Dorm Design

Why aren't there realistic ideas for dorm room design?  I stumbled upon this collection of designs, all of which are fundamentally flawed.  Obviously, there's never that much space in a dorm room.  I am quite happy with the accommodations I've had at Brown so far.  They're generally pretty big... for a dorm room.  But that doesn't change the fact that there is far less space than pictured in furniture catalogs.  Another huge issue with the designs is that they don't feature anything resembling the furniture that comes with a dorm room.  Generally, the room has a twin extra long bed, a dresser, closet, desk, and chair already in it that the student has to work with.  The windows are also completely out of proportion.  Some dorms have great windows, and some do not.  However, I would guess that most dorm windows are not as large or as stylized as the photographs would lead one to believe.

Having stumbled, I continued in the same vein, coming across another collection, this time focusing on pieces from IKEA.  Besides the errors the first article had, this one also featured bright colored walls.  Maybe there's a school out there that allows students to paint, but I haven't heard of it if it exists.  Both collections also feature several pictures with lighting or decorations hanging from... the unseen ceiling one is left to assume.  Now, hanging things on dorm walls is difficult enough, so I am guessing those rooms belong to bored engineering majors.  And hanging lighting?  If its not included (which it probably isn't) a lot of rewiring would be necessary to achieve the look.  Highly impractical.  

Upon a little more searching, I found an article on dorm decorating that at least achieves a little accuracy.  The advice on bedding is pretty sound, and the section on storage isn't all bad.  Although it suggests raising the bed, and I'd add that some schools have rules about if/how you can do this.  The decorating advice, however, is really mixed.  It covers the basics (posters, no paint, check the rules, etc.) and mentions a few interesting ideas (chalk? could be great if you get stuck with cinder block walls).  I also definitely approve of creating your own, cheap art.  That way, you know best how you're gonna use it, and coloring/painting/whatever can be very relaxing when you have a rough schedule.  However, magnets might not be such a great idea.  In my experience, any metal that can hold a magnet is below waist level or up high.  Not exactly at eye level where you'll want to be concentrating your decorating efforts and dollars. 

A big part of dorm decorating comes in the form of posters, memo boards, white boards, etc.  What do these things have in common?  They all need to be put somewhere!  And when level surfaces run out, you'll want to try to hang them somewhere.  But how?  Magnets have their issues, and you probably can't do anything to put holes in the school's precious cinder block walls.  My white board came with little sticky pad things.  The idea is that you can stick it to the wall/door/closet/whatever and then remove it at the end of the year.  I put mine on my wardrobe (closet substitute) door where it stayed all year.  However, getting it off was wayyyy too hard.  So I wouldn't advise trying that.  The article also suggests hanging fabric, which can look great.  However, you're again getting into the difficulty of hanging something and such things can also be considered a fire hazard.      

Now, I'm aware that the majority of this post has been negative, but that's mostly because decorating a dorm room is difficult.  I'd love to see a design show tackle that challenge.  You have no money, you can't paint, change the furniture, or cause any damage to the room, the lighting is horrible, and its a small space.  I'm pretty sure the wimps on HGTV would have a breakdown about an hour in.