Finally! The hundreds of hours I spent watching "Design at Nine" and "Trading Spaces" are justified in the form of a column in the Mirror. Anyway, here are some jewels of advice to guide you in pimping out your sick sophomore summer room, making it more elegant and livable, whether you live on or off-campus. Ideas are partially culled from my own room and knowledge is courtesy of Home and Garden Television, The Learning Channel, and MTV Cribs.
Curtains, sheets and drapes are key
- Sheer drapes and other window dressings instantly upgrade a room from a lifeless sleep cubicle to a more at-home look.
Tacked onto a wall, a sheet can hide errant/sketchy stains left by the room's last occupants and simultaneously break up the monotony of a white wall with a color or pattern. - Hung around the bed canopy-style (stick plastic hooks on the ceiling), curtains provide privacy for those sharing a room and soften the look of the entire space. I bought my sheer white curtains for about $10 per set at a thrift store. Check out The Listen Center in West Lebanon.
- Also, having spare sheets on the wall (threaded onto a rod or tacked up with nails) makes for easy access in times of toga party need. This provides me with the 24/7 assurance I need at a toga-happy school.
Use glass containers to hold desktop items
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You can see everything and they look attractive on top of your bureau.
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The other day, I used one of those seemingly useless $5 Pom juice bottles (sold at Topside) to hold eyeliner/mascara products. While gazing at how pretty they looked in the glass bottle and patting myself on the back for my great strides in sustainability, I suddenly didn't mind that that same aesthetically pleasing, impossible-to-drink-from cylindrical shape was the reason I dripped pomegranate juice all over myself earlier that day.
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I used a huge hurricane-style glass candleholder to put all my pens, pencils, scissors, etc. in and it looks great.
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I also stuck my makeup brushes in an XL-sized commemorative shot glass. Good thing I finally found a use for it!
Pillows, pillows, everywhere
- Pillows spruce up a room and make your entire room look so much more inviting. I currently have five on my bed plus one of those boyfriend-style reading pillows, not to mention seven on my futon and four on my bench, and a mini-pillow. Pillows are also a safety feature " having covered every surface with pillows, I no longer fear falling, which happens a lot now because I keep tripping over all the effing pillows in my room.
Calendar
- It's an old trick, but it works for students in need. Buy a calender " mine was $1 from Target " and cut it up neatly and stick the pages in some sort of pattern on your wall. I went the extra mile and laminated them, and they're all shiny like photographs. Which, by the way, are another way to cover your wall.
Some other easy picker-uppers:
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White Christmas lights. Not colored. Unless you have some sort of funky room theme going on.
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Random or well-thought-out hooks and nails on your wall " to hang your dresses, scarves, and other clothing on. My friend did this because the last person who occupied her room left it with nails all over the wall. It gave her a single, which was on the smaller side, with a quaint boutique/walk-in-closet look.
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Tapestries are good for hanging on slanty ceiling/walls.
Do it!
- Send any gushing compliments or photos of your results my way at jeans@dartmouth.edu.
