Maybe you’re redoing your kitchen or primary bath. Maybe your blah living room is your project for the year—or you’re moving into a new home and have multiple projects to tackle. No matter your situation, you know decisions are more complicated as soon as someone else enters the picture. Especially if that someone enters the picture and messes it all up with opinions that don’t match yours. The nerve! In this blog, I’ll share five tips to help smooth over shared decisions to achieve results you both love. 

Five Tips to Blend Your Interior Design Choices 

Accept the challenge. Let’s face it, most choices don’t really have a right or wrong answer—as much as you know your choice is best. It’s all about what you like, and what you think will look good and function best. However, your partner may have different opinions. Accepting this at the onset of your planning could prevent a lot of arguments. So set the stage with your significant other. Clarify that you will graciously consider his or her opinions (misguided as they may be) so you can arrive at mutually agreeable solutions. After all, your ultimate goal, even if admitted begrudgingly, is not to win but to create a look and feel you both love. 

Designate spaces for each of you. Compromise comes easier with the promise of a space that’s all your own. A space to make any color, any style, and with any décor you want. In our home, my hubby’s office and music room are his domain, which he loves to loudly proclaim! These spaces are off limits to me as far as decoration and design. I have my office and workshop. Both are mine alone, designed just the way I want them. If you don’t have extra rooms to do this, get creative and find spaces just to carve out for individual tastes. It will serve you well, I promise. A lot of couples opt for the man-cave basement or garage as a solution. Uh-uh-uh, to quote Tim Allen. 

Start with agreements. When you begin talking through your options, keep a list of things you both like and agree on. This is a good jumping off point for quick wins that will incentivize you both to address the more challenging options. For instance, you might agree you want a comfortable sofa for movie or game nights. You both want that sofa to fit well in its designated room, one that won’t  show every speck of dirt. Your partner may salivate for a reclining sofa and that’s waaaaay down on your list (sounds like maybe I’ve been here before!) but your compromise could be a great sofa with a nice ottoman. Your partner still gets to sit comfortably and veg and you don’t have to have, what I think, looks like movie theater seats in your living room! So, find the common ground and move forward from there. 

Choose neutral base colors. Disagreement is very likely to involve color choices. Color is  highly personal and it impacts the mood of all who experience it. One way to solve this is to choose the foundation colors from the neutral family. That allows you to add accent colors that won’t feel as overwhelming to the person who’s not necessarily crazy about avocado green or fire engine red. You also get the benefit of changing out your accent colors often and inexpensively when it’s time to switch to a different look. Remember in kindergarten when we learned to take turns? 

Consider patterns and complimentary colors. You love a very soft blue. Your honey thinks it feels too soft or girly. Your compromise might be to find a more masculine or geometric pattern as opposed to a more feminine floral pattern. This will help remove that “soft and girly” feel from certain colors. And don’t forget about complimentary colors to help bring balance to your color choices. For example, if you pair that soft blue with a burnt umber, the color scheme changes dramatically and creates a “compromise color scheme.” 

Final Thoughts

That’s my advice for how to work with a partner when it comes to interior design choices. Does that mean you’ll avoid all arguments? Nope. However, I hope I’ve given you some ideas to help you work together to create an interior that’s designed for two.  

Now, what will you do next to love where you live? 

Please feel free to reach out to us at The Redesign Habit and ask questions or simply share a project that you are working on or have completed. 

For more great stories and ideas please follow us on Facebook and Instagram.