Ugh. Remember the apartment the first guy you dated after college lived in? Wait a minute -- what am I saying? Of course you remember it, because you can probably still smell it! Aside from a few select dudes who really know how to throw a room together or are just complete and total neat-freaks, bachelor pads are typically pretty gross.

But bachelor pads aren't strictly limited to guys who have never lived with their girlfriends before. With divorce rates among married couples still high, there are more men, and in particular dads, who suddenly find themselves living in a new place without the faintest idea of how to make it look and feel like a true home. Don't get me wrong, there are some men out there who have a better eye for decorating than women, but the majority of dads I know leave that sort of thing up to their wives. 

Most divorced dads just don't want to live in bachelor pads that are reminiscent of their never-married single days. Can you blame them? But now there's a new and trendy solution for men who don't get excited about paint colors and furniture placement: hiring an interior decorator to put a "woman's touch" back into their digs.

You gotta love that it takes getting divorced for some husbands to realize just how fab it is to hire someone to make your house look pretty. Most of us couldn't score a decorator if our lives depended on it. I'd be totally jealous if my husband and I split and the first thing he did was consult another woman to make his place look chic! (Send 'er my way when you're done, buddy)!

But dads who choose to go this route aren't doing it out of spite for their ex-wives or because they suddenly feel like throwing money around. Odds are good they're doing it so their kids will feel like they have a home at dad's house and not just a place to sleep on Tuesdays and every other weekend.

Sharing the kids means having two homes where they feel safe and happy. Sitting on an old couch eating frozen dinners off a cardboard box doubling as a coffee table just doesn't quite say "I'm home" like relaxing on a cozy new sectional or having a hot meal at an actual table in the kitchen.

But the perks of hiring a professional to help out in the decorating department definitely extend beyond making things easier on the kids. Having a nice place to come home to can also make things easier on dads. It can't be too fun to walk into a quiet, empty house at the end of the day when you've been used to living with your wife and children. Making that empty house a haven can help soften the transition to being single again.

What advice can you offer divorced dads to make their new pads feel more like home?

 

Image via Colin McMillen/Flickr