The Anti-Maximilian Dorm Room

While the internet gets swept up in this rad, preppy, over the top dorm room (which we totally appreciate by the way) we thought we'd find its antithesis: something simple, something clutter free and totally minimal:

Irksome Cushion's Dorm Room is everything we aspire to create in our own home (don't even get us started on what our dorm room looked like): it's not unnecesarily complicated or cluttered, it's light and bright and dotted with just a few details like the branch of blossoms and the artwork above the bed. The workspace is simple and practical and the whole tiny space feels approachable and inviting (and clean!). In our own lives, collections of all the stuff we love and can't live without seriously gets in the way of recreating this aesthetic. So even though we love this look and the look of Maximilian's Dorm, our own style falls somewhere in between: not chock full and not zenned out.

Do you have a dorm room that you want to share? School's almost out so finish up those projects and upload your photos to the Apartment Therapy Flickr Pool.

(Image: irksomecushion's flickr)

Comments (21)

I paid over $1000/month for a dorm room half that size, and shared...damn.

I loooove this dorm room! I just wish my dorm room could have been so neat, but there was only so much I could do with a sloppy dorm mate.

Thumbs up!

www.girlwhimsy.blogspot.com

Looks like the mini fridge door doesn't open up all the way. But seems easy to grab a midnight snack.

My teens have always preferred the 'clothes all over the floor' decor. lol. This dorm looks really nice.

I'd be much happier in this dorm than the maximilian one.

I think I tend to fall in the middle of these two extremes myself. :-)

Hell, even I get messy every now and then.

That's a lovely space. Hardwood floors for a dorm room seem pretty luxurious.

Elizabeth
http://emblemorstain.blogspot.com

Who made that amazing piece of artwork over the bed, does anyone know?

Well, if I took photos of just one wall of my room, I would seem organized too. Then you see the opposite wall and the truth comes out :)

can anybody identify that cute rug? i love the pink and green!

I have never in a dorm that has a wood floor and a chair rail. Not to mention, in the rest of the set it shows a fireplace on the other side...and a kitchen in a separate room...and another bedroom...

This is so not really a dorm.

Agreed, seraph... I like this and the antithetical Max. dorm both, but I never had spaces like that to work with. And where the heck are the textbooks? This is cheating.

I agree. The majority of dorm rooms are hideous: cinderblock walls; indoor/outdoor carpeting; harsh overhead lighting; not much floor space. A room of this size would probably have two students in it, two twin beds, two dressers and desks, etc.

It'd be nice to see creative decorating by someone with a more typical dorm room (and perhaps a more limited budget/resources...Eames chairs don't exactly grow on trees)

As the kids would text: "WTF?"

This is the first time I've ever seen a mini-fridge as a functional (and beautiful, in a form -> function way) design element. Nice.

I wish my dorm would let in that much natural light
instead I have an overhead fluorescent lighting crowded with dead bugs
The hardwood floor, all the extra space...
You can't call this a dorm.

um what did he do with the bed that im sure came with the room? drag it out to the quad in the middle of the night and leave it there? in my experience you are supplied with a bed, a desk and a very uncomfortable, heavy to a degree that it is hard to steal desk chair...

Looks more like a small apartment in an old house (possibly owned by a university and rented as a "dorm" room, though) than a purpose-built dorm, to me.

modkitten, back about 200 years ago when I lived in a dorm, nobody much decorated their dorm rooms. You shared, but could wangle a single room for extra money. One guy I knew diasasembled his bunkbeds, put the parts in the closet (I don't remember what he did with his clothes, maybe they shared the space) and slept on the piled mattresses. I also seem to remember somebody taking off the closet doors and somehow making a sleeping nook in there.

The dorms had a few variations in setup, but the ones I lived in mainly had dark brown linoleum floors, bunkbeds that could be set up as twins (end to end), and one long wall with a closet and built in dresser and desk for two, with a shelf and undermounted task light for studying. The opposite walls were mint green painted cinderblock, and the end was all window (from about 36 inches, up) with one beat up armchair underneath. By the entry door we had towel bars -- the bathrooms were communal and down the hall. You kind of had to focus on your studies, there just wasn't anything else.

Very clean, simple and neat, I love this dorm room.
http://mafrangine.blogspot.com/

my dorm room had cinder block walls and dirty plastic floor tiles. i'm jealous like whoa.
http://thelulubird.blogspot.com/

I think mattress on the floor works if you have a tatami mat and are intending to go asian minimalist. Otherwise, it looks like a mattress on the floor, missing its bed. Get a bed.

http://2303bellavista.com/tatami-3-web.jpg
http://2303bellavista.com/tatami-1-web.jpg
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/ny/7-15-kyoto-1.jpg
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/ny/7-15-kyoto-2.jpg