Decorating Your College Apartment

I remember my first apartment: a light wood table with pine green legs; a small entertainment center made from fake mahogany; a leopard-print couch; mismatched end tables and lamps with farm scenes on them. It was atrocious—but cheap; the perfect college pad with furniture that I didn’t care about and KNEW I would never use again.

Then, my second apartment: pre-decorated sparsely by the girls who already lived there and very alcohol oriented. The main attractions were the beer pong table hung on the wall and the foosball table that took up half the living room.

My most recent apartment, however, was different: all the furniture matched; we picked a color scheme based on the colors in our throw pillows—yes, we had throw pillows—and painted the walls, hung pictures and strategically placed bookcases to help with room-size issues.

In this and the blogs to follow are tips and advice on how to decorate in each of these three situations: decorating a cheap “college” pad, adding your touch to an already decorated apartment and beginning from scratch with a unified, coordinated theme.

First, however, a few suggestions for what to keep in mind in any decorating situation:

1. The average college student moves at least three times during college. Don’t buy expensive stuff that is so apartment-specific you won’t be able to take it with you to the next place. If you are only going to be able to use it for a year, keep it cheap.
2. No matter how you decide to decorate, garage sales, resale shops and internet sites such as craigslist.com are your best friend. With a little perseverance and patience, you will most likely be able to find that perfect couch or table at an affordable price.
3. Dirt is the enemy. I cringe when I say that, but it would seem that mom was right. You can have the “sweetest” pad or the most coordinated accessories, but if no one can see them underneath the filth and dirty dishes—it’s rather pointless. A clean apartment is always going to look and feel more comfortable and inviting, regardless of the pictures on the wall, the 59” HDTV or the lack thereof.