The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 21, 2001 Page: 25 of 28
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21SEPTEMBER2001 _COVER
together, and you've velcroed your poster to
the wall. This works well because you can
always re-attach your poster without damag-
ing it.
FURNITURE
Dorm rooms seldom allow for a lot of extra
furniture — you and your roommates may fee!
at some point like bunking the beds just to get
out the door. Be aware that a few crucial and
practical pieces of furniture can help make any
dorm room more comfortable.
A common staple of the dorm room is the
futon. Perfect for both small and large living
spaces, a futon can work as a couch by day and
a bed by night if guests ever need a place to
sleep. Also, futon cushions usually have re-
movable covers, so they are much easier to
wash.
Students living in suites with a common
room have even more options. If your college
hasn't already had an auction, stay on the
lookout for any unwanted couches or arm
chairs. I.arge storage trunks can work well as
coffee tables. Some people have even used a
shopping cart for food storage.
Almost all furniture troubles can be solved
by Ikea (7810 Katy Freeway), just off Inter-
state Highway 10 toward Katy (exit Wirt Rd.).
You can find an array of affordable and trendy
accessories, ranging from picture frames to
fold-out couches. Target is a nearby option for
other basic furniture needs and easy additions
like bean bag chairs or throw rugs.
LIGHTING: SETTING THE MOOD
If the halogen lamp and the blinking light
fixture hanging from the ceiling aren't enough
to illuminate your little corner of the world, a
few extra additions to the visual character of
the room can't hurt. Parents always tell their
kids reading in dim light damages the eyes.
Here's a chance to listen to their suggestion
and add some mood lighting to your humble
abode.
One classic example of dorm room flare is
the use of holiday lights (no, they're not just
for December anymore). Though they may
not help you read your chemistry book, they
certainly add some pizzazz and happiness to a
room, and they are usually reasonably priced.
Japanese paper lanterns provide another
great source of light and decoration. Ranging
in price from about $10 to $14, they come in
simple solid colors or in more elaborate de-
signs, giving off a soft glowing light for those
moments when you need to rest your eyes
after all that studying. You can purchase the
lanterns at places like Cost Plus World Market
or Urban Outfitters, but don't forget to com-
pare lamp kit prices (the electric cord comes
separate from the lamp itself), as these can
differ depending on the store.
QUICK FIXES
Not surprisingly, college students
barely have enough to time to eat, sleep and
party, let alone decorate their dorm rooms.
And they often don't have the money for much
else either. So for the student on the go and on
a budget, here are a few quick, economical
suggestions to give a room some personality.
SARONGS
These are great for wearing at the beach or
on a summer's day, but they don't have to
hang off your body to be useful. Sarongs can
work as makeshift curtains, bedspreads or
even poster substitutes. Hang them up for a
colorful effect. They take up a lot of space, and
no room can ever look dull with pink-and-
purple-splashed material covering the walls.
POSTCARDS
No, I do not just mean the kind your aunt
sends you from her vacations in Florida. Cute,
interesting and eye-catching, postcards are
small but cheap ways of perking up those off-
white walls. Take a stroll into Rice Village one
afternoon and visit Iconography for a wide
array of quirky shots. Frequently, at music
stores or places like Urban Outfitters, you'll
find free postcards near the cash registers,
and these are sometimes the best kinds of
decoration.
PAINT YOUR FRIDGE
Basically, be creative. Start a project with
your roommates one afternoon and paint your
refrigerator door or that old coffee table some-
one found at a junk sale for $5. If you know any
architecture majors, ask them to bring home
some goodies from Anderson Hall. An extra
crate or an architecture major's defunct con-
traption can make for an interesting addition
to the room.
ORGANIZE
After putting together a fabulous room with
personality and atmosphere, how can you keep
it livable and (relatively) clean? As the year
progresses, the levels of stress heighten. You'll
have a harder time finding those extra disks or
printing cartridges at 6 a.m. the morning your
paper is due if you don't organize your stuff
early in the year.
44
Experienced college students have
already learned that a dorm room
Is not just a bedroom or a
sitting area, but a
place of congregation, study and,
sometimes, absolute chaos."
No one expects flawlessness. (Remember
the saying, "A clean house is a sign of a mis-
spent life?" The same applies to college liv-
ing.) In fact, any room that's too perfect is
utterly intolerable. Who can live in a sterile
environment? But knowing where you've
stored your extra underwear is hardly perfec-
tion. An easy way to keep things organized is
to buy plastic drawers or crates in which to
store extra bathroom or school supplies. You
can purchase these at Target, and often they'll
stack easily.
The best way to make your room feel a little
larger is to maximize the space you do have. If
your bed isn't bunked, take advantage of the
storage potential under the bed and add a
pullout drawer or some of the bigger
Rubbermaid containers. Also, use hanging
hooks for jackets or towels.
For all those papers you've begun to col-
lect, nothing helps more than a plastic accor-
dion file. However obvious the suggestion
may seem, separating the papers for each
class in the end a basic filing system can help
immensely. No matter how hard anyone tries,
loose papers will always fly around the dorm
room. Eliminating as many of these as pos-
sible never hurts.
A hanging shoe rack, also available at your
nearest Target location, alleviates some of the
mess in your closet. Plus, you can find the
shoes more easily and probably take better
care of them.
BEYOND THE BEDROOM
Just because you don't live in your
hallway doesn't mean you can't help enhance
your communal
living space. It
is the responsi-
bility of the stu-
dents to keep
dorms looking
unique and wel-
coming, which
in the end ben-
efits everyone.
Decorate your
door with
quotes, photos
or pictures. Put up a magnetic poetry board
inviting all of the closet poets to take their
chances and have their say. Cover your hall
with butcher paper and put out markers so
people can contribute pictures or thoughts.
Anything goes.
Decorating tips aside, the best advice for
any student is to design his or her own indi-
vidual living space according to personal taste
and style. Big blue couches, inflatable furni-
ture and plants — they all make for a good
place to live. I won't recommend IHOP mats or
other stolen goods, but they do add a little
something extra to a room.
If you spent most of your former life living
in a room your parents decorated or even if
you didn't, here's a chance to express yourself
and create a new home away from home. See
you at Ikea! ■
ROB GADDI THRES
LIFESTYLES 5
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Liu, Leslie & Reichle, Robert. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 21, 2001, newspaper, September 21, 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443179/m1/25/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.