Congratulations: You just dished out 50 grand to share an itsy-bitsy box of a room with a stranger! Even if you were lucky enough to cash in on a dingle or one of those ridiculous Willard triples large enough to raise a family in, it’s just not the same as home. However, the hip and innovative dorm dwellers should have no trouble bringing a special touch to their half of that 15-foot-by-12-foot patch of glory.
First, the obvious: making those industrial white walls feel cozy, with a slew of posters, pictures, road signs or illegally draped medieval tapestries. (See Housekeeping and Safety Regulations, Item 6: “Room decorations are permitted except for hanging blankets, tapestries, rugs, or fishnets.”) Decorate your walls with whatever suits your fancy, fishnets aside; creativity counts here. I recommend kites, pages torn out of foreign magazines (preferably Japanese) and homemade abstract paintings on giant, drapey canvases.
When bringing photographs from home, though, some lines shouldn’t be crossed. While pictures of little brothers and best friends are comforting in the big, scary, real world, a painstakingly handmade, wall-consuming mural of every single friend, neighbor, lunch lady, third cousin and bus driver you’ve ever known sends a different message: That you are so in love with your old friends that you don’t want new ones, or that you are trying to “prove to people that you actually did have friends,” as Weinberg freshman Nicole Collins put it.
If you have no access to double-sided tape and/or are allergic to decorations, you can always paint your walls. Yes, at the university that bans its supposedly intelligent students from operating personal microwaves, we can paint our own rooms – as long as it’s in accordance with the official Room Painting Policy, that is. It makes for an entertaining read if you’re sick of your Russian Lit assignment. If you have the time and ambition to brighten the gloom of your room (and forever leave your mark on your residence) the following colors of University-provided latex paint are available: “Peach Cooler, Atrium White, Gray Mist, Lemon Chiffon, Bone White, Lido Green, Green Frappé, Sugarplum, Sweet Bluette and Pink Essence.” Quite a selection, but keep in mind that “only one color may be used per room,” and that “the entire wall must be covered with this chosen color.” In addition, “plastering, caulking or spackling must be performed by the University.” Sincerest apologies to all the spackling enthusiasts out there – you picked the wrong school.
Wall decorating is pretty clutch, but sleeping is not optional, so open a whole new window for room beautification by decorating your bed. Turning a flimsy extra-long mattress on a dinky bed frame into a haven of rest is no small task. I’ve seen everything from the basic white sheet set to the more exotic silk comforter to a retina-burning fuchsia quilt, with every imaginable accessory in between: fleece throws, body pillows and those couchy-lounge backrests that may or may not have an obscure name. And, as long as you leave your door open to do the being social/friend-making thing, your bed will now double as a couch for a parade of foreign butts visiting your room. Communal living: gotta love it!
On to my favorite dorm decoration: fooooood. Okay, so edibles technically aren’t ornamentation, unless you count that growing pile of multicolored Nutrigrain wrappers taking over the desk and floor; but seriously, snacks are an integral component in achieving dorm-room harmony. I can’t stress the convenience of having some spoons, bowls and cups handy as well, especially of the disposable variety, since doing dishes in college is like doing homework over the summer. By now, you’ve figured out how well those cute, brightly colored plastic cups from the kid section at Ikea double as extra-large shot glasses, and your original food supply (if you were resourceful enough to bring one) has probably been tapped. Bring on the era of overpriced Easy Mac from the C-stores and cereal in Zip Loc bags stolen from the dining hall!
When it comes down to it, though, the quirky details are what make a tiny room feel less like a temporary living situation and more like home. Look for the guy down the hall who has not one, but two Rubik’s cubes on his bookshelf (bonus points for a 4×4 or 5×5 cube in addition to the traditional 3×3). He just might hold a world record in speedcubing – Northwestern students are full of surprises. Communications freshman Nandita Seshadri brought a collection of frogs (of the plush and porcelain variety, not the croaking kind) that she’s been amassing since she was nine. That is definitely a conversation starter, for all you floor hoppers and hoor floppers (like drunk dialing but with dorms instead of phones).
In Music freshman Andrew Kim’s room, you’ll notice that the radiator isn’t a radiator at all, but a piano fashioned with a cleverly positioned keyboard, which he uses to compose music. Weinberg sophomores Jenny Yoo and Amy Zhu not only decorated their rooms with Marilyn Monroe and Breakfast at Tiffany’s posters, but they also have all the accessories for dress up to match. Those are examples how to make a room your own, not just a cookie-cutter abode of practicality.
It’s only been two weeks since move-in day, but hopefully by now your room reflects the art freak/new-wave prep/other Breakfast Club stereotype that you are.