If you have not checked out Netflix’s “Queer Eye,” you should. The show focuses on giving make-overs in five different areas: design, fashion, cooking, grooming and culture. In under an hour, viewers see individuals transformed from sloppy and unmotivated to confident and ambitious.
Inspired by the show, I decided to make-over my own life in the last few weeks of summer vacation. The details of which I will be writing for the next four weeks in my series, “Queer Eye DIY.” This week’s focus is on Design.
I was watching the show one day when I looked around my one-bedroom apartment.
My plaid, duct taped sofa was older than myself. My dog had chewed half of my window blind nearly a year ago. My TV sat on a secondhand dresser which a little boy had autographed in blue and red crayon.
I decided being uncomfortable in my home was no way to enter my senior year.
I spent under $300 for a nearly unrecognizable apartment. My first focus, which also happened to be the most expensive, was on the mismatching furniture. I transformed this end table I got for free years ago.
I started by filling in the flower design on the front with wood filler. I sanded the whole thing and gave it a coat of paint. Some of the handles were missing, so I found ones with a similar pattern and spray painted them all to match. The top used to be an odd sort of linoleum, which I covered with tissue paper and Modge Podge.
After furniture, I turned to decorations. I made these shelves for under $15 with Popsicle sticks, tacky glue and some dark wood stain.
Most importantly, I made myself go through my closets. I started at one end of my apartment and worked my way through until I had two cars full of Goodwill donations. I carried old lecture notes and torn posters out in stretched garbage bags.
I finally had some room to work with now that all of the clutter was out of my apartment.
You do not need to wait until you have a full time job to decorate your home. There is no use in blaming your student status for your messy lifestyle. All it takes is some creativity (and a lot of Pinterest browsing).
Look out for next week’s article, “Queer Eye DIY: Fashion!”
Body photos by Kellsie Kennedy