If you’re a college student looking for ideas for your dorm or next apartment….or if you’re a parent trying to help them you might get some helpful ideas from my college age daughter’s decorating.   You may have seen her sweet little house on my previous blog here.

But, this semester with her previous roomie and most of her friends graduating last May she decided to move into a studio apartment.  A tiny little place with one large bedroom, a tiny kitchen and a tiny bathroom that required some ingenuity on her part to make it cozy, welcoming and charming.

But my girl’s got the knack alright and was able to pull it together with lots and lots of charm.

She’s an interior design student and has a great eye for detail and the ability to put accessories together to create a story.  Like her nightstand you see here.

She created a desk out of this antique sewing machine, purchased this chair at a Resale Thrift Shop for $5.00 and painted it creamy white.  Then she recovered the seat in this sweet fabric. This is an old picture frame of mine that she painted and placed around this piece of art.

Of course there are touches of her much loved boyfriend throughout.

This is a dresser that one of my favorite clients donated to my college daughter’s “cause”. She originally painted it a soft blue to match her décor in her house.  But when she moved into her apartment she wanted to change her color scheme to grays and creams. So she painted it gray and changed out the knobs.

Another $5..00 chair purchased at a resale Thrift Shop that she painted and recovered.  From drab to fab with a simple coat of paint. Adding the furry pillow brought on the girlie glam.  The geometric curtain you see to the left is a drape she hung as a divider between the bedroom and the kitchen.

Cute, huh!

And when the kitchen’s a mess or she just wants to snuggle up in her cozy room she can shut the curtains and plug in the lights she has draped around the room.

This sweet settee I found at the same Resale Thrift shop we got the chairs from.  It was $35.00 and was scuffed up with a dark stain and some nasty old fabric. Once again she gave it a coat of paint, recovered the seats and added a fluffy furry pillow.

 The drapes came from Walmart and the cute melon color metal side table came from At Home.

I found this piece at Homegoods and gave it to her for her school files.

Instead its become a home for her sunglass collection.  Hahaha!  Oh well, a girl’s got her “priorities”.

This Ikea cubbie works great in her closet for scarves, shoes, boxes, etc.  Thanks to my officemate who decided to redecorate her office and give this to my daughter for storage!

She has an interesting mix of color with soft white, grays, a warm melon color and a soft teal.  And as you can see she tucked in a little pop of yellow.

Like I said…she’s got the knack.

The drapes and the curtain rod you see behind the bed came from Walmart.  The throw and some of the pillows came from At Home, the bedding came from good old Amazon.  The rug originally came from Homegoods and was also a contribution from my officemate.  (She purchased it for herself and decided not to use it. So my daughter got to reap the benefits of her discard once again and ended up with a brand new rug!  Perfect colors for her space.) The flowers on the wall came from my niece’s wedding where my daughter was a bridesmaid.  The side table she purchased for $20.00 from a local Facebook Trading Post site.

The little black blob at the corner of the bed is my Shih Tzu doggie, Bo. (Also known as BoBo)

She now has this awesome bench at the end of the bed.  It wasn’t there yet when I took the picture of the whole room, but we found it for $20.00 at the resale thrift shop in a scuffed up dark stain.  She decided to paint it a distressed gray to match her dresser and it adds such sweetness and charm to the space.  As well as extra seating.

So you can see it doesn’t necessarily take a lot of money to create this kind of style.  It’s just a matter of vision, finding those hidden jewels (like flea market finds and hand-me-downs) and putting it all together in just the “right” way.

That’s my girl and I’m so proud of her and I look forward to her future success as an interior designer!

Hopefully she’s inspired you when it comes time to decorate your own place or maybe to help your daughter, sister or friend decorate theirs.

Happy Decorating!