A student's dedication to interior design

By: Bryan Murphy

Posted: 9/10/08

Studying abroad is an excellent opportunity to soak in the nuances and differences of other cultures - their food, their style, their arts and their way of life. And one of the frequently-unmentioned benefits of studying abroad is the opportunity to experience the fact that outside of the United States, the residential college system is fairly uncommon, or at least of a far smaller scale. If you do get an on-campus room abroad, be prepared for it to be the size of a walk-in closet!

Perhaps it is as a result of the thrilling experience of living a claustrophobic's nightmare for a semester that I have decided to dedicate myself obsessively to the interior design of my (far more spacious) room this semester. Having survived to my third year, I've had a fair chance to see how a number of people have gone about decorating their rooms and what does and doesn't work.

The stand-by staple for college interior decoration is the poster. The classic poster, be it a reproduction of a classic artwork, a band, or a movie, is an excellent way of spending a lot of money to give your room a disjointed, amateurish feel. When was the last time you looked in an issue of "Architectural Digest" and saw a bunch of posters duct-taped to a white wall? The important thing to achieve through your interior design is a unity of impression, which a haphazard collection of posters can't achieve.

For the cost of a few posters, you can head to the Wal-Mart in North Windham and pick up a few yards of fabric from the store's fabric section. Wal-Mart's fabrics are an absolute godsend for covering a wide swath of your wall in clean, interesting designs - be it some leather roebuck to go for a Western theme, leopard or tiger fur for a jungle feel, or a simple matte color of anything that isn't bone white. (Why did the administration decide to paint all of the dorms in the most eye-searing, unpleasant interior color possible? Really, couldn't they have at least gone for cream?)

Similarly, you could head to a hobbyist or an art store and pick up a huge amount of tissue-paper for a low price, and glue/tape/thumbtack some of it to your walls - again, anything to achieve a swath of unitary impression. Children's bedding, with its lavish designs and ornate decoration is also - no joke - a good way to avail yourself of a number of "murals" and "carpets" for extremely cheap - check out Bed, Bath & Beyond or Wal-Mart and see if your bedroom wouldn't be improved with a large cotton "painting" or a budget "throw rug." If you do go the poster route, try to make sure they have some sort of association with each other - or try "wallpapering" an entire wall with posters which touch at the edges, which can look excellent if done properly.

Just don't think of painting your room. If your room inspection turns up significant damage, except to be charged unreasonably high repair fees by the administration. Therefore, don't be caught by the room inspectors - leave the brushes at home, and if you rip off any of the paint that's there already, or leave nail holes in your walls, go and buy some cheap caulk and some standard bone-white paint at Wal-Mart, and fix, yourself, any damage you do to your room over the course of the year.

Finally, class up your room with some nice accent pieces. Christmas lighting is a perennial collegiate favorite, but some colored plastic wrap around one or more of your university-provided halogen lights can also look great. Glade Plug-Ins, which release a consistent fresh smell for a month per refill, can also go a long way to providing your room with a palatable odor which masks the smell of wings and vodka - men, especially, take heed. Glade's Wisp Flameless candles are more expensive, but even fancier, and when the lights are out, super-romantic.

There are my tips for having a dorm room that doesn't look, entirely, like a dorm room. I wouldn't say I'm going to be showing up in "Architectural Digest" anytime soon, either - but hey, it's better than a room full of Lynyrd Skynyrd posters.