College Rooms Can Be A Decorating Challenge
Welcome to Decorating 101.
In this class, you’ll learn beginner’s tips on dealing with dormitory distress and creating cozy corners.
Dorms, rented rooms and studio apartments can cramp your style. They seem modeled after an Army barracks. What do you do with a room that’s painted beige and accented with a gray metal desk and a bed without a headboard?
Sure, with unlimited funds and freedom you could make it look like a small piece of House Beautiful.
But let’s get back to reality.
Most dormitories and rental property landlords have rules. Lots of them. Including things like no paint, no wallpaper, no nails in the walls, no curtain rods. Forget the cute wallpaper borders, no hope for your Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam posters.
Do your homework.
“Start the decorating process early by coordinating plans with your new roommate,” suggested Pattie Shaw, home furnishings director for the J.C. Penney Catalog.
“Discuss colors and arrive at design compromises before you even leave home, and since you don’t have a lot of room, you’ll have to be creative. For instance, some stores now carry wallpaper borders that you can easily peel off when you leave.”
According to Susan Swimmer, special projects editor at Seventeen magazine, focus on bedding first and choose complementary colors for the rest of the room.
“Before you buy anything, check the bed length, because many school dorms have extra-length beds, which require a longer sheet,” said Shaw.
If you’re going to live alone, you can go straight to the decorating magazines to find your own style. Look for the details that punctuate it, then shop around.
Sometimes you can get great deals at big department stores, but also try cheap chic depots like Crate & Barrel, Target, Ikea, Cost Plus, Pier 1 Imports and Kmart, suggested Tony Bruzzese, a former UCLA design student who now works for his instructor, Virginia Knight.
Among the bargains are inexpensive knockoffs of trendy decorating accessories like wrought-iron candlestick holders, furniture throws and slipcovers, sheer scarfs to use as window swags and Oriental-inspired throw rugs to liven up a boring floor.
“Shop for furniture in a box, because you’ll be able to break it down and put it back in the box when school is over,” Bruzzese said. “Remember, carrying a box down the stairs to your car is a lot easier than a tall bookcase or a three-legged bedside table.”
Other fold-up furniture to consider are canvas director’s chairs and stackable storage cubes or metal trunks that can serve as both table and storage bin.