So someone's on their way over to your messy place and the obvious way to achieve style is to shove last night's pizza box and your roommate's dirty socks into some dark corner. But wait-what if there's a better solution? What if you can actually have an apartment or dorm where the design principle is not limited to a shrine of your favorite beer or the harmonizing principles of the pile of dirt in the corner? Sounds lovely, no? And it's easier than you think!
Now, nobody is under the illusion that most college students will head out to buy matching furniture or oriental rugs, but there are a few tips that can make even the most uncoordinated array of cheap furniture in any environment pleasing. Matthew Ziff, professor of interior design at Ohio University, says that one of the most important reasons for making your personal space pleasing is that doing so can actually make you feel good about yourself, your day and your life.
The first step toward creating this happiness for yourself and visitors is to achieve "some basic level of cleanliness," Ziff says. Okay, so this can be nearly impossible, but it truly does make the largest difference in the appearance of a living space. A little bit of imagination can create simple ways to de-clutter. For that overflowing pile of school books, a simple wooden crate can really neaten things up; a bulletin board in a room or rooms will help to get rid of paper clutter. There are no tricks, however, to get rid of dirt. No matter what, someone will have to pull out the vacuum and someone will have to wash the dishes.
Once the layer of grime is gone from the living space, the "two most potent" and easiest ways of decorating are painting and lighting, according to Ziff. Students who enjoy natural light should consider very sheer window dressings, instead of heavy blinds or drapes. It is not necessary to spend a lot of money at the store for curtains, though; many fabrics can be bought cheaply at craft stores, and can be "sewn" together into panels with fabric glue. Also, Ziff promises, thrift stores can be a "treasure trove" for light fixtures. Adding plenty of light to a room can completely change the atmosphere. Experimenting with different levels of light can help you find a level that is comfortable.
Painting is another cheap method for bringing mood and harmony to a room. While "color is a wonderful thing," Ziff points out that color can be a social problem-one roommate who is in love with the idea of red walls could risk completely alienating the more conservative other roommate. If you do not have your own bedroom, one solution suggested is that in a room, three of the walls be painted a neutral color, and the fourth can be brightened up with some sort of a more exciting shade. One afternoon of painting will well be worth the glow it brings to any room for the rest of the school year, although most of us don't stay in one dwelling long.
Not sure what color to choose? Interior decorator Susan Welch Heeney includes some tips for decoding colors on her website. While blue tends to be the color of choice for walls and furnishings, many other options are available. For example, green can be seen as a very crisp, clean color that would be wonderful in a kitchen. It usually appeals to the nature lover, and suggests growth and relaxation.
Red, on the other hand, suggests excitement, high energy, warmth and vibrancy. The unexpected nice, warm tone can make a room very inviting, and is suggested for living rooms. Remember, certainly just one wall can't be too much to try, right? A more subtle option in the same range of the color scale is orange, which connotes spirit, comfort and action, but must be carefully handled to not be too vivid.
Purple is another color that can feel quite inviting. Long seen as the color of nobility and church officials, it is dignified and luxurious. It is suggested as wonderful for a bedroom.
A surprising choice of paint color is black, but Heeney assures that it is bold, elegant and sophisticated. A small amount of black, especially in trim, looks cosmopolitan with white or gray paint or chrome accessories.
It is important to remember that all colors come in a range of intensities. A tad bit scared of the deep red wall? A lighter shade of most any color can be nearly neutral. In a smaller, closed-in room, Ziff says that the old logic of light colors opening the space up holds true. Because lighter shades do a better job of reflecting light, they can help to fight off the feeling of living in a closet. Any subtle shade can achieve this goal, however, so it is important not to be trapped into white.
The next step in design, according to Ziff, is the floor. Most dorm rooms have hard, uncarpeted floors, and many apartments have carpet that has been around since the births of our parents. Having a comfortable and attractive floor is inviting, even making people comfortable enough to sit on the ground. Expensive rugs do not have to be the answer, though. Rug remnants with bound edges can be bought at many stores for 40 to 50 dollars. Even better, many students look to get rid of a rug they have just had for only one school year when they get ready to leave at the end of that academic year. Looking ahead of time can lead to scoring a great deal. The rug is one of the best ways to bring together one roommate's blue striped chair and another's green plaid couch; it can pick up on a common color or introduce a neutral that matches all pieces.
Now, since no one has spent very much money thus far doing any impractical designing (and we simply can't classify cleaning as impractical, unpleasant as it may be), the last step is wall decoration. Unframed, cheap posters of anything are perfectly appropriate to set the mood and give some design to the walls. Ziff recommends only that they are not torn and that they are all hung along the same horizontal line, to unify them.
Following these simple steps to bring harmony to a living space can also bring harmony to a student's life and make guests feel more welcome. As Matthew Ziff would like to prove, design does not have to cost very much money or be complicated.
