OMG Leafy, you had me ROFLMAO! A house like the "Lighthouse house" would have me running for the door . . . what a nightmare! Rjinga, I feel for you! I think that Red's and Loribee's suggestions of compromise might be the answer for you. When I met DH, we both had our own places and established careers for a number of years. His apartment (he was finishing up his internship at the time) was a very elegant Contemporary style with rosewood and glass and done in cream, brown and navy. Mine, on the other hand, was done in a Cottage style. We married and moved here to New Mexico and we butted heads a lot those first few years trying to furnish our first home together. Being a physician, he's used to giving orders and advising people all day long at work, and could easily do it here as well . . . if I let him. And believe me, he tried hard and often! But, I'm nobody's doormat and with my design background, he eventually learned to compromise ;^D His furniture was in better shape than mine and that's what we initially ended moving here with us, but I quickly started adding my own touches. I hate to admit this, but our old things started to just disappear as they needed to be replaced and my choices, now more Southwestern, replaced them. We did and do still always shop together for big ticket items, like sofas, side chairs and even some art, but nowadays, if we need a new lamp, piece of art, coffee or end table, etc. etc, I just buy it and he (most of the time) accepts my decisions (LOL!). Lynn

I made the move from a Traditional house in Virginia to a more relaxed style in Florida. So, now I thought I would redo everything I had in Virginia, we sold a lot of the furniture and now I have just the few pieces I need to accomplish a more relaxed style. The trade off? The stuff I kept needs refinishing or repurposing or getting something similar but smaller or larger. It will take me a while to reuse my things. If I had it to do over, I would have taken nothing with me, that way I could furnish the downsized house with what really fits here. Harder to take things with you and repurpose than it is to measure and fit what actually goes into the newer home.

I am definitely putting in a zipper, and luckily, all I know how to install is an invisible zipper! I never got the hang of the little flappy thing that covers a zipper, much to my mother's dismay. clt3, I took another look at the pillow with the corner ties (from Mrs. Howard, btw). I think you are right. Rats! It was going to be so much easier to sew a tie into the corner rather than leaving the corner free! I may still just sew it into the corner. I can't get my head around having to have cording at the corners without a flange, but yet it would need a flange to sew into the seam allowance around the rest of the pillow. Way too complex for me!

I was allowed to decorate with posters, and as a kid and young teen hung animal posters on my walls I'd get from Troll Book orders. I always wanted to paint my walls and longed for more color and patterns in my bedroom, but our house (walls, floors, ceilings, doors, etc.) was stained fir paneling. My parents painted the ceilings white and the rest remained natural wood. I remembering begging my mom to let me paint the walls, and as a compromise she let me wall-paper one wall when I was in high school. I chose a tree print sort of like this, only with navy blue and brown trees to tie in with all the brown wood of the walls, floor, and trim. It wouldn't have been my first choice, but it was a compromise and I was happy with it. My bedroom furniture was white-painted stuff my parents got second hand. I knew a "bedroom set" wasn't an option, though I would have loved one at the time. Though I still wouldn't choose the darkness of natural wood walls for a bedroom, I came to love a healthy dose of wood and eclectic furniture. The bed that was in my childhood bedroom is now in my daughter's room, with a wood dresser that used to be in my brother's childhood bedroom. My kids aren't teenagers yet and haven't expressed a lot of interest in decorating their rooms, but it will be interesting to see how their rooms evolve over the years.