masculine + feminine: a thoughtful place

Using a neutral base with just enough color, Courtney of the wonderful blog A Thoughtful Place has created a beautiful home for herself, her husband, and her children to enjoy. She does a great job balancing masculine and feminine to create a traditional look with a little of both genders mixed in.  And she's been kind enough to share some of her ideas with us today!

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Hi. I'm Courtney from A Thoughtful Place and I am so honored to be a part of this series here at Roost. Marissa is such a sweet girl and I enjoy her blog so much. I am excited to dish about how we make our house a home for both of us!

Let me start of by saying that we are extremely fortunate in that we share many of the same design sensibilities. My hubby and I both prefer a traditional look with current trends as accents. We are both attracted to mill work and appreciate a more sophisticated and simple look. Having said that, I definitely keep him in mind when designing a space. For example, in the master bedroom, my side of the bed hosts a more glamorous mirrored side table, while he has a more masculine dark stained wood piece. I know he wouldn't be down with waking up to a mirrored feminine nightstand.

I also incorporated a photo that he took over our bed. This was originally a large French print with a horrible maroon mat and bronzed frame. I tore all of that out, sprayed the frame silver, and cut my own mat board to fit the photo. My husband loves music and playing  the guitar and this was a particularly special image he composed back when we were dating. So not only does it mean a great deal to us, but it's nice to have his work above the bed.

In the downstairs bathroom, we used a gallery wall of photos taken by my husband on our various trips. Again, it's great to use his work and it is  a nice way to remember all of our travels. So it might be nice to keep in mind your man's interests when choosing artwork. It's an easy way to capture things that both of you enjoy. When framed and matted well, photography always looks great.

 In our living room, I was careful in choosing some shiny, glamorous pieces but mixed them with some darker accents. The subway art is rather masculine and is a tribute to the streets that we both grew up on.

Resting on top of the dresser is a collection of our books. Many of the books I have nestled in different spots are old books of my husband's or books he collects. As avid readers, it's a great way to infuse both of our styles and to keep us surrounded by things we love.

When we redesigned our kitchen, I definitely had the vision and made most of the choices. He just held his breath and had confidence that it would all come together {what a guy!}. I devoted a whole corner of the kitchen {and it's not huge} to my hubby. I have never had an espresso in my life {oh, maybe once on our trip to Paris}, but know that he LOVES it. So this shiny "space taker-upper" is all him! So he gets one corner and I get another with my old school coffee maker. Two happy people.

All in all, we tend to gravitate towards the same style. I am positive there would be much more pink in this house if it weren't for the hubby! So instead I stick to pops of pink with flowers. While not technically a spot all to himself, we do use the garage as a hang out when people are over and it's time to relax and just chill. With darts, ping pong, and a TV, the unofficial "man cave" is a great spot for the entire family and it reminds my husband of growing up back East. It was all his idea and I have never regretted it! Because of him, we have a spot everyone likes!

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Great job collaborating with your husband Courtney, thank you for sharing!

For more, visit A Thoughtful Place.