DRESSING UP THE DORM
How to make your small space home
The move from the family home to a dorm room is a big one for young people, filled with a lot of firsts: leaving home, figuring out who you are away from your family and meeting a lot of new people (including one you may have to share a space with).
A good way to embrace the fun and freedom this move represents is by decorating your new space with abandon, says Vancouver designer Ami McKay of Pure Design.
“It’s all about atmosphere,” McKay says. “This is the first time students are moving out of their house and showing their personality, so don’t stop, you can’t really overdo it.”
A few years ago, McKay flew to New York to help a friend’s daughter with her new dorm room at NYU. “We hit Bed Bath & Beyond and they have this really cool campus checklist online and it gives you specifically every item you need,” she says.
Most dorm rooms provide a single bed and that’s it, says McKay, who recommends starting with bedding as it’s the easiest way to transform a space and says one of the best items she found on the checklist was bed lifts, which allow for under-bed storage.
“It’s like an upside-down cup, so goes underneath the four posts of your bed and lifts the bed up so you can turn that into fantastic storage.”
Though painting the walls is usually not an option in dorm rooms, creating a feature wall can be done quite easily and achieves the same effect, says McKay.
“I was just looking at designs from Philippe Starck and he just hung — in this amazing expensive hotel, I think it’s in Paris — this remarkable textile above the bed and it’s this white room with this vintage textile.”
Decorating doesn’t always require big bucks, says McKay, who recently gave this advice to her friend’s son, who was moving into an empty house with three other guys: “Go get some clothesline twine and hang it across from one side of the wall to the other, just put two hooks, and then have an art party and have your friends come and paint some crazy stuff. And then just hang it on the twine.”
Adding plants to a space is not only great for your health but also budget friendly (hanging plants are popular right now and take no desk space), she says, and small items can make all the difference.
“This is the time to start going out and thinking of surrounding yourself with objects that you really love,” she says.
“Having pretty little coffee cups and plates that make you happy every day when you have your morning cup of tea or coffee.
“Don’t buy an ugly cup, that’s your one cup.”
Adding a great area rug, she says, is another easy way to add personality and, if you’re sharing a room with someone, you could go together and choose one.
“Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters have great area rugs,” she says.
“Really cute, and then you can also buy the string lights. Urban outfitters is just as much male as it is female, you can get a turntable there: go get records and a turntable and be the coolest place to hang out in your residence.”
McKay also recommends Main Street’s Vancouver Special and Nineteen Ten as great local places for original accessories.
When approaching dorm decor, Vancouver interior designer Gillian Segal says forget you’re decorating a dorm and apply the same design principals you would to any other space, starting with lighting.
“One of the biggest things that make those rooms so uninviting is the lighting,” she says. “It’s usually fluorescent or overhead lighting. As designers we always try to provide lighting at all different eye levels, so you have some from the ceiling, but also some coming from floor lamps or table lamps because it creates a warmer atmosphere and is also more flattering because you get less shadows.”
Segal suggests buying plug-in pendants that you can plug into normal outlets and then run the cord up the wall and hang it off a hook.
Buying some small pieces of furniture, like poofs or stools, are great for when friends come over, she says, and a headboard (or two, for a daybed type look) can make all the difference.
“Having a headboard makes it feel less like a prison and more like a bedroom.”
Segal says investing in a good rug means it’s something you can take with you, recommending Burritt Bros, Colin Campbell, CB2 and onekingslane.com. For those wanting to take dorm decor to the next level, she suggests Tempaper (temporary wallpaper):
“They have a huge range of all these basic adhesive wallpaper panels that you can install yourself.”