CRIBS: AMR I, Royce House, Room 307

Posted by Lauren B.

So confusingly, since I recorded my Cribs video, I’ve decided to completely rearrange my room.

I got back from Spring Break a few hours before my friends did and could think of no better way to avoid unpacking than to move all of the furniture around. So all of the pictures you see are from my “new” room and the video will be from my “old” room but hopefully it’ll give you an idea of what my room is like, regardless.

My room, pre-rearranging.

I live in AMR I, in Royce House on the 3rd floor, in a single room. It’s pretty great, and even though the AMRs were my last choice when I filled out my housing forms last year, I really like them now. It’s not as social as everyone tells you, but it’s a fun place to live and I’m glad to be here (except maybe in the first few weeks of school, when it was WAY too hot). From the third floor I get a great view of the tennis courts and the baseball field, and because I'm all the way up here, I get a room with "character"--the ceiling slopes downward, and I have a dormer window. AMR I is pretty cool because although it's the traditional dorm set up, the rooms are older and different--we don't have cinderblock walls, and we get a whole wall of bulletin board, which is great for decorating! Having a single is awesome, it was really easy to make friends regardless of this, and I have my own space to live in (and rearrange, apparently) as I choose.

My lovely bulletin board--you can see me explain what's up here on the video. And the other picture is the top of my armoire, my Phi Mu bid night poster, and a Georgia O'Keeffe poster. I'm in a sorority (Phi Mu), you can read about my decision to rush here. 

 

So when I got here in August there were just white walls, and a few pieces of furniture. All of the light wood furniture you see in these pictures comes with the room—I think it’s fire treated or something, so it all looks very similar. The desk, the three-drawer chest and the armoire as well as the bed came with the room. I’ve added quite a bit more storage, which is a necessity. I have stuff everywhere, with hooks and bookcases and whatnot to make sure it all fits. Especially for girls, it's a challenge to fit all of your stuff in the school-provided furniture, so I added a bookcase from Target, another one from the Barnes and Noble across the street, canvas storage boxes, and a small storage unit (also from B&N). It helps to have a bookcase, because mine kept tumbling off of the top of my desk, and also you won't have to put your printer on the ground (very bad idea).

The drawers The armoire

My bed is 1/4 lofted, I believe, which is something you can do yourself (or if you're lazy like me, ask the boys on your floor to do it). 1/4 lofting a bed will allow you to fit the drawers underneath it, and full lofting enables you to put your whole desk under there, which is useful if you have a really small room, but you need a ladder. It's a little too high for me to get into gracefully, but lofting gave me a lot more space to store stuff and somehow made my room look bigger (plus now no one sits on it when they come into my room, which is also nice). Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the actual bed. it's permanently unmade, which is not something I care to advertise with a picture, but this is how much space I have under my bed... (you can just see the edge, and my pretty carpet!)

In terms of decorating, I think it was one of the most fun parts of getting ready to move here, and it helps to have a room that is really yours, as opposed to standard issue dorm room. I have pictures from home, pictures of my graduation, prom, my family. Cutouts from the New York Times, J.Crew catalogs, Vogue, etc. I have postcards, posters, paintings, bulletin boards, as well as three extra lamps, a colorful carpet, and Christmas lights. I brought my favorite books, my alarm clock from home, and my favorite kind of coffee. The dorms at Hopkins are pretty nice, but if you're living here for a whole year, it really makes it so much better to decorate it. I have definitely decorated my room more than most, but I love my room now, despite its somewhat-snug size.

My (overwhelmingly decorated) desk, and the bookcases I brought from home.

 

The top of the chest of drawers (on the left) and my desk (on the right), along with a lot of frames, postcards, post its and general clutter. 

If you want a better look at my (old) room, check out my Cribs video, posted below.

-Lauren B