Dear Alice | How to Style When You Have Conflicting Tastes

This week’s episode is all about how to make your home cohesive when you have different tastes! Whether you’re building a home or putting on the finishing styling touches, it’s hard to navigate how to design your home when you have a spouse with different tastes. This week’s episode can be found on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or Google Podcast.

We can design with any beloved and conflicting styles by creating a North Star for all of our clients- they’re collected images (a lot of the time from Pinterest) that express what your vision is and keep you on a clear path of your style of home. It’s so important because most people can’t communicate what they’re drawn to or don’t understand exactly what a design term actually means. Of course, everyone that’s going to live in your home needs to be reflected in the North Star. You can do it virtually, physically with papers, or on Pinterest boards- you just need to see what you like and don’t like. Go on dates with your spouse and pick out your favorite paint colors, finishes and pieces- it makes for a really fun date night! Don’t assume your spouse doesn’t care about your home- ask their opinion and try to find common ground.

You should never hate anything in your home- you might not like it but as long as you can compromise, you’ll have a happy home. Passion is infectious, especially in your spouse so ask them and yourself why they love or hate something in a space so you’ll understand the why. Mix mastering is realizing that new styles are often a reaction to a different style and as long as you know the specifics of what draws you and your spouse, you both can find pieces of certain styles of design to incorporate into your home in order to compromise.

Consider who is using which rooms; if your spouse is going to primarily use the office, let them design the office. If your family loves to cook together, involve your family in the process. Prioritize your spaces- the others might not be the hill for you to die on. Pay attention to the little things- the details might be really important to them and make them feel wildly involved. No couples come to us with the same taste so be ready to make some adjustments. Generally speaking, men typically like simple and contemporary designs, women want cozy and lived in; a builder told us recently that older folks want contemporary homes and young folks want traditional homes so of course there’s lots of life experience that come into play when picking and designing your home.

Pay attention to the way you and your spouse react to pieces or the visuals when designing your home- that’ll tell you all you need to know. Any questions or podcast ideas? Email us at dearalice@alicelanehome.com