Lena Dunham’s relationship with Jack Antonoff came under strain when he "hated" how she’d decorated their apartment.
The 33-year-old actress – who split with the Bleachers frontman in December 2017 after almost six years together – spent a lot of time planning the interior of their New York abode and she and her mother worked on putting her ideas into action while he was away from tour – but when the 35-year-old musician came back he had a very different vision and Lena "felt sick" every time she agreed to make changes.
She said: "He was on tour, so [My mom] and I set the kitchen up, stuffed the closets, and placed the tchotchkes on the mantel for the great unveiling
"And he hated it. He didn’t want to hate it. He tried not to hate it. But he didn’t like living among the insides of my mind.
"I thought I was giving him a gift, like the time I came home from summer camp and my mother had painted my walls four different chalky colours and installed a poster, a candle shaped like a slice of honeydew melon, and an inflatable chair…
"I wanted to give him the magic that she’d always given me by dreaming her maddening dreams. But he wanted a Restoration Hardware couch and a giant watch to hang on the wall.
"I felt sick every time I made a design concession or covered up pink with dove gray. Love can only survive so much…"
When the couple split, the former ‘Girls’ star moved out and splashed out on a new home "in a state of panic" – which she never even moved into.
Writing for Domino magazine, she recalled: "I made a massive real-estate mistake, the kind that nightmares are made of. I bought something in a state of panic, feeling like if I didn’t put down roots soon I’d float away.
"I never even moved in, and magazines wrote about it when I sold it at a loss. I was real-estate shamed."
These days, Lena is so happily settled in a rental property, she can’t see herself leaving.
She wrote: "This apartment seemed appropriate for a long interstitial, an extended pause. I didn’t know about the beauty of the building, its eccentric internal culture, the storied residents.
"I have friends on floors 4, 5, 8, and 17. The maintenance guys are either twins or just brothers (I’m too busy trying to tell them apart to ask). So. Many. Funny. Dogs.
"When I come home in a gown and Ugg boots and collect my mail, the old man on a stool in the lobby just nods. I don’t think I can ever leave."
Lena Dunham’s decor struggle
