Great Roommates?

We received an amusing email from AT reader "joycircle":

I told myself I would never have another roommate, potato chip crumbs on the couch, undies on the bathroom floor. Often I wondered how cool it would be if a roommate actually cared about decor. Well, a good friend of mine is building a house and is staying with me for a while. Both of the bedrooms in the house are 12 by 14. He pretty much out classes me. Even though he knows the living situation is temporary, he felt a need to make it like home. That seams real grownup to me. The picture above is of his posh 168 square feet, and below, my 168 square feet attempt at a Zen escape (I spy IKEA). Both bedrooms, somehow, exist in the same house.

Reading this, we realized there's not a whole lot of attention paid to roommate woes (or the best roommate situations ever) here on AT. We want to know: How many of you out there live with a roommate? Do your styles coexist in sweet harmony or send you to tears?

All photos and stories welcome! Email us at: chicago(at)apartmenttherapy(dot)com

One more look at "Posh" vs. "Zen":

Comments (10)

I live in a one bedroom by myself for the simple fact that I've had roommates that were crazy.

I'm in the military so I've had to deal with some roommate situations before that I wouldn't have chosen for myself. Between dealing with one girl who blasted Celine Dion music at 3 am and refused to clean, another one who decided to make our room her personal night club/hair braiding salon, another who's boyfriend used to stay over and drink all my Red Bull, and another who decided to turn our room into a shrine to elves, fairies and creepy stuffed animals (she was 37 years old!) I finally couldn't take it anymore.

posted by ll on September 5th 2007 at 9:37am
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I live alone for mostly reasons of style like you mentioned. I have had some great roomates but they liked very bland Ikea'ish spaces while I like something with more personality, warmth and classic. I give up space and only have a studio ( albeit a large one ) but it's so worth it so that I have my own place that is a home for me. I've painted every rental I've ever lived in and now that I own I've taken even further steps to personalize my space.

posted by shurraycmu on September 5th 2007 at 11:35am
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I love bright, tacky colors (my bathroom is pink and lime green).
My roommate is allergic to them.

I thought I had a lot of Stuff.
The roommate has at least twice as much.

I like nice closed cabinet doors so things are less chaotic.
Roommate likes to see all his stuff on shelves.
Except he hates tchotchkes and useless things so I can't decorate for holidays...or decorate, really. Not that there is room on any of the surfaces, because they have (his) stuff all over them.

The only decorating thing we have in common is that both of us tend towards clean lines, more modern than traditional.

Someday I'll be able to afford to move out...

posted by thursday on September 5th 2007 at 12:23pm
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I think your room is cool. The other one looks more morbid than classy.

posted by Sisero on September 5th 2007 at 12:57pm
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I agree with Sisero.

Top one reminds me slightly of Morticia and Gomez's bedroom from the Adam's family... upperclass creepy. It's just to dark.

I need colour to survive! I love the wall your bed's up against!! I wish I had the guts to do that.

Your friend seems to like red and dark brown.. a little too much.

posted by venus_thames on September 5th 2007 at 4:30pm
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oh sweet jesus, that is NOTHING to be jealous of ....

posted by bud smith on September 5th 2007 at 9:17pm
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This kind of reminds me of a Trading Spaces before/after montage.

posted by stonelake on September 6th 2007 at 7:54am
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I don't really have anything to say about the rooms, but YES! to the notion that AT talk about apartment dwelling with roommates. How about a contest for us? I live with two roommates I found on Craigslist, who in turn found each other on CL, and while I lucked out in their sheer and absolute awesomeness, working out aesthetics of a shared space, or even HOW to talk about these is a bit of a challenge (just puzzling).

posted by wordling on September 6th 2007 at 8:13am
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I like individual pieces of the first room, but all together, it's so dark and...serious. I love your floating shelves on the water! They look like little boats of books :)

I'd also love to see more AT posts on roommate-ing. Also, maybe more discussion on moving in/decorating with a S.O.

posted by cptmoll on September 6th 2007 at 9:30am
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I live with something called a boyfriend. He likes Ethan Allen. I like Moss. He thinks he has a modern sensibility, but his idea of modern is Shaker furniture.

He also likes wearing dark navy ties with black suits. He is color-blind (in the metaphorical sense, not in the real sense). And he is stubborn.

I tolerate his style because there are more important things to me. But how can you convince someone that when it comes to decorating, the woman is always right. Unless you're gay.*

*I'm just kidding. Not all gay men have good taste.

posted by jchan on September 6th 2007 at 2:03pm
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