Recently, my dear, sweet husband has taken a liking to one of my chairs. Oh this isn’t just any chair. It’s one twin in a set of zebra print chairs. 
Nearly three years ago (PRE-marriage), I searched high and low for these chairs. I knew what I wanted and scraped the barrel until I found them. Oh I remember the day I brought my twin babies home. Like a proud mama, I sat in the living room and just admired their beauty – the curved back, lady-like arms and funky zebra personality. They are girly, and you know I love girly!
*Sigh*
Well, it seems the Mr. has tired of sitting on the sofa all the time. Apparently his buttocks needed a change of scenery as he watched television, so he’s been taking up residence in a chair. One evening, he informed me of the need to tighten one of the legs on one of my beloved chairs.
Insert HUGE GASP here.
O.M.G. Girls, I was HOT! “My baby,” I thought.
I whined that my poor, delicate, girly chairs were NOT crafted to support his handsome, towering, SOLID stature on a regular basis. They just weren’t. To be honest I never envisioned anyone sitting in them on a regular basis. Seating for an occasional guest, sure, but certainly nothing more than that… To me they were part of the décor and wonderful to simply look at and admire.
That night, I went to bed pouting, but only after emailing him the draft of my last post – Functional Versus Pretty. 🙂 You see he has read each post I’ve written since I wrote and posted this one on January 6, 2011 – the day after we initially began communicating with each other. (I promise to share that story in a later post.) Suffice it to say, I appreciate his feedback and, of course, I want his eyes to be the first to read anything I share publicly about him or us.
The following morning I checked my email to find a message from my husband that simply stated:
“Nice… The chairs are pretty! LOL”
As I read the words, I couldn’t help but giggle to myself.
Duly noted, Mr. Nixon…
I realize this is POST-marriage, and it’s not just me anymore. I told him about how I looked high and low for those chairs and they/WE just weren’t expecting him. His response: “but you PRAYED for a husband.”
So true, so true… 🙂
So sometime soon we’ll be on the hunt for new chairs that satisfy his functional need as well as provide my eyes with at least a little bit of pretty, for pretty’s sake. In the meantime, he’ll continue to take good care of them by tightening a leg or two when necessary, and I’ve already started envisioning a new home in another room for my PRETTY chairs.
So my married friends out there, this question is for you. Can you name ONE thing in your home that you really love yet you KNOW its level of functionality falls desperately short of your manly husband’s standards? See you in the comments.
I can think of one thing, more specifically, a room. We use separate bathrooms, and in the guest/his bathroom, I have a sea shells decor. I would frequently go in there, and see that the shells and other items were moved, or cluttered, so I would move them back into place the place where “I” put them. His explanation…. ( I feel so bad as I type this because I questioned him about his bathroom, because I would be highly upset if he questioned me about mine!) his “reasoning” was that he moved them out of the way when he shaved, and since he shaves often, there was no point in putting the items back. Having a “pretty” bathroom wasn’t “functional” for him in HIS bathroom. I’ve conceded, for the most part…until we have guests, and then I do a mad dash to clean up and make it “pretty”! I did ask him recently if he wanted to change the decorations, though. Of course he said no. He doesn’t care about what it looks like, as long as he has the space he needs for all his functional things 🙂
Deb, your example is perfect! I can relate, too, with a “bathroom” story of my own. I just rearranged our vanity, at his request. I had all my girly stuff (jewelry box, perfume, necklace tree, etc) on one side of the sink because there’s more space there and it looks more visually appealing. BUT….it blocks the one outlet he needs to use when he shaves. Needless to say, I’ve moved it to the other side. Doesn’t quite look the same, but he can now get to the outlet with ease.
There are a few other places I could take this functional/pretty discussion, but this may turn into a never-ending series if I did. God has been showing me so much. So glad you’re hanging out to share with me.
Hey sis! You know we live VERY basic with not a whole lot to deal with and that is by design for both of us. But I would have to say and this is pre-kids, that mine would be the bed. I used to have a gorgeous comforter, supporting pillow shams complete with the big Egyptian pillows and even a canopy to drape to bed. It was beautiful……to me! Lol I loved looking at it, when close friends came over I’d show it to them. I thought the bed was so nice and I didn’t mind at all taking down the SEVEN pillows every night and pulling back the canopy so that we could go to bed. Or setting it all back up every morning to make it pretty. God forbid he made up the bed, none of that beautiful work was done. I’d be lucky to get a couple of pillows on the bed and I’d fuss as I would go behind him and finish it (a BIG no no ladies :-)). But as beautiful as it was to me, it was just a bed to him. Don’t get me wrong, he likes nice but this bed was way too pretty for him and way too much work to get in and out of everyday. So to keep my pretty and meet his functional, I changed the bedding to something much more simple. That is until my first child came along and i lost my partially pretty bed all together .then functional and easy to clean became top priority..lol