apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

yay, I went to OU! Go to IKEA in Pittsburg and rock out!

No, wait! Its your college apt, with your college boyfriend. Don't take it too seriously or spend much $$, just fill in with curb-finds (Athens is great for this) and ditch it all when you move to NYC and get your fab-o first real job. ;-)

I second the furnish-it-cheap. I loved my college apartment - the furniture was all second-hand, but what made it feel special and *ours* - and not collegey! - was the art. First of all, we painted the living room - whitewashed walls are the college apt kiss of death. And then it was decorated not with tacked-up posters but with real, framed art in the living room, and a series of Mucha prints (torn from an old calendar) in the kitchen. The layout above looks smart, but keep furniture cheap - so you can leave it behind - or easily moveable so you can take it with you. But if at all possible, paint your walls.

I agree with jaime -- paint has the biggest impact. Then,get the basics (bed, couch, table and chairs) cheap and unify them with color. One of the cutest and most pulled together "college" apartments I have seen was decorated very simply. All the wood furniture was painted black and all the accessories and bedding, etc. were yellow. (And, no, it did not look like a bumble bee.)

By the way, how the heck do you send a question in to AT. I sent one into editor@apartmenttherapy.com and it came back as undeliverable.

Congratulations! You have what would be called a Jr. Two-bedroom or a non-classic four if it were in Manhattan.

It's got a pretty good layout already. The only real challenge is the living room. What to do with that irregular nook at the far end? I say put an overstuffed chair or a chaise longue there for a bright AND cozy reading area.

I recommend against a dining table that seats four as it may make the adjoining living area seem smaller. Buy a counter-height table and make it an extension of your kitchen counter and push two counter height chairs (no stools) against it. That way you can cook and entertain at the same time. You can also use it for a study area.

Don't go overboard at IKEA. Pick accent pieces (lamps, linens, a chair, etc...) from there. Hopefully you live in a city that has a large enough metropolitan area to have a craigslist type community. Buying nice used items is usually better and cheaper than buying new items from IKEA.

If you can't find cheap stuff in Athens, head down the road to Marietta, where I went to college, and ransack the thrift store on Front Street.

I must concur on the art tip. Unless you know you'll be there for a long time (med school?) you might as well save your furniture coinage and get some cool stuff for the walls. Click on my link to check out some affordable, original stuff (not your style? no worries). I've bought from lucia before and have been happy.

I don't have any better arrangement advice than has been given above. I will say that the best thing I had in my grad school apartment was a big dining table to spread out my homework on. There was a lot of it, and I probably spent more time sitting at that table than anywhere else (including bed!).

If you think this will be the case for you, put good effort into making functional workspaces for each of you (sharing rarely works). Get a nice comfortable chair, a desk that you love and make the space feel wonderful to be in.

You may even look forward to homework! :)

if you can, get down there the week of graduation this spring, and do your furniture scalping- I'm sure there must be a cheap storage place to put that excellent sofa you'll score off some grad's yard sale. Otherwise, you'll find slim pickings come fall.

can you still get 90 cent beers at the Union? oh the memories....and that was only 9 years ago!

;-)

I'd die to live in Ohio just for the cheap rents! I helped a friend find an apartment (through craigslist) and he pays $575 for a two bedroom townhouse in Columbus! But getting back to it, Craigslist all the way.

I know IKEA is also cheap new, but its even cheaper used. Thrift stores vary from city, to city, but if there's a Goodwill nearby, they usually carry Target overstock. Goodwill can be a nice resource for dishes and a few other items.

Good luck on your new college apartment, I'm not sure if any of the other people commenting are college students, but I know what you're going through because I'm going through it myself.

Hey guys,

thanks for all the suggestions. We do have a re-sale place in Athens called "new to you" and "reuse it" so I will be sure to scope out those places.

I like the idea of buying a counter-height table. Seeing as the kitchen area opens up into the living room it would be a nice place to sit and be able to talk to someone in the kitchen.

As for 90 cent beers at The Union, I'm afraid those days are gone. But I dare say that for such a small town there is a plethora of cheap drinking and eating options. Oh how I love the worker-owned Casa Nueva in town. Great burritos made with locally grown ingredients, free-range meat and fresh salsa. yum.

Rent is cheap here, about $775 a month for the apartment above, splitting that between two people of course.

The nook at the far end of the living room is more of a window box that you can sit in. I'm guessing we'll be piling that with pillows seeing as I can't keep plants alive.

Any tips on storage options for clothes? Splitting a closet between two people is not going to be easy. Any cheap ideas on how to do that?

Cheap places online for art? I've used e-bay before to find stuff and scoped out the student art shows.

PS: where exactly is the TV in the living room? I'm assuming it's on the far right side of the rendering.

Jen, have you been to the art dept on campus? Talk to some art majors. They have loads of ideas. Also, some of them might be willing to part with earlier pieces they don't want or need. Even better, if you model for the art dept, you could get paid and get some inexpensive personal art. Have you considered photography? Even if you don't think you're Ansel Adams, you can shoot some cool B& W's with a simple camera and frame your own art.

I am also a college student with a cheap (as cheap as I could find in NYC) first apartment. I'm still in the process of furnishing and decorating it, but let me tell you the thing that made the biggest difference (bigger even than painting the walls, which instantly warmed up the place): custom shelving. It was utterly necassary for storage and organization, and tailoring them to the apartment makes it look much more personal and less "college student." Just measure your spaces and get cheap wood cut at the lumber yard. Order decorative brackets online, maybe ebay. Then, paint the shelves and brackets any color your want. Kind of time consuming, but so worth it. If you do some searching for deals it will be relatively cheap.

My boyfriend and I are on our third college apartment, and I'm still having fun with the decorating, it's so exciting!
Anyway, in addition to good art and bookshelves, I would add good lighting (Ikea) and an interesting rug in the living room. These will make the whole place look a little more grown up.
Also, definitely try to make separate study spaces for both of you, even if it means sacrificing some seating in the living room.
Figure out what sort of clothes storage you need and go to Ikea for things to make your closets more efficient. Then look for used dressers.
And a note on used furniture - try and find stuff that's real wood, not pasteboard/fiberboard stuff. A lot of older furniture is very well made, and even with a few scratch marks it'll look better than stuff you get new for the same cost. And of course, if you have parents or relatives nearby, search their basements and attics for old furniture of theirs that they will lend to a good cause like yours.
Good luck, and have fun!

Hey... im a grad student myself, living with my boyfriend and the single most important thing is to have your desks outside of the bedroom. This way when one person needs to work they are not imposing on the others much needed sleep.
In my apartment the bedroom is what we made really nice so it would be a retreat, a place to get away from work.
Good luck

Have you thought about de-cluttering? Just get the best bed you can afford. A table to eat/study on. Good chairs for you and whoever lives with you. If you need a TV, get a wall unit and one good sofa. As for closets, just reduce your wardrobe. Just the bare necessities, but the best - not a clutter of junk. The moment you drain your savings for that bed you really want is the moment you start living a new life.

Casa Nueva is fantastic! My husband and I visit Athens to skate the most beautiful smooth concrete skatepark I've ever seen in person. (We live not-so-far away in Huntington, WV.)

Definitely put a desk in that great windowed alcove in the livingroom, and make that your primary study station. The other person could simultaneously study at the kitchen table and it looks like there might be room for a narrow bookshelf or corner shelf unit in that corner by the kitchen table, where you could possibly put one person's school stuff: books, files, printer.

As for bedroom storage, I'm visualizing a low dresser along the wall that backs up to the livingroom. And an armoire or high dresser between the closet door and closet/bathroom door on the "north" wall.

And yes, Craigslist! Don't be afraid to buy any crappy old dresser and armoire and then paint them to match in a fun hi-gloss color. (Any holes can easily be filled first with wood filler.) Then get matching knobs on eBay.

Also, get the little Ikea Klippan couch, either new or from Craiglist, and then buy a different cover here: http://www.bemz.com/products/2/3/17/0/11/front/
Easy to sell it to another student when you leave.

Good luck and send pictures in when you're done!

First of, I live on the West Coast now and I miss my undergrad days at O.U. The "Morning in the Hills" at Casa might just be my favorite breakfast of all time.

Moving on, check out Etsy.com for inexpensive art. My other advice is to try to find as many furniture pieces as possible that include storage, hidden or otherwise. For example, use a very low chest of drawers for a coffee table, find a bed with room for storage underneath and find shelves and bookcases that store as much as possible while taking up as little space as possible.

Good luck!

Definately go easy on the budget if you are not planning on being there long term. The last thing you want to do now is start collecting treasured pieces of furniture - which you are simply going to have to move too often in the coming years. Use a quality trestle table as a desk because it can also double as a dining table and is seriously easy when it comes to house moving. If you have not already got your computers go for laptops so you can stash them away when you want the apartment to look like home rather than an office.

Above all keep it simple - matching colours for furniture if you are buying new, and use linens that also match. Less is best.

You are better to buy some good art with the furniture fund if you can!

the OU art school frequently has student art sales in the front lobby.

opps - the front lobby of the art building.

"Any tips on storage options for clothes? Splitting a closet between two people is not going to be easy. Any cheap ideas on how to do that?"

My fiancee is constantly upgrading her wardrobe. I had to find a way to create some additional clothes space also. This is what we implemented and we both love it:

http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/IkeamsSearch?storeId=12&langId=-1&catalogId=10103&searchType=product&pageNumber=-1&orderBy=score&category=%23%7EProducts&query=stolmen

We bought the 2-drawer chest and two clothes rails to go with the supporting rails. Our apartment has 10-ft ceilings and this allowed us to almost double her available space for hanging clothes. We bought the drawer in dark wood. We had originally planned on enclosing it with some curtains. We nixed that idea as its attractive enough to leave in plain sight. The added advantage is that because it is tension-mounted, one only needs to insert 3 screws per supporting rail. This is important for a rental.

I also made a very striking bar height table in my previous apartment using a table top and legs from IKEA. They didn't have the dimensions I wanted from their normal tabletop selection, so I went to their kitchen department and bought a piece originally intended for use as a countertop. These items had more color options also.

I also second those that suggest you paint. You don't necessarily have to paint each room completely, but an accent wall in your living space and bedroom is highly recommended. That is probably the most cost-effective treatment in terms of value to pleasure.

However, I disagree with those that say spend the bare minimum on furniture. We may be saying the same thing, but don't buy something just because its cheap and it suits the practical purpose in mind. Buy used items with quality and personality. These are the two adjectives that tend to be lacking from the really cheap items at IKEA.

If you don't emotionally invest in your home, you won't be comfortable.

Looking for ideas on how to layout a room to accommodate a toddler and baby. I was thinking of a crude 2x4 bunk bed over the crib,but I want better ideas. thanks

Furnish it cheaply for now - you can get awesome stuff off of craigslist cheap. You must have wonderful luck to get that big of place in NY - you basically can use normal furniture everywhere and shouldn't have a problem with space.

I would say don't get over a dining table for four and then place it near the kitchen where a dining table should be. You already got a breakfast bar area - just let it be used as a buffet or place to store collections.

Please use the alcove in the living room to place one large desk - it could very well be used as the main study area in the apartment. Other than the desk, you probably shouldn't add more than maybe a loveseat and one or two sitting chairs - plus a tv stand - as major pieces of furniture. If you don't have an overlight in the main room, I would recommend a minimum of three lamps (and maybe even a small desk lamp in the alcove).

For the bedroom, keep it simple - bed, two nightstands with each having their own light (it's wonderful for couples at night), etc. If you need extra clothes storage, a nice armoire/wardrobe on the wall joining the living room would be good. Depending on how simple you want to keep it, you might possibly be able to fit a small reading chair in there.

I see three closets at least - possibly you could convert one into a small office...would let both of you have your own personal desk area.