You can imagine the horror. You’ve spent the past year planning the perfect wedding of your dreams. You’ve just returned from vacationing for a week or two in some of the most luxurious honeymoon hotel suites in the world. And now you’re standing in front of your storybook first home eagerly awaiting the arrival of your belongings. You can’t wait to perfectly arrange your new life together as a married couple. Then his moving van arrives. And its contents are enough to make any dreams of a future home-sweet-home spontaneously combust.

The beer-keg coffee table from his fraternity days will just not work with your grandmother’s Duncan Phyfe love seat. Nor will the Giants beanbag chair quite fit with your plans of Pierre Deux and French Country. But he is not willing to part with his beloved belongings, his bit of history that he can’t wait to assimilate into your lives together. You may have married him for better or for worse, but there was nothing in those vows about shot-glass collections. So where do you go from here?

Besides having a good sense of humor and an ounce of patience, this is definitely a time for respect and compromise—no matter how hideous his possessions. “Welcome to marriage,” says Jeff Silverman, president of Lloyd’s Furniture, with stores in Somerville and Shrewsbury. “It’s a matter of compromise.” And there are ways to compromise and make these decorating dilemmas work.

“What you have to do is start with your base, what you already own, and decide if you really like the pieces. And then you work the room around them,” Silverman says. “It’s the era of eclecticism—mixing styles, periods, and colors. You just need a little guidance to make it work.”

Another way to lessen the impact of mismatched furniture is to relegate them to certain rooms in your house. “’Legacy’ furnishings should be merged into one or two private room areas, such as your bedroom, den, or home office, rather than scattered throughout the home,” says Susan Greenbaum Gross, president of Greenbaum Interiors, with showrooms in Paterson and Morristown. “Then use color and accessories to tie the different styles together and to minimize any dramatic differences in the styles of the major pieces.”

Or you can simply slipcover two completely different couches to make them match or add floral pillows to soften a beige, modern-looking couch. “There are no rules anymore,” says Bette Kahn, spokesperson for Crate & Barrel. “Do what pleases you. But there’s got to be compromise. There are some things more important than a piece of furniture,” she adds.