Interior design and redecorating of any kind is a guaranteed way to test any relationship. Even couples that get on brilliantly most of the time can come to blows when choosing furniture, soft furnishings or shades of paint. This is exactly what happened when my boyfriend and I set out one Saturday morning to look for a glass topped coffee table.
We are both strong characters with distinctive views and tastes, which fortunately complement each other most of the time. We both work in high profile decision making roles, and are used to getting out own way, and somehow we clashed over the most innocent of objects, a simple coffee table.
We must have visited nearly fifteen furniture stores, each of which had a great selection of coffee tables, and yes many of them had glass tops. I like to think of myself as modern in my interior design tastes, preferring the minimalist approach, clean sleek lines and practical designs. I like bright stainless steel and stylish vinyl.
My boyfriends ideas are, let us say, more traditional. I blame his upbringing in a house full of Victorian chintz. The tables he wanted to look at seemed to me quaint and dated, and I was glad we didn't spot any with lions feet as they would have been at the top of the wish list. He favored dark wood tables with too much detail and strange gold patterns. My choices were described by him, on the other hand, as boring, cold and characterless.
Of course, we ended up compromising on a table that neither of us particularly liked but at the same time neither found really offensive. This is how our entire house has ended up with mediocre furniture that is neither one style nor another and really does not give any clues as to the personality of the inhabitants.
The next excitement will be choosing a coffee maker to go with our coffee table. While I like those new stainless steel thermal machines that do everything for you except for brushing your teeth, my boyfriend will no doubt be eyeing up antique style coffee pots that burn the coffee but just have so much character. Perhaps in this instance we can shop separately and buy two, just to avoid the inevitable conflict.
Picking out a glass coffee table for keeping the coffee maker, with my wife was probably the worst experience I can ever think of. Undoubtedly troublesome, it created a state of affliction after all. Both of us are extremely pragmatic, have strong tastes and used to respect our own choices and preferences. This does however not affect our private lives at all, as we are both sensible enough to allow some spaces into the relationship. Nevertheless, when it comes to refurbish or refurnish the house, such as altering the layout of the living room, or changing the shades of the walls, or buying some sort of machines, everything suddenly breaks off in a frenzied way. When we planned to purchase a new glass top coffee table, we felt exactly the same.
After visiting a dozen stores of glass coffee tables, we could not agree even on a single choice. However, my sense of pride has allowed me to consider myself as the true connoisseur. My idea of a perfect glass coffee table will be simple, economical lines, with an elegant and functional design and a size that will exactly suit to the center of our living room to enhance its glory. But my wife on the contrary, with her aesthetic sense of imagination, wants an extravagant rococo - somewhat in the baroque style. What I rejected as outmoded, vulgar and inefficient; her eyes happily accepted exactly the same. She thought her dream coffee table would be made of glass and have lions feet with the corners having bejeweled coffee mug holders. It seemed like she was living in the court of Louis XIV and picking out the glass coffee tables for the royal house; for then her taste would have definitely been hugely appreciated and lavishly complemented. But whatever, I was totally against the idea of giving my wishes up to let her have all the right to pick the glass table as per her wish.
Ultimately we ended in a fight between us before the actual decision was taken. Our fights are however, not a simple brawl that last for a while, rather it's a saga. Moreover, the memories of the last one make me shudder enough to let it come between us and flare up the tension once more. Eventually I yielded somewhat to my wife's questionable taste, and consequently found a glass coffee table that went reasonably well with our tastes, albeit none of us preferred it to a great extent.
Jack Blacksmith has sinced written about articles on various topics from Coffee Advantages, Travel and Leisure and Debt Reduction Consolidation. Jack Blacksmith is publishing most often for http://www.coffee-espresso-maker-tips.com , an online site with information about cappuccino . His. Jack Blacksmith's top article generates over 246000 views. to your Favourites.