Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » Co-Habitation Design

Greetings! My name is Elka, and I’m very happy to be guest blogging here this week. In my normal life you can find my posts at CasaSugar where I get to write about everything from starting seeds to finding nesting tables. It’s a great gig, and I love unearthing new home and garden finds every day.

This week, I wanted to concentrate my Design*Sponge posts on something that I’ve been ruminating on for many years how to make a home in tandem with another person. I’ve been recently obsessed with this topic because I moved in with my fiancé, Peter, five months ago, and we’ve been choreographing a push-me pull-me dance ever since related to the renovation and décor of our home. Some of the time he agrees with my design sensibility– he even made up a new adjective, ‘Elkan’, to describe it– but other times I find that his objections to a project or particular wall color are not without merit.

In the past five months we’ve done a lot of work on making Peter’s house our house. One of the biggest issues in the push-me pull-me dance has been Peter’s Wall of Sound. When I moved in, the Wall of Sound was a precarious pile of turntables, mixers, CD players, vinyl, and CDs that marched across an entire wall of the living room. Some of these stereo components sat on– I kid you not– plastic foot stools. After much convincing, Peter realized that a more aesthetically pleasing (and functional) solution to the Wall of Sound might be warranted.

We ditched the plastic footstools and bought a midcentury mahogany Danish credenza that had an unfinished backside, and used a hole saw bit to bore large holes in the back. We then threaded all of the cords and wires through the back, and stored a lot of the components inside the credenza. We also broke up the Wall of Sound, separating the CDs and vinyl so the shelving didn’t overwhelm the living room.

You can see some of our house progress in these pictures, including the rearrangement of the Wall of Sound. Our home still is, and most likely always will be, a work in progress. Peter has been an objective sounding board for projects, and a great helping hand when we’ve had to wrest sofas across rooms and roll paint across walls.

This week I will be bringing you interviews with three couples and one sister duo who’ve managed to find interesting, aesthetically pleasing solutions to design problems. These folks all have definite needs for their homes. Some have to run businesses out of them. Some have studio space there. Some regularly host intricately themed parties. All of the people who I will bring you posts about are united by the fact that they are some amalgam of artist, photographer, tinkerer, designer, jeweler, craftsman, woodworker, cook, or seamstress. In most cases they are many if not all of the above. I hope that this week’s look at their shared spaces will inspire you in finding new approaches to design in your homes.

I think this is a wonderful topic to bring up - especially for designers moving in with not-so-design people. I hesitate to move in with my man because we disagree on our items. I keep wondering - are we ever going to agree?! I wish he would just hand over the design rights!

Man, oh man, do I understand the Wall of Sound issues. We’re still wrestling with it, um, three years later, though bit by bit, it’s been reined in. I must admit that I contribute just as much to the ever-growing cd and record collection. I appreciate you covering the design implications of cohabiting.

Great topic! I think it is even harder when 2 designer-types combine households. I often think we’d have an easier time with our house projects if my finace didn’t have an opinion. The final outcome is always great, but there are lots of battles to get there.

Oh wow, the Wall of Sound is something my husband and I have been dealing with for years! When we first moved in together, his records were in wooden crates. Lots and lots of wooden crates (and a few cardboard boxes, too, actually). We moved them onto an Ikea Expedit bookcase (which I think will be outgrown in a few years…ugh…) and all the media components were shifted from ugly Goodwill end tables to a mid-century credenza much like yours (with the record player on top). Next we need to replace the ugly stereo speakers that dominate our living room, and I have no idea where to find something with good sound and good design at a reasonable price…

The problem isn’t the wall of sound, it’s the fact that people think of an audio collection of this type as a problem. A good design wouldn’t be focused on splitting it, concealing it, minimizing its impact etc. This aspect of Peter’s life - if it’s not just collecting dust - should be a focal point of the home.

Instead of encasing it in a Danish credenza, perhaps the design of the space should draw inspiration from this important collection of audio materials… Something modern, something that showcases what appears to be the cohabitator’s intellectual and aesthetic interest.

I think most people also don’t realize that when they have a collection this large it should be organized in a meaningful, useful way. This usually means having its own room–a library if you will.

I imagine that this post, if written by the man concerned, would read like this: “Yeah I used to be able to just grab a record and play it, but now I have to get down all fours and dig around in some fiddly-ass credenza just to get my damn headphones. I need the headphones because apparently listening to music through speakers is not ‘considerate’”.

Something like that.

i have been living with my boyfriend for about three years now. we have managed to compromise on styles that fit both of our personalities as well. we did a similar thing with our credenza and vinyl as well. we showcase our vinyl in our living room and have banished the cd’s to our office in our bedroom.

I agree with Dan’s first paragraph. And are there no other girls with an extensive audio collection? Sometimes I feel as though I’m in the minority as a female who proudly displays my music and equipment. Having it all out on display can lead to many fun, impromptu listening sessions! Think of it as a cherished collection any of us would have. You display it, not hide it, right? More important is the quality and placement of the speakers. If you can’t hear the music appropriately, there’s little point in having the collection. If you’re serious about your audio, you just have to design around it. Function before form, in this case!

Thanks for your comments everyone! I should have mentioned that I am as much of a problem in this situation as Peter is–I contributed at least 1/3 of the vinyl when I moved in (and that was after we culled for overlapping records). We would love to have a separate room to display our music collection, but our house is 900 square feet, and that’s just not a possibility. If you could see our living room, where the records and CDs are prominently displayed (and out in the open) you’d see that–again, due to the small size of our home–even though the Wall of Sound is broken up, it’s in reality only about 10 feet away from the other half of itself. I’ll let Peter chime in on whether or not he thinks this solution is better or worse than his prior arrangement :)

I think you and Peter have done a wonderful job of merging tastes and personal belongings! The wall of sound issue was one my ex and I had as we BOTH loved music. We were together for 11 years and so we had a lot of stuff, especially considering our divergent tastes. I think it’s a good idea to pick and choose what goes on display, perhaps a few ledges where three vinyl or CD album covers can be out on display (like artwork!) at any given time is a great idea. Also, during parties, it will save you from answering, “I love this music! What are you playing?” Just point to the wall and you’re set! :) Having space for only three also encourages *everyone* to put stuff back where it belongs, hopefully. I seriously HATED when my ex would leave CDs out in stacks, and especially when they got scratched or put back into the wrong cases, but I digress.

Also, have you considered a set of awesome leather ottomans with lids that flip up to hold records? I was just at my friend’s house last night and that is how he keeps his vinyl organized.

Every guy DOES have a wall of sound — or at least some collection of music to be hidden. Since I’ve moved in with the B.F., we’ve had to consolidate his “manly” possessions. We threw out the entertainment stand stocked with a sound system, CDs and a play station 2. We added a nice contemporary piece from World Market that we agreed on. The sound system is in the closet and the CDs transferred to rack that’s in the corner in the dining room. Just throw the CD cases out. They are all empty.

Luckily for us, we really aren’t combining past pieces and are buying all new stuff, which is a whole new task in itself.

As the chief architect of the discredited Wall of Sound, I must say that Elka has been most sympathetic and sensitive to keeping it more or less intact, but moving around and “stealthing” its constituent parts to reduce massing issues. I do miss having the CD’s literally “at hand,” but cohabitation involves compromises,. The credenza, even I must admit, is a lovely piece and an improvement on the plastic footstool.

“Wall of Sound” is EXACTLY how I refer to the record collection in our house. While it is something amazing and wonderful to behold, it does require wrangling, for aesthetics AND logistical purposes. We’re currently exploring our options for vinyl storage (the ubiquitous Expedit might be the way to go) as our collection has expanded exponentially since my hubs took a job at a music distributor. Heh.

Commenter Dan is correct; a collection of this size is an important feature of the home, and I think Elka and Peter have done a fantastic job of integrating it into their daily life - From the photos, this doesn’t look minimized (or worse, trivialized!) at all…simply more effectively organized.

That being said, the nerdy collector in me is very, very concerned about the proximity of the vinyl to that large (gorgeous!) window…sunlight will cause fading and deterioration in an astonishingly short period of time. Most likely you’ve already considered this and have a lovely window shade of some kind… ;)

This is a fascinating topic. Thanks for taking it on. I’m moving in with my fiancé at some point this year and to be honest, I’m scared. I really look forward to reading your posts this week (and maybe forwarding them to my fiancé). I think you and Peter should be admired for your willingness to compromise and your teamwork in coming up with solutions that work for both of you. You’re a marriage counselor’s worst nightmare :).

Your dog looks happy, too.

Caroline

I am looking forward to reading more of these posts this week. I bought a home with my boyfriend almost two years ago, and some of our most knock-down-drag-out fights have been over design choices in our home. Why, i have no idea–he’s not a designer and i bleed it, yet he doesn’t want me to have the final say… ugh. He kills me,
I cant wait to hear about how others have dealt with it…

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