Agreeing with Your Partner on Home and Bedroom Décor

Everyone has their own opinions and taste, especially when it comes to art, color, and design.  Because each individual has his or her own idea of what will look best in a particular application, coming to an agreement with your spouse, significant other, or roommate regarding home and bedroom furniture décor can be a difficult task.  However, there are ways to compromise that will make the task less difficult and more enjoyable for both of you.

First of all, each party should have his or her own space – a study, a library, or separate bathrooms – where each person can express him- or herself without any kind of compromise to a unique design or style that is pleasing to their own senses.  This means that, regardless of how much you may despise avocado colored towels and pink floral wall paper, the cohabitant has every right to decorate that one bathroom with those designs, should that be his or her preference.  It also means that your one room in the house need not conform to the preferences of your cohabitant.  In these rooms, the two of you have separate free reign.

In shared rooms of the house or apartment, your home décor may not be exactly what you want but won’t be your partner’s ideal design either.  The décor will be a compromise of the two tastes.  For example, you may like classical, Baroque style traditional wood beds with intricate carvings into immense pieces of wood.  On the other hand, your roommate or spouse may prefer minimalist designs, much like the Japanese culture, where in traditional households you’ll find precious little furniture, all of which is straight forward containing little detail.  Certainly you could settle on something that caters a bit to both needs for living room furniture.  For instance, you may choose a couch that is sleek and sophisticated in a contemporary style that conforms to your cohabitant’s likes but couple it with an ornate mahogany bookcase that sits in the corner to please your own senses.

In some areas of the house, it may seem like a given that one or the other of you makes the majority of the decisions.  Take into account the kitchen; if you are the only one who ever cooks and your roommate or significant other can barely boil water, then you are the likely candidate to choose the décor for the kitchen.  Likewise, if you never use the weight room upstairs but your cohabitant is up there on a daily basis, he or she should be the one choosing what style and colors are pleasant during a workout session.

Home decoration is about compromise when there are multiple residents sharing the same location.  While you will not always be in agreement (and sometimes, rarely or NEVER agree) as to what style, color, or décor type is the best and most appropriate for a living room or bedroom furniture design, you can agree to disagree and compromise on the design in shared spaces while maintaining individuality in personal space.