How To Decorate Without Arguing All Day
Decorating together doesn’t have to be a Napoleonic battlefield filled with musket smoke and the odd flying cannonball. It can be a rich and rewarding experience if you both do a little preparation and follow a few simple rules. We’ve cobbled together some of the key guidelines that help couples to decorate and live to tell the tale. You’ll find similar guidelines on many good decorating web sites – and even though every job is unique – there are some common threads that can really make a difference.
Scope & Budget
Choose a quiet time to have a chat about the project. It’s important to establish the scale of the job, identify the rooms that need attention and the amount of money you can spend. It’s also a good idea to establish a rough timeframe for the job, to ensure you keep things moving along.
Collect Ideas: This can be great fun if you both agree to keep an open mind upfront. There are no rules at this stage, the discipline comes later! Grab a scrapbook and start collecting ideas from all over the place. You can paste in your favourite images from magazines, web sites and places you have visited. Look at every aspect of the décor including wall coverings, furniture and accessories.
Compare & Discard
Time to find some common ground. This is all about using simple bargaining skills to avoid arguments. Let’s face it, you won’t agree with your partner on everything. There’ll be some items you love, some you tolerate and some you just can’t live with at all. One way to slice and dice this little chestnut is to both list the five things you love and the five things you hate. Compare your lists and agree that items on the love list are IN, items on the hate list are OUT. What if you love something that your partner hates? Shift it to MAYBE, because you may need to re-evaluate later.
Style & Colours
Well it all sounds very easy so far, but now you have to get tough. It’s time to narrow down the field by nailing the exact style and colour scheme you want to use. If you don’t tackle this issue now, you could end up with a mish-mash of design elements that make your place look like a jumble sale at the loony bin. You’ll be able to see emerging trends in the items you’ve picked, so take the time to build a little snapshot of the finished product. If something doesn’t suit the prevailing style or colour palette, swap it for another item you might have been lukewarm about originally. Trust us, it’s about the overall effect on the eye – whether you’re chasing shabby chic, timeless elegance, retro mania or modern industrial design. Give and take, replace anything that just doesn’t work. Get a third opinion from a trusted friend or relative if necessary, but just do it!
Defusing A Bomb
If the discussion starts to get a bit heated, call TIME OUT. It’s hard sometimes, but you have to acknowledge that you will have different tastes on certain aspects of the job. Talk about the ‘time out’ option before you start and you should be fine. If you’re feeling particularly hippie about the experience, you can even throw in a hug or just shake hands before you retire for a cup of tea or walk in the park.
Shop Around
There are tens of thousands of palatable ideas when it comes to decorating, the possibilities are daunting even within a single design genre. Make time to shop around for the right pieces at the right price. You are bound to find a surprise or two lurking in the dimly lit corner of some retail outlet, so be prepared to include these latecomers in the plan. Oh and don’t forget the walls! That’s where we come in with a fantastic range and expert advice. Give us a call today on (03) 9335 6711 or get exploring now!
