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The end to toxic masculinity is in sight — but still, many husbands struggle to assist their partners with meaningful insights in home design. Interior style is not everyone’s forte, but fortunately, there are ways that style-illiterate partners can contribute to creating a beautiful and functional home for the family. Whether you yourself struggle to understand home design or you are partnered to someone who does, here are a few projects that can help everyone feel involved in renovating and redesigning the home.
Budgeting
Though it might not be a glamorous or exciting step in the design process, budgeting is nonetheless essential for any update or renovation a house receives. There are unlimited costs associated with home design; if you aren’t careful about your expenditures, you could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars making changes to a single room. However, not every avid home designer is adept at the financial side of renovation. Before you commit to a project, you might sit down with a partner to clarify financial details of your design ideas. Though they might not have much input about style, they will likely be able to help you develop a budget that keeps your spending in a safe zone.
Installing Smart Home Gadgets
Smart home technology is a rising trend, and many adults are eager to update their homes with the most cutting-edge gadgets designed to make their living spaces more comfortable and more enjoyable. Partners who may not be invested in interior design may love the challenge of finding the best smart tech for the household and installing it properly for maximum effect. However, considering that these gadgets can become central features of several rooms in the house, you may want to be involved in the purchase and placement of smart tech to ensure that they don’t interfere with other elements of your design.
Replacing Ceiling Fans
Ceiling fans are often overlooked appliances, which means they are usually woefully outdated. If your partner is handy around the house, they should find it a simple task to replace your old fans with attractive and energy-efficient new ones. You can find affordable modern ceiling fans from trustworthy brands that fit perfectly with your interior aesthetic. This quick style fix shouldn’t take longer than an afternoon for you and your partner to complete, and it will have a significant effect on the look and feel of your home.
Painting (or Staining) Cabinets
Cabinets are some of the most expensive elements of renovation, so most homeowners will do everything they can to avoid replacing old cabinets with new ones. If your existing cabinets are salvageable — if they have not sustained serious damage and they adhere to a style that works with your design vision — you might contract your partner to paint or stain them. Though it can take some time and diligence to refresh cabinets, the cost savings can be extraordinary, and many style-illiterate partners will appreciate that.
Building a New Headboard
Many beds do not come with headboards, but headboards help to provide a mature, finished look to the bedroom space. Fortunately, it is remarkably easy and generally affordable to build and upholster a headboard at home. Many partners enjoy the opportunity to use power tools like saws and staplers. As long as you acquire the fabric and provide a picture of the finished product, they should be able to finish a sleek, new headboard over the course of a weekend. If the results are attractive, you might have your partner make multiple headboards for every bedroom in the house.
Organizing Household Tools
Organization is essential to maintaining an interior aesthetic. If there are items in your home that do not have a proper place, they will likely float around areas where you don’t want them to be, interfering with the completed look of your rooms. Fortunately, you do not have to be a design genius to achieve better organization. You might assign your partner the task of organizing elements of your home that they most often use, like the tool shed, and if they enjoy the work, they might also participate in organizing the pantry, closets, attic and more.
Your husband is a valuable member of your household — even if he can’t tell the difference between minimalism and midcentury modern. You should work as a team to redesign your home, so both of you feel happy and comfortable in your renovated space.
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This content is brought to you by Richard Clayton
Feature Photo: iStockPhoto