Return to Painting and Decorating Library Index
Dorm Room Decorating Decisions
by Gail McCauley
As the summer winds to a close, college bound young adults ponder their dorm room design schemes for the upcoming year. When it comes to planning, college students usually think in terms of temporary, short term intervals. Dorm living is all the about the three "F's": function, fashion and fun! Can you think of a more favorable way to creatively fashion a transitional space than with the exciting use of color and paint?!
Divided wooden boxes (such as old tool boxes) with a handle provide handy storage for toiletries and cosmetics. Clear jars with lids (such as simple canning jars) offer ideal choices for housing small desk accessories like paper clips, staples, "post it" note pads and erasers. Often used items (i.e. cellular phones) can be dispersed within decorative baskets and bowls for quick and easy accessibility. Any of these storage vessels may be primed and creatively painted according to the student's color preferences or room theme.
Carefully considered transitional spaces are designed with furnishings
and accessories that are made for compact and temporary living. Furnishings
that fold or contain wheels offer the ability for increased dorm room
space when not in use. A folding chair painted with a whimsical motif
can function as a bedside table, or as extra seating for unexpected guests.
A portable, hand painted storage cart that coordinates with a themed room
offers the ability to serve as a television stand, makeshift coffee table
or to accommodate a laptop computer.
For inexpensive "quick fixes", consider adding paint to file cabinets, wastebaskets, tissue holders, bookends and other desk accessories. Even empty shoe boxes can be transformed into customized storage containers with a healthy dose of color! If painting on the walls is permitted, explore the possibility of painting an accent wall, mural or ceiling for an visually stimulating twist of the unexpected.
Remember, virtually any surface is a potential paint candidate for the dorm room space. One last thought: what if your newly independent dorm dweller grows tired of his colorful dorm creation? The beauty of paint provides for a rapid change of existing color palette without a major financial investment!
Gail McCauley for the
Rohm and Haas Paint
Quality Institute