11 comments:

  1. That is SO funny. I could put a trash bin in the middle of the living room and if it served a function, Scott would be ok with it.

    Oh my goodness, I should take a ton of pics of Allison's house. You would love it. Green living room, orange kitchen, dark red hallway, really modern and cool.

    Shall I take some pictures next time I am over? I think I actually might have a video of part of her house.

    Her kitchen is SO cute. I would NEVER think to paint my kitchen orange but you guys can do it and it works!

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  2. My hubby has few opinions when it comes to decorating. He once told me he didn't like the living room curtains. I took them down instantly b/c I knew that if he disliked them enough to say something, he really hated them!

    I couldn't find throw pillows either...I ended up recovering the ones I had. I don't really sew, but it was super easy. There are so many gorgeous fabrics to choose from. It cost less than $5 a pillow.

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  3. Jake has A LOT of say - our decorating relationship sounds much like yours!
    I struggle with throw pillow too so I just buy old ok ones and make my own covers - and I love them.
    Try Etsy.com for some art work!

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  4. Rob doesn't care very much, as long as the overall vibe agrees with him. When it comes to decorating, he is a big picture person, not a details person. He doesn't like things like picking out paint colors or fabric or anything, but he likes to have input or veto power or whatever. I'll often come to him with 2 or 3 options that I like and then he picks. I think he would protest if I decided to do the house really traditional or countrified or something, but maybe not; maybe he would just accept that as who I am.

    A big blank wall is tough to deal with, especially on a budget. Some things that would be large-scaled but not too expensive would be a mirror, a group of big canvases each painted a single color (I did this at our condo during med/grad school), or fabric stretched on a canvas/frame. The fabric stretched on a frame idea might be the most painting-like without having to actually pay for a large painting. One thing I saw somewhere was taking blank canvases, painting them each a solid color, and then putting vintage-y frames on the canvases. Or you could probably cheat and just paint rectangles on the wall and then hang vintage-y frames. I feel like this may have been in Real Simple; they have some really nice decorating ideas often.

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  5. yeah to say that my husband has a lot of input would be an understatement, what you said about Drew that about sums it up for us as well:) Can't imagine why they have similar stances on the subject!

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  6. My husband has a lot of say, but I also tend to have similar taste and style, so I will buy things (and save the receipt!) and hope it works. Lately he has gently questioned my liking for decorating with birds all over the house. I just have been in a bird phase! So far he hasn't nixed them!

    Steph

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  7. Jason could care less if there are any pictures on the wall. I am messing with the basement and trying to get ideas and he said it didn't need anything. If it fits in the budget it works.

    Start flipping through posters.com or art.com. You can get some good prints that are cute for relatively cheap. You wouldn't necessarily have to matte some of them. Hobby Lobby for a frame. Or take a matte cutting class and do it your self - it's not perfect, but you can't tell that I did mine!

    I did that with some princess/ballarina picts for Ally and some Disney Cars posters for Drew. I have some picked out for our bedroom but am waiting for the moola to work out.

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  8. how large of a painting what colors are in your living room?

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  9. I very little floral anything in my house (Glen's input), except for some basket liners and the kids' bathroom shower curtain. I had throw pillows that were uninteresting, but the dog has chewed them all up. I won't be getting any new furniture until the boys are older and less likely to jump on and/or pour water on things. But I always think your stuff looks great!

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  10. Leo doesn't get much say when it comes to decorating...he pretty much leaves it up to me. I do ask him his opinion first and if he doesn't like it then I'll find something we both agree on.

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  11. i love pottery barn too!

    jim cares little for how things "look", but an engineer in every sense, he MUST have efficiency and function! so, like when i rearrange things, if it's not efficient, i hear about it!!!!!!

    Megan

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