Decorating Your Home With Your New Partner: 6 Faux Pas to Avoid

Starting your life as a newlywed is much more fun when you live in a house that feels like an expression of you and your partner.

Check out a few faux pas to avoid when decorating your home with your new partner to have a fun, easy start to your marriage.

1. Keeping Things You Don’t Use

Decorating your home is much easier when you don’t have to sort through clutter. Start your experience by working with your partner on donating or throwing out any decorations you don’t use.

Seasonal objects from years past or picture frames collecting dust won’t add joy to your home. Talk about what you’ve grown out of to fill your newlywed home with decorations you adore.

2. Leaning More Into One Style

You might love Scandanavian styles that blend natural materials with fabrics like linens or leather. That decorating style will clash with your partner’s if they prefer industrial accents and exposed brick walls.

Talk about merging your decor preferences to avoid leaning into just one. You’ll feel more at home if the space expresses your personalities equally.

3. Leaving Your Hobbies Out

Sometimes newlyweds can’t figure out how to marry their decorating styles so they pick one that feels neutral. It might look great to snap pictures of a magazine-ready household, but it won’t feel like your home if it doesn’t include some expression of your interests.

Start decorating your home with your new partner by centralizing your hobbies. You could dedicate a room to your favorite games by matching colors to your theme, like dark shades and jewel tones for a pool room. Whatever works in your game room could inspire you to decorate the remainder of your home.

4. Accidentally Not Communicating

When one partner takes the lead on a decorating project, the other might feel pressured to let them make most of the decisions. It prevents both people from communicating about what they prefer or don’t want for their living space.

You might fill your home with plush textures to create a cozy vibe, but it’s not what your partner would have chosen. They start an argument because they feel stuck in a home that doesn’t feel like theirs. In reality, you only wanted the cozy decorating theme for the winter. It wasn’t supposed to be long-term, but a lack of communication before decorating prevented that initial conversation.

Sit with your partner to discuss their decoration ideas. Even if they only care about paint colors or throw pillows, your experience will be more fun because everyone has a voice. It can also make things easier because conversations lead to brainstorming.

5. Not Splitting the Budget

It’s easy to imagine a single shopping trip resulting in everything you need to decorate your home. Unfortunately, couples often find decorating more costly than they initially thought.

The average newlywed couple spends 10%–50% of their home’s purchase price on furnishing after moving in. That means your budget could require thousands of dollars for furniture, curtains, bedding, towels and more.

Don’t start shopping for decorations out of excitement and get stuck with most of the financial responsibility. Set a budget with your partner that splits the costs equally. You’ll claim ownership of your home more personally and avoid resentment from overspending.

6. Decorating Without a Schedule

Time is another factor in any decorating experience. Couples working with a professional interior designer wait between 14–31 weeks for the work to complete. Your experience might take longer if you need to save between purchases and wait for delayed shipments.

Set a rough decorating schedule with your partner. You’ll understand how long you’ll work on your project so no one gets frustrated. You could even schedule when to switch jobs, like painting or putting furniture together. One person won’t do all the work, which prevents another source of frustration for newly married couples.

Enjoy Decorating Your Home With Your Partner

Your wedding was an incredible experience, but more fun awaits in your shared living space. Once you start decorating your home with your new partner, use these tips to have a blast, formulate a plan and decorate like professionals. The team effort will result in sweet memories and the perfect home for both of your personalities.