"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Trading Spaces" are two popular television shows that teach design-ditsy Joe Schmoes the ins and outs of interior design.
With the help of a professional designer and a budget of at least a $1,000 - ordinary spaces are decorated and transformed into comfortable, hip and fashionable rooms.
After watching the shows, many people try to integrate the tips they see on television into their own homes or rooms. MSU students who are left to convert a small, really beige residence hall room into a space of their own are left with a tricky task.
Let's face it - the average college student has neither a professional designer nor a hefty budget.
That's why The State News grabbed the help of 2004 interior design graduate Kellie Dolzynski who set out to revamp a typical MSU dorm room, outfitted with a $100 budget and a thorough knowledge of design.
When designing a room, Dolzynski said students should first do their homework.
"Research some stores on the Internet and figure out what you like and how much you will have to spend," she said. "That way, you aren't left driving to every store to find the cheapest stuff."
Best bets? What Dolzynski calls, "discount living places," such as Target Corp., Bed Bath & Beyond and Linens 'n Things, which are her three favorites.
At these stores' Web sites, Dolzynski found matching clocks, comforters and carpets.
Other places on the Internet with a discount deal include IKEA.com, where the designer said students can find cheap chairs or bean bag seats.
Dolzynski's inside tip is to visit Crate and Barrel's new Web site, CB2.com, an offshoot of the popular home furnishings store. Crate and Barrel's new venture for young professionals includes a sale page.
While bargain hunting, Dolzynski suggests students should make some bold moves.
"A dorm themed with patterned prints could look tacky in the small space," the Clarkston resident said. "I would go with a solid, monochromatic color scheme. Pick one color and emphasize that."
Or if one color doesn't strike your fancy, Dolzynski said choosing one item you love, like an antique from home, and incorporating its colors into a theme for your room which will bring the comfort of home into your East Lansing space.
For our experiment, Dolzynski took her own advice and chose one color she loves - green.
"I'm basing the room on green because it's a pretty hot color right now, and I love it," she said.
She found the green color she was looking for including a few more colors to incorporate into the room on Target's Web site. Red became what she called an "accent color," a secondary color to match with accessories such as lamps or picture frames.
After bargain hunting, our designer went straight to the stores. First stop, Target - a store she said is perfect for dorm design.
"Target is a hot spot for dorm decorations because they have a lot of stuff that has matching colors," Dolzynski said.
For instance, she picked up a green canvas cube, a green clip lamp and a 5-by-8-foot stripped area rug with green, red (think accent), blue and beige stripes. A Target "dorm kit" included a trash can, pencil and rubber band holders and magnetic note pads.
All of these purchases cost about $50.
Not only do these things match, but Dolzynski said they're functional in a dorm.
"This cube seat is nice because it's small, (and) you always need places for friends to sit in a dorm," she said. "Clip lamps are great because they're portable - you can use them at your desk or move them to a bed to study there."
Next stop was Bed, Bath & Beyond, where she picked up a black and red reversible comforter, a red, rice paper lantern and red stretch jersey sheets.
The rice paper lantern will bring some color into the room and the comforter was a steal at only $20 and fashionable at the same time, Dolzynski said.
"Reversible comforters are really popular right now because you can buy sheets to match the two colors and you can switch the sides of it to help change the look of the room every now and then," she said.
Purchases at the second store totaled about $42, bringing the grand total to $92 and leaving us with a few extra dollars to bring some character to the room.
Her last stop - Meijer, where Dolzynski planned to use contact paper, at $5.99, to bring stripes, which are also in the carpet, into the room.
"I really like linear shapes and geometry, so we're incorporating stripes into this design," she said.
Once all the purchases were made, she set out to put them to use. The dorm room used was one Bryan Hall, in the Brody complex.
Brody Hall Manager Diane Barker educated our designer about what is and is not allowed in the dorms.
Painting rooms or creating holes in the wall is not permitted, she said. If students want to hang anything on the walls, she suggests using tape.
"There are different types of removable tape available now that they may want to use to hang things," she said. "Holes in the wall are not allowed because when the student departs, the room needs to be in the same condition that they assumed it in."
Candles, hot plates and space heaters also are prohibited in the dorms, but microwaves up to 600 watts and a 4-cubic foot refrigerator are allowed, Barker said.
With these rules in place, Dolzynski used Barker's suggestion and stuck to tape. A creative way to add color to dreary beige-painted dorm walls, is a collage, Dolyznski said.
She cut pictures out of magazines and taped them together into a square. On the edges of her creation, she placed black electrical tape, which she said would bring in the color of her comforter and create another solid line in the room.
Blank CDs were cut in half and taped to the decoration's edges to brighten it up.
"This art project gives the room a spray of color and some punch," she said. "It looks better than a standard-size poster because you can make it proportional to the space available on the wall. It's also a personal touch because you can put pictures of things that define you on the wall."
Barker said each room is outfitted with a bed and desk for each person in the room including one dresser. So when placing furniture, Dolzynski stayed symmetric.
"I think in a dorm room, you can't really angle any of the furniture with such a small space," she said.
Because of the small space, many students opt for a loft, which raises beds to the ceiling and creates more space.
"We had a loft in our room," 1998 graduate Breezy Silver said, adding that incorporating creativity into a loft was important. "We had a friend paint a design we liked on our loft wood to give it an artsy-feel."
Another space saver is to leave behind some belongings, civil engineering senior Angel Baines said.
"I left a lot of stuff at home, like clothes I didn't wear, stuff I didn't need every day," she said. "I'm kind of a minimalist."
Another important aspect of furniture placement, Dolzynski said, is to keep it separated.
"I put the dresser by the closet because functionally that's how you get dressed - you take clothes out of each," she said. "Keeping each aspect of your life - sleeping, studying, dressing - separate is important because in a dorm you only have one small room to do all those things."
Next, Dolzynski used the con tact paper purchased at Meijer to add more to the wood dresser.
"It gives the room more character and color and almost looks like wallpaper or paint," she said.
After all the materials were bought and the room was set up, Dolzynski suggested decorations be bought with reusability in mind.
"Think neutral colors for some of the things, like our comforter," she said. "Black is very neutral so you can use it again," she said. "Then, if you want a different theme next year you can reuse some stuff."
Comfort in design, she said, is the biggest aspect of turning a dorm into home.
"Accessorize with pictures from home so you don't feel too homesick," she said. "And remember to pick out things you love. Pick out what you're comfortable with because you have to be there for an entire year."
