Jeff Foxworthy had an interesting observation on this. It has been several years since I heard it, but IIRC it was kind of a backdoor anti-homophobic observation. Basically if you are a married man, you probably have something in common with gay men – decorative pillows. Maybe I’m not remembering that right, it’s been quite a while.
I have won few decorating disagreements in the last 26 years, but the decorative pillows eventually went away. We had several when we were first married. Our bedroom is probably the worst room in our house appearance-wise. My stock line is “When we start entertaining in the bedroom, we can worry about how it is decorated”. That gets an eyeroll, but she usually moves on. I think she has just given up on trying to make it look nice at this point. I’m not so sure she doesn’t mention new carpet or other items in the bedroom just because she knows it softens me up for her real request.