June 23, 2008
Bedding- A good night’s sleep
Remember how excited we were about picking out bedding for our dorm rooms? It was practically a competition to see who could find the cutest, most stylish bedding ever. So as soon as my friend and I decided to room together we set out on our mission. Everyday in ceramics our senior year of high school we brought in different catalogs and Web site printouts for bedding, sheets, towels. We decided to do the matching thing and before the year was even over I had bedding. We ended up getting ours at The Company Store. Our patchwork bedspreads were cute, durable, cheery and not too expensive. They made for a very cozy dorm room. Now that I live in apartment I have a bigger bed so I got to pick out bedding again (WOO HOO!!) I got it at Anthropologie and love it. It’s kinda funky but fits my style perfectly! I also looked at Urban Outfitters because they have a funky style too. Also for freshman year, make sure you check to see what size your beds are before you buy sheets. Some dorms have extra-long twin beds and regular sheets don’t fit on those! (Target, Pottery Barn, and Bed Bath and Beyond, Polo Outlet stores, Urban Outfitters and Simply Shabby Chic stuff is so cute too! And well priced)
Bedding is definitely the biggest part of making your new dorm room home. I went potluck, so my room mate and I had never met when we started on the bedding hunt. We had talked on the phone a few times and definitely seen each other on facebook, so we knew that we were pretty similar. We decided that matching or coordinating bedding would make our little room feel cozier, so then the e-mails began. We looked online at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Anthropologie, Room Service, and pretty much everywhere else! If there was one we really loved, we e-mailed the picture so we could decide together. We realized that we both wanted a bright color (the walls in the dorm had to stay white) and we wanted a duvet…they’re so comfy! My roommate and her mom were at the Ralph Lauren factory store in the San Marcus Outlets and they found adorable sheets for only $5! They took pictures with a digital camera, so I could see them and we agreed that this was our favorite. They bought a set of bed sheet for each of us that was an orange paisley print and then 2 extra top sheets that were green and white pin stripes…Her mom sewed the two green top sheets into a duvet cover for each of us (like a huge pillowcase w/ buttons on one end). Soooo cute and such a bargain!
5 bucks?! Dang now that’s a bargain!! I knew my roommate but we weren’t from the same state & we were so excited about college that bedding was the last thing on our minds….until we moved in & realized we needed more than a bare mattress to sleep in. So we looked at a few places the day of move in. We ended up getting matching purple jersey sheets & colorful duvets from Target. The jersey sheets are so comfortable & cheap. I def agree with y’all that matching is key. Also, picking either a subtle color or one w/ multiple colors helps so that you can decorate the rest of the room accordingly. I would stay away from white unless you wash your sheets all the time. My roommate & I were both pretty bad about laundry, so our dark sheets did the trick. There’s also a Polo outlet in Allen where u can find cute, affordable bedding. Looking online is really smart & a time saver; however, if u need fast, cheap, & cute just check your local Target. Side note – if ur dorm room has bunk beds get a baby bar (trust me, I fell off several times until putting one up).
You would fall off the bed!! Haha, we had our beds lofted for about 3 weeks until one of my friends from high school came in town and I made him “de-loft it” because I got so sick of climbing up there and trying to climb down in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Before I took it down I’d throw all my pillows off my bed to make for a safe landing when I jumped off. Even though I de-lofted it, I still left a lot of space so I could fit my drawers and other junk underneath it. My roommate left hers lofted for about one more week and then took hers down as well. I never fell off, but for those of you who are wild sleepers and roll around, the baby rail might be a good option.
After a few hours of lugging everything I owned up three flights of stairs and then cramming it into my dorm room/cell we were ready for a break! Maybe hit up Sno Beach (amazing snow cones!) or take a dip in the pool…just anything to cool off and rest for a minute! Instead we headed over to Breed’s Hardware Store to buy a set of risers, yes risers. These wonderful little pegs are a space-saving miracle. There are several different styles (all the girls in my dorm got theirs at the hardware store, but you can also get them at B,B&Beyond, Target, etc.) but they all work the same. Basically they help you extend the legs of your bed so you have about a foot more height of storage space! Then we zipped over to The Container Store where we some cute green canvas bins that slide right under the bed…a lot of girls also did clear plastic drawers so they could see exactly what was inside. Not only do risers give you much needed storage space, they also turn your low childish twin bed into a tall, mature, princess-ish tower!
