Why is it that wives have to stick their noses in situations like this? Do you think she would let you stand in her way of anything she'd want to do to improve something that she didn't like in the house?
Fortunately for me when my wife and I bought our house we agreed on something before we bought it: The basement was mine to do whatever I wish with, and the rest of the house was hers. I thought this was a pretty fair deal, and I because of it I have acoustic foam, corner bass traps, oak speakers that match NOTHING else in the room, a 56" TV, a subwoofer that is 46" tall and stands out like a sore thumb, wires everywhere, and (best of all) a huge smile on my face.
I agree with others who have said to move the speaker out a little bit if possible. Even very small changes to speaker position can help quite a bit.