Earlier we looked at color and lighting inspiration from creative college students on a budget from The New York Times. Now, we're moving on to inspiration for artwork and various ideas of adornment...

Michelle Nicholls, a graduate student in architecture at Pratt, used wood she found on the street to make the diagonal shelves (top) and she repurposed Styrofoam vegetable trays for the art installation on her wall: The Carrot Tray, Reborn.

Young Nam Heller and his wife Ariana are experts at painting and refinishing street finds (the blue chest with the branch is theirs). They combine Young's illustration skills and graphic art paintings with a high-gloss, Anthropologie-ish aesthetic: Gloss Meets Urban Noir.

Katherine Carroll, a student at RISD, used a hand-made polka dot stencil to unite all the rooms in her tiny Providence, RI house: Stencil Happy, Dotting the Walls.

Lauren Chapman, a graduate architecture student at Yale, mimicked high-end design and flourished with cardboard silhouettes: A Glue Gun and a Dream.

All part of a larger story — Thinking Like a Student and a slideshow.

Images: Phil Mansfield for The New York Times