How to Furnish Your Dorm Room Like You Mean It: A Historical Meander

by Patrick Doorey

As a freshmen entering college, there are important decisions to be made, many of which will affect the chartered course of a student’s professional life for decades to come. Questions arise, like “What major should I enroll in that would assure I gain the requisite knowledge to one day eradicate worldwide hunger?” Sure, thats important enough. Or better yet, “How do I devote enough attention on my pre-med courses (keeping my parent’s happy) and still have time to make friends & sharpen my party skills?” Yes, also very important, but not the most important question.

Generally speaking, the most important question for matriculating freshmen is: “How do I decorate my dorm room with just the right flourishes that tells everyone what a (cool/funny/eccentric/intense/etc.) kind of (guy/girl/etc.) I am?”

There is a science to decorating dorm rooms, with a canon of information gleaned from the experience of countless generations of students. How you decorate a dorm room says a lot about who you are as a young adult; making a mistake can have disastrous consequences on your burgeoning college social life, so don’t take this lightly. This article provides you a road map for how to successfully transform your dorm room so that the next four years (or maybe 5 or 6 years depending on how honed those partying skills get!) are built on a solid foundation.

So, you say, enough with the banter: How do I decorate my dorm room the right way?

First things first. With the assistance of your new roommate(s), formulate a plan to decorate in a way that is sure to tell the world all about your shared interests, with a bit of individuality mixed in (As an aside, there is an added benefit to this process. Yes, it’s important to plan with your roommate to avoid a clash of styles. However, this process  also allows you to determine if you will get along with your roommate right off the bat, saving you several months of awkward tip-toeing through the “I’m really trying to be friends with this person” dance. If its not going to work out, better to know now and move on). The combined plan with your roommate should follow these key items of importance; you are urged to use this checklist as a guide*.

*(PLEASE NOTE: This writer attended college way back in 1996, so some personal references may be dated. Clinton (Bill) was still president. The internet was new. No one had cell phones. Much has changed in the last twenty years when it comes to decorating dorm rooms, but the fundamental elements remain eerily the same).

ELEMENTAL ITEM CHECKLIST

1. Television – a luxury, but most (not all) dorm rooms have one. You used to have to lug a large tube TV up to your room, and even a smallish 13” TV weighed 30lbs. Today’s beautiful flat screens are ultralight in comparison. You kids don’t even know how good you’ve got it.

2. Miniature Refrigerator – a must have. Someplace to stash all the munchies, and maybe, if you can find someone to buy it for you, the beer. Just don’t get caught by your resident advisor for underage drinking.

3. Stereo system – Back in 1996 we had no tech. There were no I-pods, no Spotify. Not invented yet. Wireless speakers? Forget it. We were proud of our bulky, black, boxy receiver with unwieldy speakers. My roommate, a profound audiophile to this day, kitted us out with Harmon Kardon receiver, a Sony 5 Disc CD Changer (5 discs!) and four anchor weight Bose speakers that filled our 13×15’ shared living space with the finest Dolby Digital ® surround sound music of the day. From what I recall, Rage Against the Machine was huge, as was the ever popular Geggy Tah – you don’t remember them because you weren’t born yet, but look them up. Today, this same level of audio magic can all be accomplished with an MP3 player and a docking music station, or even a set of nice wireless speakers linked to your……

4. Computer – Again, in ’96 we shared a desktop PC. One guy brought the TV and the fridge, the other the PC and the stereo. Everyone has a laptop or a tablet, and rightfully so, as a computer should not be shared. Set each one up on your faux-oak dorm room desk with appropriate accessories. It’s more essential than ever for accessing wikipedia to write your papers.

5. 

   Carpeting – Assuming that the floors are non-porous tile like 95% of colleges favor, you will need a carpet. Carpets add warmth to the room and allow you to have cozy feet in the morning, which is nice. You can go a lot of ways here, but don’t do like I did …. Shag carpet … Forest green … with a nasty burnt plastic odor. Two 18 year old young men picked it out, and we weren’t noted for our interior design choices. You should do better without too much effort. Tightly woven, easy to clean, darker toned (but neutral colored) carpeting choices are the way to go.

6. Atmosphere – Plants and wall decorations. Aspidistra in the corner, dying from lack of water, gives a little nuance to the room, CHECK. And nothing says more about the room’s inhabitants than the wall decor. Dorm rooms usually have two main walls, one of which is yours to decorate as you see fit — without marking or leaving holes that would subtract from the security deposit. So the question arises, what can you put on the wall that will tell everyone how (insert adjective for whatever it is you want to be) you are? On this point, I can only offer you broad categories based upon experience, as there are repeating themes that consistently appear throughout the history of college dorm rooms. Repeating themes:

A.) Music Posters– The omnipresent Bob Marley head shot coming at you in a fog of Rastafarian smoke and Jamaican colors. Or perhaps Drake, head superimposed on a cloudy sky of blue. Whatever tunes you relate to will draw like minded associates. Be bold and stick with the music you know and love. Choose a couple posters if you want, but be ready to speak intelligently about your choices.

B.) The Movie Poster – Pick only one, as this can easily be overdone. Try to be different – steer away from Al Pacino in “Scarface”, saying hello to my little friend and instead trend towards something that will be a conversation piece. Go with a classic, like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” or a more modern, underrated in your opinion, and less well known flick, like François Ozon’s “The Swimming Pool”.

C.) Sports Stuff – If you have to do this, pick your school first – especially if your school is good at sports. It makes sense for students attending schools in the Power 5 conferences to do this, not so much for a student from Southwest University of Abeline Christian Technical Junior College. If you’re a big fan of a pro sports team, show it, but don’t overdo it.

D.) Flags – And finally, the timeless piece de resistance, the flag. The classic, patriotic Old Glory. Or for some, The Irish Flag, because nothing says “I cant wait to over-drink on St. Patrick’s Day” quite like it. Or The Italian Flag/The Israeli Flag/The South KoreanFlag. etc, etc; there are no wrong choices. We all came from somewhere, at some point, and its nice to identify with that sort of thing.

Flags have a few things going for them. Made from fabric. With texture. No poster, with mere print on paper, could ever compare to a  flag. Take the French Tri-Color Flag for instance, with its three sections of fabric, one blue, one white, one red, each panel cut and individually sewn together with craftsmanship. It’s finished at one end with extra rows of stitching for durability if you are flying outside. On the the other end it has a stripe of white canvas, where you find, inset firmly into said canvas, two gleaming brass grommets, reeking of class, conveniently located as points of attachment ……..to tack the flag to your dorm room wall. You can almost forgive the flag for being French. That’s because, lets face it, flags are still very cool.

Summary

If you have managed to read this whole article, you now know all there is to know about decorating your dorm. It may just be the most important thing you do in college. While many things have changed in dorm rooms (and college life) over the years thanks to the advent of technology and shift in cultural values and attractions, it still say a lot about your persona. Best of luck to you incoming freshmen, in both your studies and your future careers. Rest assured that by following the above checklist, the decor in your dorm room will be optimized and lead to your success as both a student and a person throughout life.