Masculine Inspiration

I received an email from my husband this morning entitled "Blog Inspiration" and decided that he deserves a little space on my blog, afterall he puts the M in C&M Designs...

M: "I know a good inspiration - write about Harvard-Yale and the colors associated with H and Y and how people can incorporate their favorite teams in their "man rooms" to make the husbands happy, WITHOUT sacrificing true interior style. Or if you don't want to go that far, just talk about using crimson and white and blues in your color schemes. I LOVE YOU!"

Looks like I have a budding designer on my hands... well, maybe not but he brings up a good point.  That is that there is a balance of designing a house to please all members of a household.  My husband likes to have quite a bit of say when it comes to decorating our home, especially when it comes to what goes up on the walls.  To compromise, I have "given" him our bottom floor, which he affectionately refers to as the man cave.  I still maintain a certain degree of veto power of what gets put up here (afterall, I am a designer), but this is where all of those things that I do not really want displayed anywhere else to go.  It works as a good compromise for both of us.  The man cave, man room, man lair, etc, have become popular lately and I find more and more of my friends and clients have spaces relegated for this very purpose.  I think it is important for everyone in a household to be able to design a space if they want to, so they have a place that they can call their own within the home.  Lesson I have learned: Any house we buy must have a small space for my husband to be able to showcase his interior decoration style/create a man room..preferably in the basement.

I have had several clients who are bachelors and I always enjoy these projects as a departure from my typical interior design projects.  I have walked into some bachelor pads and the entire place is just one big man room.  My goal in these situations is not to hide the personality of the man who lives there but rather to refine the look and make it look more sophisticated.  Clearly, this is why he is hiring me, anyway.  Any things that give off a dorm room feel have to go, but other items can transformed by being framed and hung in a grouping on the wall.  For example old family photos (I'm talking grandparents era, black and whites) can be very cool hung up with a framed old map or other items picked up from travels, etc.  I also think that the  built-in library feel look can be very sophistocated and masculine and Mid-Century Modern pieces work wonderfully with their sleek profiles.

First and foremost when working with a client is making sure we can share a vision that I will then design and execute.  I like to push my clients a bit by showing them ideas, through inspiration photos, that they would not usually think of.  I then show them how we can incorporate some elements into their space to meld with their personality to create their own amazing style and home.

My brother-in-law kicking for the Crimson!

Just to clairify, M mentions Harvard and Yale in his inspiration email because we are heading to watch his brother play for Harvard in what they call "The Game."  (Good luck this weekend, D!)  No doubt, he will soon be adding some Harvard paraphernalia to the man room soon.  I will be sure to post photos... maybe I can take that Crimson felt banner and have it professionally framed and matted to don the man cave walls... ;)

For more info about C&M Designs interior design services, contact colleen@candmdesignsllc.com

C (&M)