The paint that stands between us

The REAL reason marriages end in divorce: Decorating. It’s true, I promise! Your relationship can survive a challenging economic environment, overly involved in-laws, and the occasional screaming match. But if the two of you can’t agree on the color of that new sofa sectional it’s all over! Alright, I’ll calm down; it’s not really THAT dramatic. But I’ve recently found out that decorating your newly acquired love nest can result in some serious “discussions”, some hurt feelings, and even the need to set down the paint chips and walk away for a while; a cooling off period if you will.

Really? All this over decorating? Yep. Now, maybe you’re someone whose significant other doesn’t care what color you paint the kitchen or if you decide to hang life-sized replicas of Egyptians mummies from your ceiling. But my hubby, my handsome, incredibly smart husband cares. He has an opinion; one that he actually shares with me on a regular basis. The nerve!

I actually went into marriage convinced that this is how a discussion on decorating might go in our home:

(Decorator Extraordinaire: That’s Me!):

“Honey, look at the great paint colors I picked up at our local do-it-yourself home center. Aren’t they beautiful? I’m thinking of this brown for the living room, this deep orange for the dining room and maybe a red or another brown for the kitchen.”

(Involved Husband: That’s my Man!):

“Uh-huh. Ummmmm…yeah. I was just thinking that maybe that brown is going to be too dark for the living room, the orange will clash with the woodwork in the dining room and the cabinets in the kitchen will blend right into that other brown you picked out. What about these colors over here that I’ve picked out? Don’t you think these are better?”

The room begins to spin, a hand flies to my forehead in a grand gesture and I look about for a fainting couch to drop onto! I’m astounded that my husband doesn’t think I’m a decorating genius and that EVERY idea I have should be praised for it’s excellent qualities and agreed to immediately. What has the world come to??

Reality? The question “Aren’t they beautiful?” wasn’t really a question at all. It was the opportunity for my husband to agree whole-heartedly to the decision I’d already made regarding our home’s colors. I wasn’t really asking for his opinion. I was asking for his approval on what I’d already decided to do. And even more than that; I was looking for affirmation for my ability to make our home look beautiful. But he didn’t know that. How could he? He is a man. He was simply replying (honestly, might I add!) to the question I’d asked. Those men and their reasonable minds! How do they put up with our irrational thought processes? I must say, most of the time my husband does it with great patience, and for that I’m thankful.

So, we're not getting divorced and we're still sleeping in the same bed. Oh, and we have agreed upon the colors in our living room (deep blue), dining room (deep green) and bathroom (muted orange). It's the kitchen that's still up for grabs! Care to weigh in? The Behr paint site was taking FOREVER to load, so I'll try to get some pics of colors up here soon. But for now, know this:

Rusty's choice for the kitchen: A brick red color

Katie's choice for the kitchen: A mustard yellow (or gold) color

Keep in mind that our kitchen cabinets are a honey oak color, our counter tops are a muted beige, our appliances are all white and we have hardwood floors. Oh, and because of the floor plan of our home, you can see the kitchen and the dining room from the living room (and vice versa), so all the colors have to coordinate. That should get you up to speed on what we're dealing with. I'll try to post some pictures soon!