Old Money Dorm Room Decorating Ideas: A Preppy Room For Every Buffy, Muffy & Trip

Is this your dorm room? Congratulations on scoring a single – and for your acceptance to Goucher College – a spectacular institution of higher learning. Boo on the frightening furniture. Really Gophers, can’t you do better? This nightmare is almost too grim for any student arriving from the prep-lands of places like Grosse Pointe. That tragic bed is not working with Muffy’s highly honed lock jaw accent. It’s almost bad enough for Thumper’s (real name) mom to over-serve on the gin and tonics.

Keep that collar popped, Worthington Triplet, III (not made up). I have the perfect solution for transforming a girl’s eye-sore of a dorm room into the ultimate Little Club (see Preppy Handbook) dorm room simply everyone will be lining up to join. Just remember to act bored when you see the results.

Space Planning Is So Fetch

I decided to stick to a few realistic rules I happen to know of after taking these photos. You can’t paint and you can’t install wall-to-wall carpet. But there are ways around these sorts of things and I’m sure the rules are broken all the time. But I wanted to show what you could do within those rules. I also decided to keep the furniture – though I’m imagining a real mattress. My back aches just looking at that thing.

So what’s going on? I’ve done a little feng shui rearranging. I don’t like that bed with a direct line to the door. Bad karma. I also like the idea of making the bed look more like a sofa. I enclosed the bed with two end tables and hung a no-sew, ceiling-to-floor curtain behind all three to create a cozy club sofa. More about fabrics, etc farther down the post.

Across from the bed, we need entertainment. A low, modern unit is just the thing. I’ve added an awesome lamp. The desk needs a better chair – so I broke my rule and burned the chair. Time to see what it’s all supposed to look like. Ready? Roll your eyes and say, “whatever.”

Curtains, Sheets and A Rug Create A Snug Retreat

No, I did not say Snuggie! To create the retreat, I’m creating a focal point by enclosing the bed and end tables with a curtain. This is a no-sew project made from inexpensive rods and a few queen sized sheets. I chose pink, zebra striped sheets from PB Teen. You’ll need about three queen-sized for this project ($89 each) to create a full look. Or, opt for flat panels. Hang a rod as close to the ceiling as possible, slide the bottom hem through the rod and gather. For added zip, use fusible tape to sew grosgrain ribbon just below the bottom hem (the end that hangs at the ceiling.) Repeat this look at the window. You’ll have to cut the sheet in half, or hem it for café style curtains. Use fusible tape if you don’t own a sewing machine.

Now for the bed. I was so happy to find authentic Lily Pulitzer at Garnet Hill. Finally! I love Lily. Here in Grosse Pointe it never went out of style.  Standard pink and green is obvious. Since we’re off to college, I thought I’d try a sophisticated look that blends well with zebra. Lily’s chic, Cha Cha Chains comforter ($166) is just the thing. I love the 70′s-inspired cane look.

Now we need shams for the back and sides of our sofa. For the back, I like Lily’s La De Da quilted pink shams and white for the sides ($49 each). If you can find king-sized matelasse shams in hot pink that’s a better look, but I couldn’t find any. I think these do a good job because of their heavy weight.

Finally, I’m covering our beautiful (so not), gray floor with this zebra print rug also by Lily and available at Garnet Hill ($398). An alternative is to go with zebra squares from FLOR ($12.99 per square). You can take them with you when you move. Depending on how many you buy, they cover more gray. Also, you can clean and later replace them if they get too grotty.

Walls, Furnishings & Final Touches

Okay, so now we need a place for storage and a flat screen, plus a few must-have accessories. Let’s start with the coolest thing first. We can’t paint the walls, but we can decorate them to look like wallpaper using large decals. I love, love, love these truly masterful paisley wall decals from Blik ($60 for a set of 20). They’re the perfect color and style. I was so happy to find these. Let your budget be your guide and go wild.

Scooting over to #4 on my image board, I chose two of these end tables for either side of the bed. They’re contemporary and offer some private storage. These Hudson end tables are from West Elm and sell for $199.

Let’s add some more  clean lines to all the high-end quality frou-frou with this very chic, but inexpensive Lack entertainment unit ($49.99) from IKEA. A tad bit of droll humor from IKEA’s Filsta puffy lamp ($19.99) on the side? Yes please.

Let’s 86 The Desk Chair

Now about the standard desk chair. Someone on Goucher’s board should be arrested. Nothing in this room says quality, but that chair is a side chair. So wrong. Toss it. Burn it. Gone. I’m switching it out for this pink, spotted desk chair from PB Teen. I hope it holds up as nicely as it looks ($159). Am I going overboard with pink patterns? No. We’re making a prepster statement here. Unlike me (after several drinks at the frat house) with a design statement you can say it over and over and it always looks smart. So there.

While we’re sitting at the desk studying hard, we need a good task lamp – a black Forsa desk lamp from IKEA ($19.99) is just the thing. That’s all I’ve got. Is it enough? Stay tuned tomorrow for a post about all-around items every dorm room needs.

In the meantime, comments please! I worked hard on this. Now that I’ve begged I’ll leave you with these important final words about higher learning spoken to me by my college professor father, “Never let your studies interfere with your education.” Pass the bong.