Deck Out The Dorm Room

Tips for Decorating Your Dorm Room with Your Roommate

By
Relationship Advice Expert April Masini

I am starting college in the fall and am moving into a dorm with a roommate whom I haven't yet met. I want our dorm room to be the coolest in the building and was wondering if you could tell me what the hottest trends in dorm room decorating are this year. Also, are my roommate and I supposed to discuss our decorating plans ahead of time or just decorate our sides of the room how we want? I don't want to start any roommate decorating wars!

Sincerely,

Decorating the Dorm

Dear Decorating the Dorm,

The trend in dorm loot is technology and electronics. Laptops, iPhones, Mp3 players, and PDA devices are what's hot. In addition, mini-refrigerators, microwaves, and cappuccino machines are what will set one dorm room apart from another.

Posters have been replaced with canvases stretched out on wooden frames, so the old thumb tacked posters on the wall are passe and canvas art is hip, cheap, and what you'll be seeing.

Some roommates will have known each other, and some won’t. Having a roommate is an inevitable rite of passage like first dates, first pedicures, and buying your first sofa. So let go of any cases of the nerves you’ve got jittering around and embrace this time in your life.

Roommates -- can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. They provide companionship. Sometimes they become best friends. Sometimes they become lovers and sometimes they become spouses. But sometimes...they become enemies.

To make the best of your roommate, follow these Dos and Don'ts when decorating:

1. Set up the ground rules from day one. You can always revisit them and change them, but it's much easier to start working from a structure than from a fly by night model of communication.

DO Decide who gets to decorate what part of the home and what parts are to be jointly decorated. That's one idea of a way to start.

DON'T Run out and start buying big ticket items without checking on the decorating plan with your roommates.

2. Respect differences.

DO Open your mind to your roommates taste if it's not yours. Try to find positives in the roommate experience -- through decorating.

DON'T Get divisive when it comes to taste and differences. Don't criticize or speak negatively about your roommates' decorating choices.

3. Look to the future.

DO Remember that this is not the last living situation you will be in. Try to go with the flow when your roommate wants to do something you hate.

DON'T Feel victimized. Remember that this is a temporary situation, as most roommate situations are. It's for now.

4. Set budgets.

DO be upfront and honest about what you can spend and what you want to spend.

DON'T agree to get involved in decorating budgets that you can't meet. It's much better to set boundaries and deal with them up front than after you're in debt because you didn't say no at the right time.

April Masini -- nicknamed "the new millennium's Dear Abby" by the media, is author of the best-selling books Date Out Of Your League and Think & Date Like A Man, the two (just released) step-by-step dating and relationship manuals, Ideas for a Fun Date and Romantic Date Ideas, and the critically acclaimed dating and relationship online magazine www.AskApril.com.

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