Words of Wisdom Wednesday...The Dorm Room

The Dorm Room: Make it as much like home (a new home at that) as you can.

After our mini-check in (the rest of the freshman check in on Friday) with about 90-100 other freshman, we proceeded to the dorm, found her room and the decorating started. Before honey and papa were able to bring anything in, I took before pictures just as the room looked. And Miss Brooke, Nana, and I tried different room arrangements before we settled on something she liked. Her roomie, who will come in on Friday, told her to do whatever she wanted with the room. (Warning, I forgot a few finished photos, and I am very sad about that.)

So let's begin:

The door, super plain college dorm door. We added this:

neat little crafty project from the Cricut machine (most things were done with Cricut, Sizzix Big Shots, and embroidery machine). The K and the E were for their names. And NO, Miss Brooke does not start with K, it was a mix-up...her name is spelled out correctly on the K. We also added this adorable board:

It was given to Brooke by her best friend for her birthday. It hangs under the Welcome Sign. On each side of the door are the dry erase boards. The left side is Brooke's because that is her side of the room, and E's is on the right (her side of the room). They are really cute. They have vinyl names at the top of each board. Of course, Miss Brooke's is pink and E's is green.

You walk in the door, and the first thing you see is the CLOSET!! EEK...no closet doors, you have to use a shower curtain or curtains.

Here is the before:

At least you do have some storage above, however, notice the lovely, non-matching knobs on the storage cabinets.

Here is a preliminary shot as Brooke and Nana start organizing the closet sans the wardrobe! Thank you Summer Wind for your "expert" dorm room advice. Many of your suggestions we already had, but some of your shortcuts, we went back and purchased.

Of course, all the stuff temporarily sitting in the floor came out. The tiny shoe rack on the far left came out and shoes were doubled up in the sweater "rack". Now I am the proud owner of the shoe rack. Honey will be so proud that my shoes are off the floor. LOL

Miss Brooke hanging her shower curtain, closet door.

The monogrammed shower curtain...as you can see...it needs IRONING and bad.

Next we move on around the room...

When we came in the room, this is what we saw on the left side of the room:

The desk...

The bed...

And the lovely air condition unit with a little window.

We did a switcheroo and moved the bed up under the little shelves (right next to the closet) and the desk at the end of the bed. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the full bed after it was completely made up. ARGH!! You will see a picture of the head of the bed and the foot of the bed, so you do get a sample of the bedding.

Honey taking a snack break from putting her storage drawers together. Papa just kicking back and watching. The dresser will probably stay right there and the flat screen TV E is bringing will sit on top of the dresser. Each girl gets 2 drawers. Thank goodness the beds are adjustable, Miss Brooke's is on the top hooks at the highest height.

Here is under the bed:

One set of storage drawers with 2 bins on top...self explanatory of what the bins hold.

Second set. Miss Brooke is storing her bulk and extra toiletries in hers. These drawers hold t-shirts, sweats, and other clothing items not worn as much as what is in the big dresser drawers and in the closet. In between the 2 drawer sets are 2 storage baskets. One holds hair care products, like the hair dryer, curling irons, straightener, hair brushes, etc. The other holds her towels and wash cloths.

One of her wash cloths. All of her wash cloths are done like this and her white towels are done the same way. The pink towels are done in green and the green towels are in pink. All the same font.

Her new blanket going across the end of the bed. (If you notice the drawers and bins together under the bed, they were rearranged to have the bins in between the drawers/bins sets.

The top sheet (also in need of a good ironing).

The pillow case. (again...needs ironing...but hard to do with a super-excited new college student)

The Brooke name painting we had made at Sea World in Orlando when Brooke was probably 5 or so. We originally hung it over the AC unit and window but moved it over the bed. It has hung in her bedroom ever since. Her crafty monograms. Hard to tell but yes, the G is much larger than the B and A. Her honor tassels hanging as a reminder to work hard.

And the little shelves above her bed. One frame doesn't have a picture in it yet. I need to get more ink for my computer to print it out. It will be this picture:

This is Miss Brooke and Miss Piper. Check out Miss Piper's blog, Tarleton West! Brooke bought that frame just for a picture of her and Piper. Unknown to the 2 of them, they each had the exact same dress. This picture was taken at Myrtle Beach over the July 4th weekend.

Also on the shelf is her iHome alarm clock, a copy of one of her senior pictures, and her throat lozenges. There are also 2 sheets of pictures for her to put on her memory board that E is bringing. Brooke's is pink with white polka dots and E's is identical except for being green.

Here is honey putting together a hutch for the top of her desk:

And me working on setting up the desk:

Please excuse the mad look on my face, I was deep in concentration. The valance, one on each window, are basic white Pottery Barn Kids valances I bought off eBay when we purchased our house in 2004. I added a pink and green ribbon right above the hem and it goes perfectly. You can see everything that still needs a home.

This is a board Brooke created to hang above her desk using vinyl rub-ons. It is great inspiration when she is sitting at her desk.

Some of her books for pleasure reading. First is the book she won in Miss Janice's giveaway by Letitia Baldridge: New Manners for New Times: A Complete Guide to Etiquette. She also has a few MLA guides and other writing style books, a new set of books by one of her favorite writers, a Nicholas Sparks book, a book from church, her Bible, and a journal, among others. Serving as a book end is her little tin box, that says, "Just a Note" and contains her note cards to write letters and cards. Her tissue box is just a little something I decorated. Took a plain white tissue box cover, cut a crown out of vinyl, took a pretty pink and green ribbon around the bottom, and put "pearls" on each point of the crown. Too cute if I must say so myself. Behind that are her  file folders and post-it notes.

On the bottom are her 2 dry erase boards (seen better in the picture above) as well as the cork board on the back of the hutch. This little rainbow spells out her name and contains things like paper clips, push pins, and other little necessities. The cute little coasters are from the Doodlebug for her Brookie cousin on her birthday. This little jewelry box is a sterling silver and mother of pearl with pearls around the lid. It was a gift to her from me for being my "girl of honor" at our wedding. It has misc jewelry that she wears more often. She also has the clear pocket jewelry organizer in her closet for her misc. earrings, jewelry, all costume pieces.

This is a cute little first aid kit. We were planning to do this, but thanks again to Summer Wind, we added some other items we had not thought about. Just a cute little way to keep band-aids, pain relievers, sinus helpers, and many other emergency items. Brooke did the bottom, and I finished the top.

This is her finished desk. Excuse all the stuff sitting on the floor. It hasn't all been put away yet. You can see what the bedding looks like. It has a matching pillow sham. The dirty clothes hamper is between the bed and the desk. Small storage bins are to the right in the wasted space under the AC unit including a storage container for her notebooks and text books. Right next to the dresser is a bright pink storage "ottoman". (seen above with the first aid kit sitting on it) It has all her extra school supplies, and serves as a seat for guests. Her printer is on the bottom shelf as well stackable storage for makeup and ribbons, and some other books...not really sure except for her senior yearbook.

The other side of the room is identical to Brooke's side we found it when we arrived. Awaiting on the bed is E's monogrammed sheets and pillowcase as well as her hand towel, and I think one other goody we made for her. Until E arrives, we placed kitchen items on the shelves and put the fridge and microwave in the corner under the shelves.

The one thing you don't see in our pictures is the sink area. It isn't much, and is definitely needing some prettying up. There is a little green bath mat in front of the sink and a green garbage can beside the sink. The girls also have hand towels that I monogrammed with their names to hang on the towel bars.

courtesy of Wingate University "dorm tours"

There is also a full length mirror on the back of the entry door. I am thinking of making a vinyl "Smile" and a "You Look Beautiful" to go on the 2 mirrors. Smile for when they brush their teeth, and the other on the full length mirror.

The last thing we did was make sure the computer was up and running, connected to the Internet, and sending to the printer! Thanks Nana!!

The room is basically finished on Brooke's part. I am sure after we left she may have done some re-arranging.

Finally, the hardest part of all....the "good byes"...

Miss Brooke with her Papa and Nana (my parents)

Miss Brooke, her daddy, and me.

Miss Brooke and her daddy.

We were all smiles at this point.

But then, it was the goodbye hug to Papa. (I don't know any 2 people closer than they are.)

(first you can see the "kitchen" area)

Then the tear flow started. I heard the sniffles which led to me tearing up... I thought I could make it through the goodbyes without crying in front of her. Which led to our final picture...

I've lost it...out we walked...into a rain that God let down so that my face was as wet from rain as it was from tears. My parents get in their van, and honey and I get in our car, and as we pull away, I get a Facebook message from Brooke that stated, "family just pulled away...tears yes, ice cream at 7:30 will def fix that!!".  Geez...I am already being replace by an ice cream social! LOL

But best of all, as I was getting in bed that night, the phone rang, it was my baby girl with a question about her laptop. She couldn't find her product key for something. I was able to help from across the miles. And I got to hear "I love you mommy" one more time that day!