If you ever thought that the only option for a dorm room was a shade of blah mixed with a dash of clutter and a state of chaos, then behold: a simple, glamorous dorm room that won't break the bank and isn't too much to commit to for just a year.
With a simple coat of paint, a diy headbard, repurposed nightstands and some lamps that you could find at Target or JC Penny you have great bones for the start of a very glamorous room. Take it further by framing some prints over the bed and adding a soft shag underfoot. You could add a punch of cranberry or turquoise to the bed if you wanted more oomph. And a reading light next to the chair along with a throw would assure that you get all your reading done for class.
The bonus is that all of these pieces would be able to transition into an 'adult place' when college is over.
(Images: Deco-Marce)
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Comments (43)
it helps to have good bones... is that a wood floor?? We got cinderblock walls (no painting!) and nasty old laminate floors. Also, no taking their ugly furniture out of the room.
She's done a fabulous job regardless though! :P
Wow! Hard to believe that's a dorm room.
The reason why it seems that the "only option for a dorm room was a shade of blah mixed with a dash of clutter and a state of chaos" is because all of the things that make the above room look great (paint and new furniture) are not permitted in most dorms. You might be able to swap out furniture, but you still have to store it somewhere, otherwise you'll get fined. Ditto for paint.
Not to mention how spacious this looks. It's pretty easy to keep your room uncluttered and peaceful when you're not sharing it with two other people and all their stuff. This is a nice example of a bedroom, but not a good or practical example for most dorm rooms.
That's a DORM? At my college, a room that size would have been for three people.
That is gorgeous! But, sharing a space half that size with block walls and VCT floors (and no painting, no removing furniture from rooms) would make it rather tough to duplicate on most campuses...
My dorm looked NOTHING like this. For instance, I had a roommate - don't most people in dorms?
Yeah, I'm kind of picturing that all of her stuff is in one big landfill heap on the other side of the room. Otherwise it's quite lovely.
Are we basing the fact that this is a dorm room on the title of the image being "Mi dormitorio"? Because that just means bedroom, not dorm room. See here: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dormitorio#Usage_notes
nice but aren't dorm rooms shared? or am I showing my age? I imagine an evil roommate and her boyfriend with muddy shoes on the white bed and awful posters on the other size of the room.
a white quilt doesn't seem practical when the bed is where you eat, study, hang out with friends.
A double bed! I just had one of those "extra long" twins, plus nasty carpet, cinderblock walls, standard-issue desk...This is beautiful though, I would go back to school if I could live there.
(Well, not really though.)
I went to a school with an overabundance of single rooms, so I only had a roommate for two of my three years in dorms - but then, that situation's very uncommon; I don't know of any other schools where people who wanted a roommate might get 'stuck' with a single. And then, the rooms were about 100 sq ft, including built-in closet. A double bed wouldn't fit even if you let it take up the entire room... and that's not even getting started on the fact that painting walls is, at most schools, incredibly forbidden.
In other words, yes, it's a nice job. But in terms of making a dorm homey, one of the hardest challenges in design, Marcela's "cheated" by having huge advantages that 99.99% of dorm-dwellers can't even hope for.
The hard part would be how to hide the ugly furniture that comes along with the dorm. And making sure that your roommate doesn't mind you taking up all the space!
That being said, I love the color scheme of the photos!
LMAO, Apartment Therapy. This is a bedroom...not a dorm room. Dormitorio can mean a dorm room, but in this case she's just referring to her bedroom. She's a 30-something year old interior designer who lives in Buenos Aires...not a college student.
dormitory doesn't mean college exclusively. that said, the pod lights indicate this is not a dormitory of any kind. i defer to the bedroom comment.
wow--nice job. I've lived in dorm rooms in the US and Europe and never had anything this spacious-seeming with hardwoods and room for a full size bed! decadent. Maybe this is a newer university (the older the school, usually the smaller and meaner the accommodations)?
um yep, gotta agree with CrazyLady.
read the Flickr profile.
Good catch, CrazyLady - upon looking at the photo stream this came from, it's pretty blatantly not a university dormitory of any kind, just a reasonably well-designed apartment.
Somebody has been watching way too much Gossip Girl if they think this could ever be possible!
That looks nothing like any dorm room I ever lived in.
That's a regular ol' bedroom, not a dorm room. I love the room, though. Great headboard, lamps, wall color ...
It does look lovely, but realistically would not occur in most dorm settings. All of my dorm room furniture was stock issued and non-negotiable, the walls were covered in nubby material so you could hang or pin things to the walls without ruining them, and was small enough that the two people sharing the room could practically reach over and hold hands from their respective beds and sides of the room.
Are you sure this isn't just this person's bedroom? I think "Dormitorio" means bedroom when it's in a house.
hahahaaaa
yep.
right....a dorm room.
hahaa
And no one has yet mentioned the handy crystal chandelier...
heh. it would be cool if AT did an actual post on real college dorm rooms (not just bedrooms, or maybe even hotel rooms as they may be). there is a lot of good material out there on Flickr.
for instance...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32432343@N06/4099698034/
must be a very expensive private college dorm room, cause I aint never seen a dorm room looking that big in my University that hosted over 50,000 students.
I want a link on how to make THAT headboard, though the article calls it a "headbard" haha it's only Wednesday editors come on!
I agree happyleaf! Send me a link on how to make that particular headboard!
Beautiful room! ...but I agree in that it's not a dorm room. At all. Dorms have horrid floors, nasty paint colors, and caveats like no painting. And roommates. It'd be really great to see more *real* dorm rooms here on AT - college students need help, too!
this doesn't look like a dorm room because it is not a dorm room. Dormitorio is a way to say bedroom. also this girl is not a student anywhere:
http://www.flickr.com/people/deco-marce/
Wow, semantics aside, AP has a tendency to be out of touch from time to time but this takes the cake.
I would like to see the makeover of a standard issue dorm room. Concrete block walls, twin beds with just enough room between them to walk down the middle of the room, standard issue honey maple desks and wardrobes that you have to live with and some really harsh fluorescent lights.
no way that is a dorm. there are what looks like recessed halogen lighting! hahaha
How about a dorm room contest? I mean, you guys do "Small Cool" and "Room for Color" --- how about doing one for the very constrained space that is the dorm room? There have got to be creative uses of space all over the world, and I'd love to see them!
Haha, wow! This article is beyond sloppy. The author clearly has never lived in a dorm before. There is nothing about this room that resembles a dorm. Two things that made me laugh: the chandelier and the supposed "DIY" headboard.
When I lived in student residence I had teensy rooms with torn up paint from posters put up with tape and ripped off, institutional grey furniture including a plastic-covered foam mattress, fluorescent tube ceiling lights, and a mini fridge. But I have awesome memories of those drab little rooms!
hello?? AT, wanna comment?
wow. DISAPPOINTED in this post.
Do a little research before posting the title please.
Forgot - shout out to Scoot! Cute dorm room -
wish my daughter's had hardwood or simulation thereof vs. nasty dark green/blue carpet that who knows what is hibernating in there. Awww...the joys of college :)
maybe hotels are calling their small rooms dorm rooms?
This post is hilarious. Has the definition of "dorm" been secretly changed?
Seriously, something like this would never be possible for a student to attain in a dorm. The average student couldn't even do this in a rented place, because 99.9% of all student housing is crap... and when you start with crap, you can't end with something like the above. DIY my keester. Not on a student budget.
Thanks for the laughs, everybody.
I agree with St@cy. Do you have a comment, AT? It's not a big deal that you didn't further research spanish or the Flickr user, but can you at least change "headbard?" It's driving me crazy.
Yeah I'm going to g'head and join in on calling shenanigans on this alleged dorm room. A double bed and wood floors?! Even in the old buildings at my college they had long since covered the original wood floors with grody grey carpet.
That's no DIY headboard... Unless you're a professional upholsterer. Then, yeah. Sure.
AT--are you kidding? A year after you took a scolding about this not being a dorm room and you post it AGAIN??
Still not doing your homework, eh?