After Sherry bared her embarrassing design missteps last week — including awkward photos of her childhood and college bedrooms — I decided it was only fair to share some of my own. I tried to dig up pictures of my childhood bedroom (imagine royal blue carpet that doubled as the “ocean” for my Lego islands) and my high school room (an all-gray retreat), but I came up short.
What I did have, however, was a pretty thorough visual record of my college living spaces. In hindsight I documented my dorm rooms with such zeal it almost looks like I set out to expose myself. Below you’ll find the collage of my freshman dorm corner that I made by stitching several photos together — a makeshift panorama that captures the feel of the space. (Click the linked image to view it larger on Flickr.)
This corner belonged to the room I shared with a roommate; for those who know UVA, I lived in Dunglison. A few details worth calling out:
- My fondness for gray followed me from high school into college — it shows up everywhere.
- My music poster choices were eclectic: Third Eye Blind, Dave Matthews Band and Lauryn Hill — not exactly a cohesive playlist on the walls.
- Above the Lauryn Hill poster hangs the license plate from my first car, a Dodge Caravan with wood paneling. I still keep it, partly for nostalgia and partly as potential decor fodder should Sherry ever want to repurpose it (she voted “probably not”).
- Typical dorm accoutrements are present: string lights and a lava lamp. Clearly I subscribed to the college lighting aesthetic.
- There are three page-a-day calendars pinned up — a small confession that I might have been a bit compulsive about tracking small daily rituals.
- And a silver trunk used as a nightstand hinted early on at a preference for hidden storage and repurposing furniture.
That single collage wasn’t enough. By senior year I’d upgraded to a digital camera and used Photoshop to assemble a full 360-degree view of my apartment room. The results are another visual collage that documents how my style had (or hadn’t) evolved.
The apartment was an old house converted to accommodate college students: any room with a door became a bedroom, and ten of us lived under one roof. My space was the former mudroom, which made it long and narrow, and it even had exhaust hookups for a washer and dryer plus a door to the outside — a surprisingly useful feature at the time. When you look at the photos you’ll notice my aesthetic remained consistent with my earlier dorm setup.
- Gray remained the dominant color, including improvised curtains made from sheets and pillowcases — a thrifty, do-it-yourself solution that kept things simple.
- Music posters still covered the walls; Britney Spears replaced Lauryn Hill as the prominent female poster subject — chosen more for whimsy than musical critique.
- The license plate returned as wall art and was joined by an NYC subway map, illustrations torn from playbills and, amusingly, the previous dorm-room photo collage pinned up on the wall.
- Hidden storage continued to be a priority. My bed was actually the top half of an Ikea bunkbed, leaving about two feet of storage underneath — perfect for stashing stuff. I also rotated an Ikea bookcase on its side to hold textbooks and computer equipment, then hid it beneath a long bedspread so I never had to keep it tidy — ideal for the perpetually untidy 21-year-old me.
Looking back, there were small early clues that I might grow into someone who cares about space planning and design. The affinity for neutrals like gray perhaps foreshadowed an eventual preference for calm, neutral palettes. Repurposing a trunk into a bedside table anticipated a future filled with creative storage solutions. And my habit of photographing every angle of my living spaces hinted at the documentation that would one day become this blog. Fun fact: I was the one who started this blog to chronicle our house, even though Sherry was initially skeptical about the idea. Funny how things turn out.
I didn’t have photos of myself in those rooms wearing questionable fashion choices like airbrushed winking jeans, so if you’re curious (or just want a laugh), there’s a Flickr set that collects some less flattering snapshots of me and shows Sherry in her previously-blonde phase as well.