Dorm Design

elenastein04 asked: the dorm rooms in my residence hall are long and narrow (9'6 by 19'3). any suggestions as to how we can set up the furniture in our room other than lofting both beds? we have two beds, desks, dressers and closets. all furniture is movable! thanks!

Hard to say without knowing the dimensions of your furniture, but I think the most fair way to divide a long skinny room would just be to divide it long ways and line up the furniture along the walls. It’s not the most interesting layout, but at least then there’d be no dispute over who gets the wall with the window etc.  

Here’s a sketch of what I’m talking about….(sorry about the perspective, I didn’t bother putting down a vanishing point):

littletownlinds asked: To the anon worried about living with a stranger: don't worry!!! When I was a freshman I had 2 stranger roommates, I became best friends with one girl, we ended up rooming together for 4 years, & I was in her wedding the year after we graduated! (:

hooray for success stories!

thehatmanandrobin asked: Just wanted to tell the incoming freshman not to worry about styles not matching up. This year, I roomed with girls who were all about pink, they even had pink plugs. I don't mind pink, but it's just not my style. I was still able to put in bits of my personality. It's all about the posters you hang up or the things you bring. Despite the pink, you can clearly tell that I still live in the room because I have Dr Who and avengers stuff. It's really just about learning to go with the flow.

:)

Anonymous asked: Hi! I'm a senior in high school right now and really nervous about living in a dorm next year. It just seems uncomfortable to sleep in the same room with a stranger. Also- I don't want to coordinate colors, I want my own space that I feel comfortable in and she wants pink Pottery barn stuff :/ what should I do??

It’s an adjustment at first for everybody, but you’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll adapt to it! After all, that stranger won’t be a stranger anymore after a couple of days ;)
Also, very very few roommates actually try and coordinate their rooms together.  What’s the point if you’re only going to be roommates for a year, right?  It doesn’t matter if their style is completely different from you, in fact, I *love* seeing two very different decoration styles in a dorm because it brings out each other’s distinct personalities and makes for a nice juxtaposition :)

Anonymous asked: Hi! There's a pretty good chance that the apartment I'll be living in next year will have gross linoleum floors. I was wondering if you had any ideas for making my space more cozy? I know I can use rugs, but they look a bit tackier on linoleum than on wood floors...

Perhaps a non-fabric rug alternative would look better?  I’m thinking of a big bamboo rug…. but that might not work either depending on what color your linoleum is :(  One of my favorite websites, Apartment Therapy, suggests installing a removable rubber floor, but I doubt it’d be affordable to do that to the whole house. So sorry I couldn’t come up with better ideas, good luck!