Many students see college as a fresh start. Between being at a new school, making new friends, exploring a new town, every moment from when you first step foot on campus is a new experience. The act of being uprooted from the life and home you’ve known for years allows one to find themselves. With this fresh start, many commemorate the moment by designing a whole new room. Whether they’re a freshman looking to have the best dorm in the hall or moving into their first apartment and wanting to make it feel like home, the moment is HUGE.
Decorating a space allows for one to let their personality shine. Your room is your safe place, so it comes to no surprise the amount of effort college students put into decorating their rooms. Sometimes challenges can arise when it comes time to transform a room. When living in an apartment, students may have to get creative since there can be strict rules about making big changes in a rented space. Also, living in a dorm, you must coordinate decorating shared spaces, even if their taste is drastically different from yours. Through all this, students find a way to make it work. Looking back to my freshman year and decorating my dorm, I put TONS of effort and time into making it me. I had the same experience when it came time to move into my first apartment. As I think about the lengths I went to decorate these two spaces, I started to get curious about others’ rooms and how they made their space theirs. So, I set out on a search for the cutest and best rooms in Tally. I found two this week and I can say the search is off to a great start.
Dorm: Amanda
Amanda is a freshman majoring in psychology. She currently resides in Wildwood North. When walking into her dorm, I gasped. Her dorm looked like it was straight out of Urban Outfitters. When I asked her the inspiration behind the space, she pointed out the flowers hanging down her wall. She explained that they were a DIY project done by her and her mom, and she wanted to build her dorm around those three pieces. Amanda also mentioned that she created a Pinterest board to see everything she wanted and to then plan how everything was going to fit together. She went about this process from the end of her senior year, all the way up to move-in day. Throughout the summer searching for the right pieces for her room, she found herself mainly grabbing items from Amazon and Urban Outfitters. She also jokingly explained that she is still adding pieces to her room on the regular. I asked her about the challenges of having to find storage in her room. Amanda explained that the process taught her to minimize and organize everything in a cubicle her parents bought her. She said that most of her belongings are in these bins in the cubicle under her raised bed. When walking into her space I noticed the drastic difference between her and her roommate’s sides. When asked about this, Amanda said that she enjoyed the contrast between the two sides. As a final question, I asked what her favorite piece was and she instantly pointed out her neon sign that says: “GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS.” This sign was surely a statement piece as it made the room glow in pink.
Courtesy: Amanda Macchiarola
Apartment: Anneliese
Courtesy: Anneliese Müller
Anneliese is a senior majoring in humanities with a concentration in communications. She welcomed me into her home and I was instantly greeted by her adorable cat. I walked into her room and, once again for the second time that day, I gasped. Her space was an eclectic lover’s dream. It had charm and a whimsical feel to it. When asked about her design inspiration, she gave a quick response: traveling. Anneliese cherishes her travels and wanted to incorporate the things she’s seen, the places she’s been and the places she wants to go into her room. With the vibrancy of the colors and the many different cultural references, she accomplished her vision. On her wall next to her bed, there are maps of Europe and the United States. On the maps, she put pins on all the places she’s traveled to, as a reminder of all the exciting places she been. When asked where some of her decorations came from, she mentioned that most of her furniture are pieces from her mother, while the rest of the decorations mainly are pictures she has taken, things she has drawn, or prints she had printed out. Out of all the statement pieces in her room, I was curious as to what her favorite piece would be. When asked, Anneliese simply said the group of polaroids that are above the chair she inherited from her great grandmother. These polaroids were all taken this past summer and are the captured moments of her European adventures from studying abroad in London. She mentioned when she wasn’t traveling, she didn’t want to be bored and so her room serves as an exciting place to live until she is off onto her next adventure.
Courtesy: Anneliese Müller
After visiting these two amazing spaces, it opened my eyes to the different styles and inspirations others can have. It was a fun way to see how people’s personalities are expressed in their space when given the chance. It only made me more excited to see the next batch of rooms!
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