nesting

It’s a timeless story: one partner fancies a room filled with brass accents and fresh-cut flowers, while the other thinks living-room decor consists of a flat-screen TV and a leather Lazy-Boy. Turns out the secret to making both parties happy might lie in the art of gender-neutral decor.

Erin Hiemstra, a San Francisco-based designer and founder of lifestyle blog Apartment 34, has three tips for creating a room that strikes the right balance between masculine and feminine aesthetics.

1. Your big-ticket items should be masculine, meaning that you should stick with neutral tones for your wall colors and furniture, which should also have clean lines. “Nothing too curvy,” says Hiemstra.

2. Use accent pieces, such as rugs, cushions and throws, to bring an element of (feminine) texture to the room.

3. Lastly, Hiemstra cautions against overwhelming the space with too many girlie accents. “Feminine pieces speak much louder than masculine ones,” she says. So be sure to balance out a room’s delicate vases and votives with juxtaposing items, such as an industrial lamp or wood-finished accent.