I was reading my newest edition of House and Home during breakfast (aka quality time with my husband) and mentioned to Doug that the editor was editorializing a discussion she was having with her husband that a lot of women have with theirs. At which point, totally unprompted, Doug chanted "men should leave all decorating decisions to women".
But I said, no not that - the other major discussion:
To paint or not to paint WOOD (all in caps because it's up there with GOD).
The editor was talking about her kitchen cabinets - they were cherry and she wanted to paint them a charcoal colour and add sleek metal pulls. I was all, absolutely! I would love to have that in my kitchen. But of course her husband didn't want to paint wood. I ran into that with so many clients where we wanted to repurpose furniture or cabinetry and for the most part any mention of paint caused anaphylactic shock in men.
(We once had a cabin that was made all of wood - the floors, the walls, the cabinets, the ceilings - everything was wood. I wanted to paint the walls to brighten it up and Doug just laughed and laughed, saying "You don't paint WOOD".)
So I asked him "What's the deal with you guys and wood?"
And this is what he, in all seriousness, said:
"Men have a closer relationship with wood than women do. We work with it and women don't." And then he left the room.
I'm all "What? You're What?? OK Mr. Computer Programmer/woodworker guy, I failed to notice the amount of whittling, carving and sanding that was required everytime you wrote some code".
And he pointed out to me that he had built the room downstairs (and yes, I do remember those gorgeous 2x4's) and had made a coffee table and I will concede that. And I promise never to paint the coffee table that he made. But really, this relationship with wood is just weird.
At the end of the magazine they have a regular column called "Ask a Designer". And the questions was about how to decorate a master bedroom. Cameron McNeil, the designer guy, said about the furniture that was in the room:
"Your wood furniture is nice, but all of it together seems a bit heavy. To vary the look, paint your bedside tables in Bone White".
Now there's a man worth marrying.
3 comments:
NEVER PAINT WOOD without a coat of good primer first, then paint the crap out of it.
AAAH, a girl after my own heart...
This post made me laugh. Twenty years ago my husband and I bought the house we still live in. The only part of the house we really loved was the large living room with knotty cedar walls. We both loved the room in its unpainted glory. My mom's first reaction was, "You could paint these walls, you know." A few weeks ago she asked, "Do you ever think about painting that room?" No. We do not!
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