When you and your partner both have strong opinions about the way your house should look. How do you keep the peace and get results everyone can live with?

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  Photograph by Keller + Keller

  Ben and Angela Cavallo both had a say in the design of the powder room at their Dedham home. Pictured is their son, Sam.
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  Photograph by Keller + Keller

  But Angela left the decisions about the layout, materials, and appliances in the kitchen to Ben, who loves to cook.
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  Photograph by Michael J Lee

  Designer Dee Elms and husband Doug Brown took a team approach to decorating their Cambridge home. Both “like a space where everything has its place” says Elms, but tend to disagree, says Doug, on “how to hang art.” He adds, “It’s usually best that someone leaves and the other person hangs everything.”
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  Photograph by Michael J Lee

  It can be hard to verbalize design concepts, so Dee Elms recommends collecting images of things you like. “Pointing to a photo and saying, ‘See, this is the stone vanity top I like,’ and ‘This is how I want to hang the sconces’ really helps communication.”
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  Photograph by Nat Rea

  The zebra chair in Rachel Reider and Jamie Harper’s West Roxbury living room represents a compromise — he vetoed a larger zebra piece she liked.
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  photograph by Nat Rea

  Reider, a designer, won out with the banquette at their dining room table, deemed a strange idea by Harper. “I give him a look every time a guest comments on how great it is,” she says.