Any color but green
It’s all about communication. When I left for work, the wallpaper my wife had recently put up in our family room was imprinted with green vines and flowers on a cream-colored background. I liked it. I thought it gave a certain elegance to the room.
But when I returned home from work that day, the wallpaper had morphed into green and white checks with a country-style border across the top.
What happened?
We have been debating for the past couple of years what to do with our downstairs family room. Up until a few weeks ago, it was pretty much just a very large closet, repository of things we don’t use anymore. It also contained some of the ugliest carpeting we have ever seen.
That rankled my lovely wife. The fact that we have lived in our city home for a half-dozen years without correcting the deficiency kept digging at her like a nail through the sole of a shoe.
So, she has been on a crusade in recent months to find the right carpet, wallpaper, etc., to turn the room into livable space.
I helped a little, tagging along to stores to look at floor materials. The only prohibition I placed was that it must not be green. It’s not that I don’t like the color. I just like many others better.
After a few trips with her to stores to look at carpet, vinyl flooring, wallpaper, etc., I was ready to call it quits. I don’t do well when it comes to shopping for home d?cor products. I told my wife to go ahead, I’d trust her judgment with anything she wanted. Typical male reaction and cop-out, right?
Well, she did very well. She selected new carpet and matching vinyl flooring. The color? Green. I know. I said I didn’t want green. But it looks nice, and I didn’t come up with anything better.
Her next plan was to wallpaper one wall. She had two different papers, one for the top part of the wall and another for the bottom, which a chair rail would separate.
“Well, what do you think?’ she said after putting up the cream, flowered paper.
“It looks nice,’ I said. “But I don’t like the paper on the bottom of the wall.’
Well, she didn’t either. “We can put that bead-board paneling and a chair rail on it,’ she said. Of course that meant work for me. I have already documented how well that part of the project went (the wall was not square, I made the wrong cuts, etc.).
But in the end, I thought the wall looked splendid. Instead of gushingly oooing and awing over it, I didn’t say anything. Probably because my over-stuffed, out-of-shape body ached after putting up the paneling and chair rail.
That was a mistake.
A few days later, my wife said, “Take a look downstairs.’
The wallpaper had turned into green and white checks with what I thought (and still do) was a rather heavy and too-busy border across the top.
“What did you do?’ I said.
“I thought you didn’t like the other paper,’ she replied.
“I liked it. I thought it looked nice,’ I said.
“Well, you didn’t say anything about it. I thought because you didn’t say anything, you didn’t like it.’
“I never said I didn’t like it,’ I argued. But what was done was done.
I suspected a little subterfuge because she later admitted she really didn’t care for the first wallpaper. “I was going more for a cottage look,’ she said.
Well, cottage or not, I learned that from now on if I really like something, I’d better speak up – a lot.
Does the room look nice? Yes, expect for the border at the top of the wall. And believe me, I will make sure my wife knows I don’t like it.
I learned my lesson.
And I think it’s something like put up or shut up.
Have a good day.
James Pletcher Jr. is business editor at the Herald-Standard. He can be reached at 724-439-7571 or by e-mail at jpletcher@heraldstandard.com.