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(This is a guest posting by Alice Robertson.  Alice began her career in the home organization industry as a professional house cleaner. After cleaning and organizing her clients’ homes for years, she decided to open her own home organization business. Over the years, she has built an impressive client list, helping to make spaces in homes and businesses more functional. She recently created Tidy Home as a place to share the great cleaning and organizing advice she has developed over the years.)

While moving in with a significant other is an exciting time in a relationship, you’re likely to encounter some challenges along the way—especially as you adjust to sharing a space and getting used to one another’s habits. However, one alarming study says that home decor prompts approximately 72 arguments between couples each year! From agreeing on a style and price range to shopping together for a new piece of furniture, decorating your space may be the biggest challenge that you and your partner will face as you settle into your shared home.

To keep the peace as you and your partner begin to decorate your new space, it’s important to establish several ground rules. When creating these ground rules, remember to set a budget, choose a color palette to work with, and decide which styles, colors, and furniture pieces are off-limits. These rules will help you and your partner to create a space that you’ll both adore.

For some creative tips that will help you and your significant other to decorate a new space in a way that you’ll both love, read on!

Mix Your Favorite Materials, Accents and Color Schemes

When decorating a new space with your live-in love, it’s important to create a blend of one another’s styles—whether it be contemporary, rustic, modern, or feminine. This strategy will balance your space and help you and your partner to feel more content in your shared home. To make this possible, design experts recommend:

• Filling your space with a variety of materials, textiles, patterns, shapes, finishes, and textures.
• Using decorative accents like plants, candles, picture frames and throw pillows to incorporate your favorite color schemes.
• Displaying a bookshelf or cabinet that holds your partner’s favorite accessories, books, and decorative accents—even the ones you aren’t crazy about.

While your partner may own a certain furniture piece, painting, or decorative accent that you can’t stand, the item may grow on you if you keep it around for awhile. According to the experts at HGTV, you shouldn’t knock it until you try it! Plus, you may find a creative way of incorporating the undesirable item into your shared space.

Instead of throwing these unwanted items out as soon as you move into your new space, try moving them around from room to room to find ways of blending them in with some of your favorite pieces. If you don’t feel like moving bulkier furniture pieces around your new home, however, many home decorating apps are available to simplify this process.

Shop Together to Find Items You’ll Both Love

Even if just one of you will be shopping for your new home decor, you and your partner will create a lifelong memory if you do at least some of the shopping together. If you dread the thought of navigating a massive department store with your partner, however, lifestyle retail stores like Crate & Barrel may be better options for you and your love.

Also known as specialty retailers, these lifestyle retail stores sell a wide selection of rugs, vases, curtains, light fixtures, sofas, chairs, and other decorative pieces fit for any home. Crate & Barrel, for instance, sells quality home decor in a wide variety of styles and color schemes—helping you and your partner to meet somewhere in the middle as you design your new space. While shopping at Crate & Barrel can be costly, you can usually find Crate and Barrel coupons and promo codes to help you save on your purchases.

As you and your live-in love begin to decorate your new home together, you’ll likely encounter some obstacles along the way. However, these simple tips will help you and your partner to keep your arguments to a minimum and focus on the things that really matter—like the reasons you chose to move in together in the first place.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]