After Sherry bared some of her design missteps last week—including cringeworthy photos of her childhood and college bedrooms—I figured it was only fair to share a few of my own. I searched for pictures of my childhood room (think royal blue carpet that doubled as the “ocean” for Lego islands) and my high school room (a study in gray), but I didn’t turn up much.
College was a different story. I documented my dorm rooms obsessively, to the point of creating collage panoramas of them. Below is my freshman dorm corner — yes, I collaged it into a strange panoramic art piece (click the image to view a larger version on Flickr).
This was a corner of a room I shared with a roommate (for UVA folks: I lived in Dunglison). A few highlights:
- My favorite high school color—gray—followed me to college.
- My music posters included Third Eye Blind, Dave Matthews Band and Lauryn Hill (one of these stands out from the others).
- Above Lauryn Hill hangs the license plate from my first (now deceased) car: a Dodge Caravan with wood paneling. I still have the plate in case Sherry ever wants to repurpose it for decor (she doubts it).
- Dorm room essentials: string lights and a lava lamp.
- I owned not one, not two, but three page-a-day calendars.
- Early signs of my love for hidden storage and repurposing: a silver trunk used as a nightstand.
That collage wasn’t a one-off. I repeated the process to capture my senior-year apartment, this time assembling images in Photoshop to create a full 360-degree view of the room.
The apartment was an old house converted for students, where almost every room with a door became a bedroom. Ten of us lived there, each with a room. Mine was the former mudroom: long and narrow, with exhaust hookups for a washer/dryer and a door that led straight outside — a real bonus at the time. My style hadn’t changed much from the dorm:
- Gray remained my color of choice. I even fashioned “custom” curtains out of sheets and pillowcases.
- Music posters were still prominent; Britney Spears had replaced some earlier favorites.
- The trusty license plate stayed on the wall, joined by an NYC subway map, illustrations torn from playbills, and even the previous dorm photo collage (if you squint).
- Hidden storage persisted. My bed was the top half of an old IKEA bunk bed, leaving nearly two feet of storage underneath. I also turned an IKEA bookcase on its side to hide books and computer gear; a long bedspread tucked over it meant I rarely had to tidy that area—perfect for a messy 21-year-old.
Looking back, there were subtle clues that I’d grow into space planning and design. A preference for gray may have evolved into a fondness for neutrals. The trunk-turned-bedside-table foreshadowed a future appreciation for storage ottomans. And my habit of photographing every angle of my rooms hinted at a desire to document and share living spaces. Fun fact: I was the one who started this blog to chronicle our house; Sherry was initially skeptical. Funny how things turn out.
Since I didn’t capture any photos of myself in the rooms wearing questionable fashion (like airbrushed winking jeans), I’ll instead point to a Flickr group that features some less-flattering images of me — and a few shots of Sherry back when she was previously blonde.