who does the decorating at your house?

[caedmyn]

By decorating I mean chooses things like curtains, rugs, bathroom towel colors, pictures/wall hangings, and knick knacks or other decorative items.

[Frances]

We do it together.

[JustEm]

We decide things like curtains, rugs, wall hanging together.  towels is me.  We don't have knick knacks or decorative items.

[Annie G]

Dh and I stumble through it together. I feel like I was absent when that skill was being distributed. 

[fairfarmhand]

Mostly me but if my dh makes a request I usually honor it. He’s typically pretty conservative in his tastes and I try not to pick stuff he’ll absolutely hate. I can stand most of his choices. 

Except I refuse to budge on the stuffed deer head on my wall. Nope nope nope

[Arcadia]

Me because DS14 and I are sensory avoiding and my husband is very accommodating since the dining room is his junk store room.

[marbel]

I buy towels in colors I like when we need them.

The decorative items we have, like stuff on the mantle, are mostly things two or more of us saw and liked, or things that seemed meaningful to our family.  Like a green resin rabbit that made us think of a children's series of books we liked, or bird figurines because we all like birds.

Big things like furniture and rugs would be chosen by my husband and me together, with input from our kids.  

[MrsRobinson]

Me. 😊

That's the short answer. 

The long answer is dh doesn't like floral print. So I accommodate his preference.

Funny though, I think when we first moved in together, he really meant "feminine" because our house is certainly not totally "masculine" and there are lots of feminine touches that he would never choose. But they are not "floral", which is what he said so he keeps his mouth shut. 😏 

If he didn't have a wife, he'd live in a house with bare walls, no curtains, and whatever towels and bedsheets were cheapest at the nearest store. He doesn't care whether those things are there or not. But no floral print! 😂

 

[Selkie]

Me. We've been married 28 years and I've made just about every single decorating decision, from paint color to wood flooring to fixtures and furniture. Dh has no interest in it and he trusts my taste - we both like minimalist and simple. We don't have any curtains, rugs, or knickknacks. Dh did choose the artwork in his office, but all the other artwork in the house was chosen by me.

[Jean in Newcastle]

We both do. 

[alisoncooks]

Me.

I do (sometimes) ask for DH's opinion and he just nods vaguely, so I do what I want to do. 

[Faith-manor]

Me. Dh doesn't care at all. 

[Hoggirl]

The decorator/interior designer. 

[Rachel]

Mutual decision on big things like paint color and furniture. Although I may pick a few colors I like and then we decide which one is best together. 

I don’t think my husband really cares about towels or what pictures are on the walls. We’ve been together so long that we have a good feel for what both of us like. I wouldn’t purposely buy something I knew he wouldn’t like though.

He bought “me” a new tv for a present once and then later bought me a tv stand. It was an antique buffet someone had refinished and painted. He really went out on a limb when he bought that without asking my opinion, but also was confident he could return it if I didn’t like it. It’s actually one of my favorite pieces of furniture. 

[Garga]

Me. Dh doesn’t care.  I asked him how he’d decorate if he lived alone and he said he’d have lots of maps on the walls.  So, I put a bunch of maps on the walls.  But everything else is me.  He has no interest.  I enjoy setting up things in the house, so it works out well.  

My oldest son is like his dad, but my youngest is more like me.  We just redecorated the boys’ bedroom and the youngest was full of ideas that I implemented for him, and the oldest had no interest.  

[Ausmumof3]

The spiders 😆

nah it’s generally a joint decision and because we have way different tastes it doesn’t always work so well.  But on the other hand perfect house is really low on either of our radars and right now functional would be an achievement so perfect is not really important!

[lavender's green]

Me, but I always ask his opinion. He's good at pointing out things I hadn't considered, and vice versa. Usually for him it's an issue of function. Are those curtains too sheer for that room, or are the kids going to destroy that knick-knack just by walking past it. I'm the one who thinks of beauty, dimensions, color, comfort. We choose larger items like furniture together. Usually it's very easy.

[Ausmumof3]

48 minutes ago, fairfarmhand said:

Mostly me but if my dh makes a request I usually honor it. He’s typically pretty conservative in his tastes and I try not to pick stuff he’ll absolutely hate. I can stand most of his choices. 

Except I refuse to budge on the stuffed deer head on my wall. Nope nope nope

Oh man!  You are married to my husband seriously 🤣😂

[theelfqueen]

Me. DH's only interest is in budget (and mine not much more)... so pretty much everything in our house just stays the same. FOREVER. 

[Farrar]

Completely me. Dh couldn't care less. He appreciates that I do it.

[livetoread]

Me. It matters a lot to me and little to him. He would probably have some mild opinions if I asked, but I have very strong opinions, so I don’t ask except for big purchases like a sofa. We do discuss how much to spend and are on the same wave length there. 

[SamanthaCarter]

1 hour ago, Annie G said:

Dh and I stumble through it together. I feel like I was absent when that skill was being distributed. 

Truth. 

[Tap]

Me. Dh would have pristine white walls with no nail holes in them. 

[Ellie]

I do. I might ask Mr. Ellie what he thinks, but he really doesn't care, as long as I'm happy. 🙂

[gardenmom5]

me.  I've tried to allow dh to give his two cents...  I've also learned sometimes I need to tell him to live with what I choose because he really has zero decorating sense.

at least I have some children with good taste (and are artistic), so I will consult with them if I want a second opinion.

[J-rap]

My dh always did (because I was the one who wasn't interested enough!).  At some point, he enlisted the help of our dd, who had similar interests in interior design.  She chose some of our wallpaper and rugs.  

We're going to be moving though in the next 6 months, and I'm actually becoming interested, for the first time, in designing our next place!  My dh will want his say in it, but that's fine. He has an artist's eye and good judgment.

[Carrie12345]

Well, mostly me I suppose. But there really hasn’t been all that much decorating until recently. We painted the kids’ rooms and bathroom so long ago that they need to be redone. The rest of the house has been “seller’s beige” from day 1. Our decor has been homeschool books and homeschool calendars/posters/etc.

In the past couple of years, I’ve had dh change out some lighting fixtures and I’ve made small furniture purchases that have tied things together. I’ve almost settled on a paint color, but don’t want to get started until we can open the windows. I did ask for dh’s input on several shades of gray, lol.

I have new bedding and curtains coming for our room this week. Again, I asked for input on preselected options.

[DawnM]

We both have in the past.  What I am finding is that DH like bland, bland, bland.  Tan walls, stone fireplace, brown leather sofa.  He has liked that since the day we got married and we are trying to move now and what does he say when we go look at houses?  Oh, this wall could be painted Lowe's Khaki like I painted in our last 4 houses! 🙄

Um, no sweetie, I am over that color now.  Let's branch out a little.  And we will have more rooms to get furniture for, I would like something else in the formal living room, other than brown leather that has a high enough back to rest my head on......that is DEN/Media room furniture!  I want a nice low back cloth sofa and some nice looking cloth accent chairs with nice pillows.  Not 3 areas that look like a man cave!

 

[HomeAgain]

Mostly dh.  I do the details, like whether those blues would go together.  We're a forest/trees couple: he is great with big picture thinking and developing an idea of how it should go.  I'm better with all the finer points where I can concentrate on one thing at a time.

I'm not going to lie, though.  Our house is decorated very simply.  We have a general color scheme for each room, but furniture is all Ikea and wall hangings/decorations are only what we have collected in our travels.  It's personal, and not at the same time.  Neither of us like a whole lot of "stuff" to deal with and the more clean/utilitarian, the better.

[stephanier.1765]

Me because DH could care less or that's what he likes me to think. He's poo pooed several things I've done like the light blue walls in the master bedroom. He said he doesn't like white. "Honey, that is blue not white." Once I got the white furniture in the walls were obviously blue and the white furniture doesn't show dust like darker colors. He was right about painting the windowsills white though. The cats have done quite a number on them.

[TechWife]

I do with DH having veto power. If he really dislikes something, I respect that. It's time management more than anything else, he's working and I'm not going to wait to get what we need as far as towels, etc. when we need them.  Large pieces of furniture we tend to pick out together, but that isn't something we do with any regularity. We don't do knickknacks, the few we have are sentimental items, but we don't but stuff like candles or vases or whatever just to have it sitting around for me to dust.

[Zoo Keeper]

DH and both have ideas...interesting ideas...but then we look at our six kids and choose something else.  Like paint colors that hide dirt, and second hand furniture that already looks beat up so we don't feel so badly when the barbarians are finished with it. 🙂

We have *very* different opinions on what is a nice shade of green paint for your living room walls.  Three colors later we had a winner (and it wasn't green). 

I won on paint colors for the kitchen.  🙂

He tells me my decorating style is "book"--as in "move this pile of books over here instead of over there."  

 

[Suzanne in ABQ]

We do it together.  I pick things out, and he tells me to buy them.  

When I met him, everything in his entire house was either brown or tan.  Well, there was the wallpaper mural of Saturn in the bedroom, and it was mostly dark blue - except Saturn and the moons, which were various shades of tan. But that was it.  Brown carpet. Tan walls. Tan couch. Brown table with brown chairs.

I love color.  He's happy with whatever I want.  It works great for us.

[MrsRobinson]

Ok, I'm super curious @caedmyn did your dh not like any of the hive's ideas for the space next to your kitchen? Is that what's prompting this question? 😊

[Guest]

Me. Dh usually doesn’t care, but he also depends on me to have staid and serious decor. That’s why I had to tell him I was painting the front door “gold.” 

Some of the things in the house, though, were 100% his idea. They were good ideas, so I agreed. He was the one who wanted Dark Emperador marble for the bathroom vanities. That was a good call; I still love it fifteen years later. 

[caedmyn]

2 hours ago, MrsRobinson said:

Ok, I'm super curious @caedmyn did your dh not like any of the hive's ideas for the space next to your kitchen? Is that what's prompting this question? 😊

I didn't mention them to him other than saying I wanted to get a rug for it.  Actually we had a discussion yesterday that prompted this thread--he wanted to hang something I don't particularly like (a duck call and framed newspaper article about the duck call maker) in the dining room.  I suggested he hang it in his office and he didn't like that idea.  So I was trying to figure out if my theory that women are typically the ones who decorate homes was correct, and if it's unreasonable of me to want/intend to do most of the decorating.  I won't get something if I know he doesn't/won't like it, and I don't mind trying to agree on stuff like furniture, curtains for the dining room, or paint colors, but it isn't practical and would be quite frustrating to try to agree on everything.  DH and I have vastly different tastes and have difficulty agreeing on anything.  And our new house is more than half again the size of our old one, so there's a lot of decorating to be done.

[MrsRobinson]

2 hours ago, caedmyn said:

I didn't mention them to him other than saying I wanted to get a rug for it.  Actually we had a discussion yesterday that prompted this thread--he wanted to hang something I don't particularly like (a duck call and framed newspaper article about the duck call maker) in the dining room.  I suggested he hang it in his office and he didn't like that idea.  So I was trying to figure out if my theory that women are typically the ones who decorate homes was correct, and if it's unreasonable of me to want/intend to do most of the decorating.  I won't get something if I know he doesn't/won't like it, and I don't mind trying to agree on stuff like furniture, curtains for the dining room, or paint colors, but it isn't practical and would be quite frustrating to try to agree on everything.  DH and I have vastly different tastes and have difficulty agreeing on anything.  And our new house is more than half again the size of our old one, so there's a lot of decorating to be done.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I wouldn't want that in the dining room either. I would have suggested dh's office, as well.

Before we were together, my dh spent a ridiculous amount of money on a huge (HUGE) Simpson's print that had every character that had ever appeared on the show up to that point. It looked like a giant Where's Waldo spread. Only more obnoxious. 😂 

He was mad I hung it in the garage when we moved in together. He thought I'd put it in the living room over the couch. I said. "Uh, no. We are adults now."  I didn't even want to put it up in the garage! 🙄

[fairfarmhand]

3 hours ago, caedmyn said:

I didn't mention them to him other than saying I wanted to get a rug for it.  Actually we had a discussion yesterday that prompted this thread--he wanted to hang something I don't particularly like (a duck call and framed newspaper article about the duck call maker) in the dining room.  I suggested he hang it in his office and he didn't like that idea.  So I was trying to figure out if my theory that women are typically the ones who decorate homes was correct, and if it's unreasonable of me to want/intend to do most of the decorating.  I won't get something if I know he doesn't/won't like it, and I don't mind trying to agree on stuff like furniture, curtains for the dining room, or paint colors, but it isn't practical and would be quite frustrating to try to agree on everything.  DH and I have vastly different tastes and have difficulty agreeing on anything.  And our new house is more than half again the size of our old one, so there's a lot of decorating to be done.

I would have felt the same way.

My dh has some old prints that I find a little drab that he really likes; I don't hate them, but I'd prefer something else. But he really wants them in the sunroom, so I'll give in. 

I do get to decide most other stuff.

And no dead animals staring glassy eyed at me.

[RootAnn]

On 2/10/2019 at 7:50 PM, caedmyn said:

By decorating I mean chooses things like curtains, rugs, bathroom towel colors, pictures/wall hangings, and knick knacks or other decorative items.

Neither of us adults. Things just kind of end up where they end up. Ds#2 does more purposeful decoration than either of us. Dd#2 provides the artwork for the walls. Knicknacks are just unwanted items I don't dust around.