what I do

what I do

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

An artful dorm room

When I drove my daughter back to school last week I helped her unpack and tidy up her room a little and I took a few photos. She rents a room in a sorority house. It is a big old house with three stories and a kitchen on each floor. It is not in the best shape but you can tell in its day it was really something.


There are some wonderful elements left over from the house's glory days. Like these great door knobs. 


She shares the bottom floor with one other girl and they have a living room with a television to hang out in and they have the kitchen to themselves except when the rest of the 'house' cooks together one night a week. There is a fireplace in the TV room and it has a beautiful old mantle on it.


Her room is the tiniest little room but it is all hers. The last two years she shared a room with someone else so having her own room is a move up. It came furnished and with 4 different colors of paint on the walls. Apparently they have allowed every girl who rented the room before her to paint however they wanted. One girl basically painted around the furniture. So the first thing we did when she moved in was re-paint the walls all one color.  She selected a nice blue paint color for the walls and a new duvet cover and desk chair from Ikea. 

Here is the room when she first moved in ... freshly painted:


When I was up there this last visit I had to smile when I saw her walls because there is not much left of the wall showing; she has covered it with things she loves and a lot of her own artwork. It is fabulous ... a perfect college student's 'dorm' room: 





I love that she is her own person and did not buy into my minimal and mostly white esthetic. For her, the more colorful the better. She is extremely neat and organized (the part of her that is like me) which helps  in such a small space.

In her freshman year she lived in the dorms and the walls were lined with message boards so she covered the wall easily by using push pins. When she moved out, she took everything off the walls and put them on canvas boards to save it.

Freshman dorm room wall
Dorm room wall transferred to canvas
New art wall
An art project
Another art project - public transportation!
And since I left her last weekend ... she has been busy creating even more. She took down her plain white paper lantern and added some paint. I LOVE it! 



How creative! 

5 comments:

A Perfect Gray said...

sharri, what a wonderful idea to cover a canvas with all pieces that she loves. That way it can move with her. I need to remember that one. and I see she's a matisse fan, just like me.

I really like her 'public transportation' art project. she's one talented gal...

donna

designchic said...

This brings back such memories...love the charm of the old sorority house mixed with her fabulous artwork!!

Hamptontoes said...

Looks like she has the perfect college room. Also, I love that she shares it all with you. How sweet...she is neat and organized...great quality! Also, in your comment about my seagrass carpeting...I had the edges serged at the carpet shop. I really love the look.

A Vintage Vine said...

I have two in college at the University of Arkansas!Do you sometimes pause in amazement that she is as old as she is...I do! Sometimes I look at my boys and can hardly believe they are all grown up...Love her room at the house!
She is so artistic!

Unknown said...

So true Lisa, I know! Except that she is my 'baby' and she has a sister that is married and is really grown up ... that completely amazes me!