i like surrounding myself in the masculine...

my home and my tastes are classically masculine. warm, dark colors & woods. it makes me feel more womanly and strong. my mother in law goes the other way. she likes to surround herself in pinks and pastels and victorian trinkets and geegaws. i must admit, her home has always made me feel big, clumsy and oafish. i imagine it's much the same for men. i'm always afraid to sit in certain spots or touch certain things. i feel like i'm being herded about, manipulated. but we both are expressing our femininity that way. she doesn't like very 'manly' men, either, whereas i prefer them. i've wondered about this, wondered why it was so.

i guess, to me, having a lot of masculinity around me makes me feel more like a woman. it points out my difference. it's like formal dancing with a partner who's a strong lead. it leaves me free to do what i will within a helpful framework. i can sway and swing, delay and frustrate, while allowing someone to occaisionally take the onus of decision off me. and in return i give him the benefits of my dedcation, care and attention if he leads me right. lol. i'm a very contrary and slippery sort of female.

 

Pink sucks

 

Awww, come on now annie, I happen to like pink. *pouts* I mean, it's not my absolute favorite color, but I do enjoy it.

 

LOL I really dislike pink. I'd rather go for greens and browns any day I remember when I was little my mom painted my walls pink in my room...I hated it, but would never tell her.

 

Awww, my room was painted a bright yellow as a child. Cheerful, but almost too much brightness for a bedroom. I would have preferred the pink room. I think.

Oh the heck with that, I would have preferred it to be a royal purple.

 

My house has a lot of blues, greens, cranberry, & earth tones. I love lodge, log cabin country feel. That makes me feel warm and cozy.

Pastels make me feel blah.

We just re-did one of our rooms on Saturday. I'm wating for the border to arrive. Last night my husband bought us new dining room chairs. I have to wait 3-4 months till they are ready but the wait will be worth it.

This is what my border will look like. I am so excited. It's going to look awesome. I love it so much I have it in cranberry in my kitchen.
http://www.decoratetoday.com/produc...ptn=DZ94217&gensearchby=1&flagback=False&si=8

 

me too ,i like pink ..if it's half price ....personally i don't care what any color in the house is ...stay away from my workshop

 

i've got an elk skin on one wall, a deer head on another, a border of geese in my living room. the walls are brown and red, though the bedroom is a dark plum shade which i make look fancy brown with my khaki bed set and earthy unbleached cotton drapes. i'm not a purple person. i like red and blue and brown. in person, i go for bubbly bright colors. i love shiney things and bright colors, but i need my home to feel like a loving, protective father.

 

you said it perfectly here.

I am exactly the same way as you kc, the more masculine things i surround myself in the stronger and more female i feel. "Pretty", girly things make me feel really huge, awkward and oafish just like you said. Not at all my style. My one exception is that i've been painting my toe nails pink ever since grade 11....i've never switched since. My room is yellow, but it's a deeper yellow....not bright and pastel. I hate pastels...they make me gag.

 

I surround myself with pictures of nakey men...Not porn, but artwork...miniature sculptures and pictures for the wall. A mans body can be really beautiful to look at Oki, now i sound perverted...

 

nah. naked isn't perverted. now if all these pictures had guys stuffing things in various orifices, that would be a little icky.

 

Uh...nah:S Theyre just kind of in funny poses Ones bent over on his knees and crying...ones pushing against a globe with all this strength, and then some are bending over backwards or forwards, or sleeping. They nice. I have a few women too, but theyre not as beautiful

 

I was a tomboy and my mother could never get me anywhere near anything pick or flowery. My home decor still reflects that.

My mom, on the other hand, has a pink living room...yick...

 

no one calls the statue of david perverted unless they themselves are perverted. anyone who'd accuse you of perversion just because you have pictures of naked men probably has some serious problems and a gutter-mind that can't handle seeing the human body without getting all hot an bothered. seems to me THEY'RE the ones with the problem.

 

You're not weird at all, KC....

I came into brian's home...and it was very masculine: Blues, greens, and browns with a very old-world travel and ship theme. I loved it and still do. It makes me feel female, and at the same time, allows brian to feel masculine and not all oafish like both of us would feel in a pink, frilly house.

But at the same time, I wear pink. I dress in a feminine way...Which just adds to the contrast between myself and my surroundings.

 

I don't really relate a dark color scheme to masculinity. In fact KC you are right in line with current design trends which for the last 5 years have been shifting darker and darker. See you are more chic than you thought haha. I work in the design field and I find more and more folks going for color pallettes that are more organic,naturalistic, rich and warm. Darker pallettes also lend themselves to drama as well as formality. I actually have done quite a few kitchens in the past year that had black cabinetry, overall the trend for cabinetry is also getting darker. My home has what I like to call the cave effect. It is dark and relaxing. I have dark olive green walls with white crisp molding and all my interior and exteiror doors are black. My hardwood floors I stripped the urathane off so the have a rustic look. I feel like it is a safe, mellow space. It helps my hubby also likes it but I have the end say any way. People who are not afraid of dark colors have more adventourous and intricate personalities.

 

well, it's not just the color, it's the themes. very manly type.

 

I'm generally the same way. I feel awkward in pink and frilly places, and feel sexy, graceful and feminine when I'm in masculine surroundings. I totally understand what you mean about it contrasting you.

Interestingly enough, my room is balanced inbetween the masculine and feminine. It has almost white blueymint coloured walls, and my bed is blue with some yellow on it, all the wood is light-coloured, at the head of my bed I have this long, dreamy hand-dyed, verrry loose-woven natural cotten scarf that fades through almost all the colours of the rainbow, but they're very rich-yet-light natural colours. So my room isn't masculine, but it's not girly either. At night I light it with an orangey warm light, and it's like this dark, feminie dwelling with some light areas. I love how I feel when it's like that. I used to have a horrible room, so I can really appreciate it.

 

I like to wear reds myself, they make me feel strong. I do like the victoriana thing, but it makes me feel tired and I always want to sleep. What makes me feel more feminine in the home, I guess are floaty fabrics, tye dyes, purples, crystals and wood. A real earthy / mystical feel, that makes me feel more womanly, although I do appreciate a pirate ship style kitchen, with wood finish and yellow lighting... makes me feel warm and cosy and ... nutruing I suppose.

Idealy though, I like things to be bold, clean and simple with not a whole lot of clutter, and maybe only a few stand outish colours, you jknow, high contrasts. I dont know that it nescessarily makes me feel feminine, but it fdoes make me feel... at peace

 

That sounds a lot like my room except substituting blues for purples... I have a palm-sized amethyst and a large quartz crystal formation sitting on my windowsill, along with smaller crystals on my bookshelf.