Finding your "Couple Style"

Let's begin by saying that Grayson and I had no idea we would be homeowners so early in life. We thought we would get married, rent an apartment for several years, then eventually get ourselves a nice little "starter home." Well the married part is happening, and the town-home is happening (tomorrow), it's just all at the same time. Once it finally sunk in that we were about to be homeowners we realized we had to figure out how in the world we were going to combine our two very different styles.

The first thing we did was assume we knew what the other one liked (which was wrong!) and realized we needed to find some inspiration/things we liked. And that is exactly what we did. We got magazines, looked on websites, and lucky for us I (Maggie) have a friend who is an interior designer and we were able to look at some very glamorous fabrics too (our favorite mag's and websites are listed below this entry, if your interested).

The best thing to do as you find your inspiration pieces online is to put them in a folder on your desktop and after a few weeks of searching you will have lots of inspiration pieces. After you have exhausted your search online, begin printing them out. As you find rooms or pieces in magazines RIP EM' OUT! (this is my favorite part!)

Once you have a good sized folder of inspiration pictures, go through them together and with a sharpie write out what you liked about each picture. You will begin to find similarities in all your pictures and eventually you will be able to identify your style, find color pallets you like, and even identify furniture pieces you both agree on.

Not only did we go through the ol' magazine and internet routine as I suggested above, but we also walked around home decor stores and pointed out things we both liked. We eventually realized our style was somewhat Modern meets Beach Cottage (aka, Pottery Barn meets IKEA). Some of our inspirational pieces are in the picture to the left...

This was an exciting time for us because as I mentioned earlier, we both just assumed we knew the other one's style. I can admit that I was the one who did most of the assuming and thought Grayson would be the typical male and only like dark, dreary color pallets. Boy was I wrong! (see Grayson, I can admit when I'm wrong, it just doesn't happen much, ha)

We promise, finding your couple style can be done, don't become dramatic and feel like you two will never agree on anything. Just follow our advice: 1- find inspiration 2- review your findings together 3- walk around home decor stores, and most of all - DO IT TOGETHER! Think about it, would you want to live in a house where someone else picked it all out, would it feel like home to you? Sure, you will have disagreements, but just remember to keep it fun, be able to compromise, and stay reasonable (aka - ladies, no pink and gents, no lazy-boys).

Our (constantly changing) Favorite Magazines/Websites:
Ikea
Pottery Barn
Better Homes and Gardens
My Home Ideas (combines lots of magazines into one site, our favorites are Coastal Living, Real Simple, Southern Accents, Southern Living)
Various Blogs, our favorite one is Young House Love
HGTV (we obsessively watch "HG", as it is called in our family, and there will surely be some posts about our fav's in the near future!)

Thanks for joining us on our crazy ride...

-Maggie (& Grayson)