<p>I got a couple of cool ideas from the slideshow there…shelf/headboard, shelf on desk. I wanted to help S decorate his room but he really wanted to do it his way and you know, I think that’s fabulous :)</p>
<p>I too still have the comforter that was bought my first year in school. It serves the same purpose limulus, picnic blanket, etc. I threatened to send it with my son when we launched him but it is periwinkle with tiny white flowers…that falls under cruel & unusual punishment I think. :)</p>
<p>Well, I don’t have the money for it, but if I did, I’d get it for my kids.</p>
<p>I hate the sterile dorm rooms. I am not good with looking at a closet and figuring out how to maximize the space to fit everything.</p>
<p>@NorthMinn - Tell your daughter to start her own business and start decorating for others. How ideas sound great!</p>
<p>Wow. I remember when lofting your bed and wiring a phone so you didn’t have to climb down to answer it was a big deal in a dorm room…</p>
<p>My first apartment had IKEA furniture and the TV stand was the box it came in until my then gf, now wife nixed that idea and helped ‘refine’ me…</p>
<p>If you actually look at this article, it is about a lawyer’s daughter from Texas who goes to Auburn. They didn’t want to haul up more than her clothes so they hired an Auburn designer to decorate her room. It seems to be mostly an advertisement for the Auburn designer and the student who is on an equestrian scholarship. The student says she is spoiled and must have the best room. There is no example of any Georgia student or school, only a couple of other photos of a grad students rooms and Loyola Med student. I don’t even think the rooms look that special. I think North Minnesota’s daughter’s ideas and a few from the IKEA catalog would be more interesting. On the Alabama site, they had a whole thread on the bookcase headboard and how to build it in early August. Maybe the Auburn Designer got it from there :)!</p>
<p>Apparently it goes on at other places too…</p>
<p>[Under</a> the Button Meanwhile, In The Quad…](<a href=“http://underthebutton.com/2012/08/meanwhile-in-the-quad/]Under”>http://underthebutton.com/2012/08/meanwhile-in-the-quad/)</p>
<p>I don’t see the reason to bother personally considering I spend most time out of my dorm during the weekdays and good weather and my dormroom tends to end up being cluttered by library books, journal article xeroxes, computer parts, etc. </p>
<p>Heck, the latter depicted the dominant style on my side of the dormroom/single rooms during undergrad.</p>
<p>There was a design competition I saw on TV long time ago that featured dorm rooms. It really was inspiring what can be done in a small space with good design.
That being said, I’m of the cinder block generation (cheap if not creative), hung up pictures out of magazines, and had rip cord bedspreads from Sears (which I still have to throw in the back of my car to protect it–talk about a good buy!–those things last forever!)</p>
<p>It is easy to be critical, but there is another way to look at this.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Not everyone has a good eye for fashion and style. People who do possess the skill (or formation) can make a huge difference.</p></li>
<li><p>How does the “extravagant” cost of a decorator compare to the entire cost of four (or more) of college? It represents a pittance.</p></li>
<li><p>The value of a happy and comfortable student is … priceless. </p></li>
<li><p>Being comfortable could also eliminate health issues. While it might be romantic to sleep on airmattresses and rough it up, it can cause back issues. Again compare the cost of having to visit your friendly doctor or therapist to the price of buying a VERY good mattress and pillows. </p></li>
<li><p>The cost of the decorating does not have to repeated every year. Buying the right set of extras can survive nicely. Well, except for the sheets … which are not a great spectacle in the Spring!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>PS I considered my 50 inch flat screen television set is a necessity more than a pricey laptop! :)</p>
<p>Why, oh why do these people talk to reporters? </p>
<p>In “Lost in the Meritocracy” Walter Kirn wrote about being exiled from his own common room at Princeton because he didn’t pay “his” share of the redecoration costs. </p>
<p>The article says that the young woman is at Auburn on an equestrian scholarship. OK, if my D’s negotiated with me and the spouse that they’d go to the school with a lower COA in exchange for a spiffy dorm room I’d go for it. Otherwise, no. </p>
<p>A few years back I was complaining to a friend that we really needed to replace old worn-out furniture and some hideous carpet, but that we kept putting it off because the spouse and I are just horrid at interior design and would end up making expensive mistakes. The friend very sensibly suggested we get an interior designer. Some of the best money we’ve spent, but that was for a “look” that’s going to last for 10-20 years.</p>
<p>Well, after 2 years of living in the top bunk, D has her own room and she put a lot of thought into it. She re-covered S’s old couch, used his old dresser and made a headboard - upholstered with tufted buttons. (Made from foam boards and some left-over fabric. <$30)
We’re definitely on the crafty - and cheap side but her room looks great and after a long day is happy to come home to a really nice space.</p>
<p>Crafty is good woody! 
One of our favorite tricks is to buy inexpensive fabric and soak it in starch mixture, dry and then iron on walls. It sticks to the walls and just pulls off when you are done leaving virtually no marks. If there are marks just wash the starch off with water and soap! My Grandma taught me this trick.</p>
<p>Would I hire someone to decorate my son’s dorm? Heck no. I did it for him. He asked for a bedspread, comforter and two sets of sheets for his freshman year. He still has them in his senior year. Decorated his walls with a couple of posters. Then, the second year of college, I offered to frame a few posters so they could be hung in the living room of his suite (breaks up all that white space). My mom made pillows for the sofa in the college’s fabric. He has requested another one or two pillows from my mom, because he and his friends love them.</p>
<p>This strikes me as tacky - nouveau riche. My kids would be mortified at such a conspicuous display of excessive spending. It’s fine to buy the usual assortment of shower curtains for window treatments, posters, shelving units, etc., and it’s a great opportunity for kids to get creative, if they want to, but this misses the point completely. </p>
<p>My daughter is in her 3rd year in a dorm and she and her mates enjoyed gussying up their rooms - all on a reasonable budget. Hiring a decorator just sends the wrong message, even if you can afford it. Dorm life is communal living and it is important to fit in, not set yourself above others. </p>
<p>Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son just moved into USC, and it looks like they did not hire a decorator for his room, which appears to be very standard fare:</p>
<p>[PIC:</a> Maria Shriver Helps Son Patrick Schwarzenegger Move Into College Dorm - UsMagazine.com](<a href=“http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/patrick-schwarzenegger-and-maria-2012228]PIC:”>PIC: Maria Shriver Helps Son Patrick Schwarzenegger Move Into College Dorm - Us Weekly)</p>
<p>Good for him - looks like his mom gets it!</p>
<p>I love this kid’s room. He is, himself, an interior decorator :)</p>
<p>[The</a> Preppy, Eclectic Dorm Room of Drew University Senior Maximilian Sinsteden - Home Design Spring 2009 – New York Magazine](<a href=“http://nymag.com/homedesign/spring2009/56426/]The”>The Preppy, Eclectic Dorm Room of Drew University Senior Maximilian Sinsteden - Home Design Spring 2009 -- New York Magazine - Nymag)</p>
<p>Love that kid’s room!</p>
<p>No. I’m proud to say my daughter designed her room all by herself. She also paid for most all of her wallhangings, linens and miscellaneous objets d’art herself from her summer job. I have no idea how much she spent but I’d bet 2 months of my pension that it was less than that mom paid for a semester’s worth of laundry service.</p>
<p>From post #35, slide 4,
</p>
<p>I havent hanged anything successfully with a suction cup. It keeps falling down. I wonder what is his secret? He must have used krazy glue on those suction cups.</p>
<p>I think the whole thing is ridiculous. None of those rooms aren’t anything that anybody couldn’t do for a fraction of the cost. My daughter and all her friends enjoyed making their dorm rooms pretty, but I’m pretty sure they would have muttered the words “what a ****** bag” under their breaths if they knew a student had a decorator. I don’t care how anybody spends their money, but IMO, it is tacky.</p>
<p>I was expecting a set of free weights in Arnold’s son’s room.</p>