A Sophisticated Grey Dorm Room Design
About a month before the end of the school year, Home Depot invited me to completely redecorate my room with their huge selection of home decor. I - like always - said yes immediately and starting dreaming up a new look for my dorm room. After living in it for a year, there were a few tweaks that I decided to make and some major new pieces of furniture that I knew would add a high-design edge to the room. I started by infusing a bit of color: shades of blue, and a bit more contrast: dark greys to ground the room, which also go perfectly with my existing area rug. I chose a more functional indoor/outdoor area rug to layer, and I knew not to worry about the light color since it would be so easy to clean. I brought in more shiny chrome, with the trestle legs on my new desk, and added a large palm to bring some tropical green to, literally, breathe life into the room. I brought in luxe velvet from the curtains to the pillows on the bed, while enhancing the functionality of the room with more storage from the shelved nightstand and ottoman for extra seating and a secret shoe compartment. See how I redecorated below, and don't miss my dorm design for Home Depot's summer catalog!
I certainly missed green things during the long winter, and this palm made my room feel so much more comfortable. Of course indoor plants are great for purifying the air, but it also felt like a huge mood booster - no matter the view out of the window. Home Depot has a great online plant selection, and it's amazing you can order them online. I was happy to avoid the hassle of bringing a plant home in an Ithaca taxi cab!
The pretty blue and white chairs with the classic Louis XVI-inspired design added color to the room but also really upgraded the room's design with their traditional silhouettes. Plus I found the chair super comfortable to work at my shiny new desk - whose white top and sleek steel legs made it the perfectly-contrasted companion to my chairs. It reflected the light from my clear bubble glass table lamp perfectly for a bright work surface during the day and a warm glow at night.
I definitely brought too many pairs of shoes to college (looking at you, silver loafers) and there were really only a few pairs that I wore super consistently each season, so my new tufted storage ottoman became the perfect place to stow them, and a convenient seat for putting on my socks and tying my laces.
Since the shelves on my nailhead-trimmed nightstand were open on both sides, it made it easy for me to make it a charging station of sorts. I could easily plug in my devices and also keep some shelter magazines close by for bedtime reading!
One of the most dramatic changes to the room was the curtain color. I switched from lighter curtains to these dark grey velvet ones for a couple of reasons. I wanted to emphasize the (luckily) tall ceilings in my dorm, add lots of contrast to the room, and also help darken the space to allow me to sleep in on the weekends. The velvet also added a luxe coziness to the room! The dark charcoal gray is similar to some of the most popular dark gray paint colors.
Since the room's so small, all it really took to amp up the color palette was a splash of blue on either side of the space - from the new chairs and the throw pillows in velvet (so soft) and an Ikat pattern on my bed. The shades of blue definitely pop on my simple bedding!
