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| A very small fraction of my dorm. Sadly the photos that survived my mad iPhone dumps don't do my dorm justice. |
Let's be honest: If you were/are a girl going away to college, the first thing you thought about was how you were going to decorate your new space. I even went as far to design the layout of my dorm beforehand using pastel drawings! <--If you couldn't tell from the large Raiders of the Lost Arc poster in my dorm picture, I'm kind of a nerd. My dorm wasn't a masterpiece, but it was neater, cozier (not sure if that's a word, but we'll pretend it is) and more homey than most.
Although my dorm life has come to an end, I'm still thrilled to take on another design project! Wait for it... Furnishing my
new apartment that I will be sharing with my old roommate, Molly! Since I'm in the process of decorating a new space, I plan to make a regular series of posts on this blog called
The Dorm Project.
Since the main items that people use to decorate their new spaces are, you guessed it, pictures, I thought it would only be logical to cover that first.
WHERE TO GET YOUR PHOTOS
As ubiquitous as graphics/photos are, some can be very pricey!
Places with OVER PRICED graphics include:
1. IKEA.
Everything in that store is well priced except for their photos.
2. Typo.
$50 for a poster of the New York City skyline!? I think not.
3. Target.
The same problem I have at Typo is the same problem I have a Target.
A cheap, and often better, alternative to buying photos the traditional way is
printing large photos off of Google at places like OfficeMax. You may say tacky! But I say a bargain! You can print out four 8.5 x 11" photos on glossy paper for less than $3! If these sizes seem too small, try printing out multiple in different sizes and make a collage on your wall :)
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| A framed 1920s Vogue magazine cover I bought at an antique fair. |
We all know that vintage is in. So what better place to look than at
antique fairs!? Although some paintings/photos can come off as pricey, more often than not you can talk the seller down. The magazine cover in the picture above was originally priced at $30 dollars! Yet, I still managed to talk the seller down to $7 :)
Speaking of
magazine covers...
SAVE 'EM! For my study corner in our living room I adhered a few limited edition Time magazine covers (one had Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding kiss on the cover :P) to the wall. Not only did these make me feel more studious, but they gave the corner a more modern look.
WHAT DO WITH YOUR PHOTOS
Depending on where you're living, you might not be allowed to put holes in your walls. To avoid this, last year I used double sided adhesive (BEWARE! This might peel off the wall paint!) Unfortunately, an adhesive that wouldn't damage the walls wasn't strong enough to hold a picture frame... so my photos had to go with out :( However, if you are able to use picture frames, that's wonderful!
Great places for picture frames include:
1. IKEA. What!? Expensive photos but cheap frames?
2. Ross.
3. Antique stores. Can never go wrong with these!
Never worry about the color of your frame when you're buying. Depending on the material, you can always paint over it to give it a cleaner or more worn look.
For tacking up smaller pictures (of my friends and ticket stubs) I used large
pin boards that I propped up on my desk.
Although I can ramble on about this post, I will spare you and just leave this post to the basics :) I hope that this post proved, somewhat, helpful!
I'm curious, what photos have/are you decorating your space with?
From Milan,
With Love.
