lruthg's Profile

Call me crazy, but unless your boyfriend is a 10-year-old boy, he probably knows he's ruining his appetite for your home cooked dinners. I don't think snack ideas are the answer. Maybe time for a hard conversation.

I'm not a morning person but I like to wake up early. I need a good hour of varied stages of idleness to fully come alive. I'll make coffee, read, or sometimes make coffee and then exercise. But if there's no time for reading in the morning at all, I always feel cranky and not quite ready for the day. I'll happily leave the house with dirty hair, but never without reading.

I love all this color! I like the Scandinavian all-white aesthetic as much as the next person, but this speaks to me on a personal level. This is the kind of house you would feel at home in when you went to visit.

I love the look of dark teal with that color red. They're complementary without being too Christmas-looking. And then I might add in something with texture, rather than pattern, to go with the teal, like one of these:

http://www.westelm.com/products/mongolian-lamb-pillow-cover-r643/?pkey=cpillows&cm_src=pillows||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_--_-

Play music that's good but sort of non-specific - either instrumental, like Django Reinhardt, or in another language, like Edith Piaf or other old French torch music. It'll set a festive mood but won't be too distracting in terms of conversation or genre allegiances.

I would say we live in a benevolent dictatorship.

No, just kidding. Mostly, my husband claims not to care. But I get his approval on all major decisions because we're paying for our new furniture and decor jointly.

When we reach an impasse, I try to measure how meaningful the decision is to each person. Sometimes you get stuck in arguments about something and then realize you don't really care what shape the coffee table that goes in the office is. But to the other person, that might be something that they find more meaningful.

If you plotted it on an X-Y axis, X would be Strength of Your Opinion and Y would be How Much You Actually Care. So for instance, I might have a strong opinion about the use of the color red, but then realize that if it's for a room I won't spend a lot of time in, or my husband has a really good reason for wanting it there, that maybe my opinion shouldn't be weighed as heavily, or vice versa.

In the end, I think there are a multitude of paths to achieve an aesthetic that creates the mood you're going for. If one partner vetoes an option, move on to the next. Or leave it in the hands of the person who has a stronger, more concise vision.

I think dark can equal glamorous just as easily as dark can equal masculine. I'm thinking film noir and women with blood red nails and curls of smoke and pops of shine. Dark is sexy and moody and cozy. If it were me, I'd throw in a lot of soft textures - a snuggly throw blanket, maybe a slightly fuzzy pillow or two, a plush rug - to balance out the stark colors. Ikea has some great mirrored sconces that hold candles, to continue that dark sexiness. And maybe add some pops of jewel tones - deep teal, aubergine, ruby red, dark gold - to bring a little more color to the room.