Decorating a college apartment?

Q. My am in college and next semester my best friend and I are getting an apartment together. She is kind of boyish and I am super girly. We will each have our own bedrooms and bathrooms and she said that I could decorate our Living room, kitchen, and dining room as well. I basically have two parts to my question:
1.) When decorating my room and bathroom, I have no furniture yet so it is a blank canvas. Where can I find some cheap durable pieces that I can transfer to my house when I graduate? Also, where are some cute decorating ideas? I love the home interior kind of stuff with the wrought iron and etc, but I am still yound and want to incorporate livliness! I also love pink and green. Where can I find cute accessories?
2.) For the living room and dining room, we have antique furniture that is very not our style. I will have to work around it until we can save for others. How can I modernize it and where can I find cheap but classy looking stuff to replace it? Thanks!

A. Check out fabric stores for remnants. For bedroom furniture, just look at an LL Bean catalog with all their painted white and pastel furniture. Any amateur can recreate that look with furniture from the junk store or flea market with a few cans of Krylon white spray paint.

Also check out the discount stores for "bed in a bag' type comforter sets and throw rugs.

Also check out eBay and www.overstock.com for all sorts of cool stuff.

Enjoy.

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I need some ideas on how I should make my bedroom look more gothic?

Q. Right now, I only have a black & red bed spread and black curtains, that's pretty much it. I'm not allowed to paint my walls, so I have to leave it white -_- What else should I have? I prefer DIY projects, those are really fun. And pictures would be awesome too. Also, I'm on a low budget.

A. Gothic is actually a Victorian Style so if you run into anything in a yard sale that speaks Victorian and you like it for little or nothing get it. You might run into a rare antique for money.

Get a bed frame with a gothic/pointed arch design if not the right color paint it black or pewter color.
You can also get some dark colored velvet or satin lampshades. Anything moody, dark would do.
Hang artwork with dark colors, gothic architecture, bare twigs. Get a rug with a twiggy bare branch or stained glass motif and dark and crackled pottery and picture frames. There are numerous styles of wall stickers you can stick on the wall and peel off when needed. Anything black outlined and sketchy would work.
Try to also to like for wrought iron or something that likes like.
Black and white and touches of rich red will give you a nice gothic look.
Anything Victorian will work here too! Paint your dresser in Gunmetal too or dark leather brown.

Decorate plain lampshades with cheap trimming you get from a fabric store. You'll only need like 1 to 2 feet and not a whole yard so it will be cheaper. Find some like interesting shaped pottery in a thrift store or cheap store and get some spray paint and paint in dark red, gunmetal pewter, jade green, eggplant, burgundy, emerald, midnight blue, plum. If your want flowers don't go too fluffy but graphic deep roses and bold flowers.

Money savers
1. You always like into the Walmart Fabric and sewing section to get some fancy stuff for cheap.
If you run into a fabric or trimming you love but it's too much for your budget get only a foot which
Which is excellent for small projects. You can apply this for any fabric store.

2. You can find cheap prints and posters anywhere so look around and find them or take a interesting fabric with a rich design and frame it like a picture.

Original Question

Ideas for a gothic/brothel style bedroom?

Q. I'm redecorating my bedroom and I want something mature but fun. I'm thinking sort of vampire-y, no Dracula. Kind of brothel-like, but classy. I'm leaning towards a darker purple or red but I don't really know where to start with accessories and furniture, etc.

A. Design Toscano has great goth/medieval furniture, but the stuff isn't cheap. You are better off doing everything yourself. I would paint the walls a dark burgundy or purple, and decorate the walls with sconces, and anything made of wrought iron. Find yourself a dark comforter with an intricate design for your bed (look for anything with damask or filigree print). Cover your tables with dark table cloths, and put some candles on them, a must for any gothic bedroom..

Idea for bedding
http://www.target.com/Classic-Home-Medallion-Bedding-Collection/dp/B000M8QZE0/602-5606552-7109437?ie=UTF8&node=671570011&frombrowse=1&pricerange=&index=tgt-mf-mv&field-browse=671570011&rank=pmrank&rh=&page=2ng

Idea for wall decor
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=6457418

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ocean-themed bedroom?

Q. I want to decorate my room with an ocean theme. (Not an underwater theme). Our family recently took a trip out to California. My fondest memories from that trip was just sitting and relaxing at the beach, watching the waves crash down.
How can I paint/decorate my room to give a "beach" effect?
(I'm really leaning on painting the bottom half "sandy" colored, free-hand some white waves as a border, and painting the rest above it blue.)

A. Target
Bed Bath and Beyond
Pottery Barn

Many people enjoy the beach and hate to leave it. Yet bringing the beach inside usually consists of tracking in sand on feet or shaking out the bathing suit all over the bathroom. There is a much easier way to bring the beach indoors, a beach themed bedroom.

PAINT
The first step is paint. The best color choice is blue to evoke the color of the ocean. The shade of blue, however, is up to personal preference. There are bright blues like Behr Paint's Windjammer or there's more of a light blue with Ralph Lauren's Cloud Blue. Any color works that evokes the sense of being open and airy and outside.

BEDDING
There are many different options for bedding, however there's a caution regarding beach themed bedspreads. These tend to look a little tacky and definitely not the beach oasis the decorator is trying to achieve.

The bedding would look nice in a chocolate or khaki, reminiscent of sand. A white bedspread would look best and give an airy feeling but let’s be honest, it’s extremely hard to maintain a white bedspread.

If the walls are a darker blue a light colored bedspread should be used. Light chocolate or khaki as mentioned previously or even a light yellow to evoke the feeling of the sun. If the walls are light than the rule is vice versa.

Choose a color and then use that color on a down comforter. These look fluffly and comfortable and when it's hot outside the comforter can be folded at the end of the bed.

ACCENTS
Window coverings are essential for the beach feeling. Use sheer white drapes for the window treatments because they give the room the feel of a beach front suite with a breeze blowing off the ocean.

Pillows on the bed should be in a variety of colors. A few pillow cases should be solid colors, a few with patterns and maybe one or two with tiki beading. A pillow with a few actual sea shells sewn onto one of the corners or even just sea shell fabric for one pillow would tie in nicely as throw pillows.

Sheer drapery would look nice over the bed as well. Using the same color fabric as the sheer curtains, drape some fabric above the bed like a headboard. For more information on that visit my Suite101.com article about alternative headboards.

If there is a ceiling fan in the room replace it with a leaf fan. These can be bought at any hardware store and the fans have big leaves as the propeller instead of the regular fan arms.

Black and white photos of beaches or things that are reminiscent of a beach would be great on the walls but don't put too many up. A few strategically placed pictures are more calming than a barage of photos. A picture of the couple sharing this lovely bedroom would look nice in a small frame made of sea shells.

To infuse a little beach side romance pick a few wrought iron sconces and hang them on the walls on each side of the bed with candles in accent colors. If the accent pillows are green, the candles should be green. Another way is to buy a few larger candles, about four to five inches tall, that have sea shells melted into the wax and place them around the room on candle stands that are about 3 feet tall.

or You could always go with nautical accesories red, white, blue,and tan
http://www.wisedecor.com/images/idea_gallery/nautical-1SA-97-05-751-07-l.jpg

So check out the links

Original Question

Bedroom makeover ideas?

Q. I have a relatively large bedroom. Blue walls, white carpet, 3 doors (Closet, Bathroom and Hallway) and 2 large windows. I want to try to stick to a blue and white color scheme. My desk, desk chair, bedframe , dresser, and doors are white. And btw it is a wrought iron white bedframe, twin size. I want it to look kinda like this:

http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1241&bih=567&tbm=isch&tbnid=Vzv2vqF6xXbEiM:&imgrefurl=http://www.polyvore.com/colorful_teen_bedrooms_blue_black/thing%3Fid%3D49585225&imgurl=http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing%253F.out%253Djpg%2526size%253Dl%2526tid%253D49585225&w=300&h=300&ei=tQk5ULbKBYbjqgGAx4GADw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=271&vpy=192&dur=619&hovh=226&hovw=226&tx=56&ty=174&sig=114146640770288797359&page=4&tbnh=170&tbnw=170&start=51&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:51,i:246

But the black in that room would be white. I wanna try to get something that looks like Lilly Pulitzer. Sorry if that seems vague... But I want a comfy chair to sit in too. And what stores have good quaility, reasonably priced furiture? Everything from chairs to lamps to random knicknacks. Thanks!

A. I love designing and decorating. That is a nice, bright bed colour. As well, maybe have a nice furry white rug to compliment on the bed, which has some white, because you said black becomes white. If not just do black. Get a beanbag chair to curl up in with a good book. You can also get a good size study desk from IKEA, with a spinning black chair, medium size. You should get pictures of like Blue Jay birds that are calming on your wall, as well as a bulletin board with pics of you and buddies, and special moments, reminders, memos, etc. Two night tables would be good, preferably white because white furniture is awesome :) I have it. On them, two blue mats to prevent scratching, and then a clear lamp with a white lampshade. A staircase design would be nice in the clear part, if you know what I mean. Then a large, glass chandelier for the middle. A nice focal point. A chest of drawers would be good for storing things in, again, white in colour. You may want some stuffed animals in the corners of the room, because that's cute. As well, a cute idea I saw at a friend's house was, in the place of the hallway door, she had beads coming down from the ceiling, forming a beautiful long beaded door.There were a couple of strings coming down, and it was so cute! If you can get that, get blue. She had magenta. Ikea is a very good priced store. You can have like artefacts modern ones around your table for inspiration, a tissue box on your side table, a garbage can preferably white. A digital clock on the side table would be good, if not on the wall. Again, white or blue. A candle on each side table would be cute,even if not lit :) If your room is big enough, for a study desk, get the ones that slide right into the wall. They are very big, (white) With a shelf at the top and a study table at the bottom. GREAT storage. Check out Candice Olsen for more ideas...These ideas are all mine though, and I hope you like them!

Original Question

Ideas for my Bohemian Chic bedroom?

Q. I am a 15 year old girl and I recently moved into a new house, so I decided to re-decorate my room. It was previously Paris themed and I now think this "theme" is a little childish for my tastes. So, I want to do a bohemian chic bedroom. I have several ideas. All of my furniture, linens, walls, and curtains I want to be a crisp white color. I found a comforter set at Target that is plain white with only a couple ruffles. It is in the "simply shabby chic collection". I am able to sew so I am going to sew a ton of throw pillows of different textures, fabrics, and colors to go on the plain bed. I want to get a lamp with a clear bottom so that I can fill it with different unique things like bottle caps, feathers, and other colorful knick-knacks. I found a chair for $50 at TJMaxx that is meant to go outside. It is off-white and weathered looking wrought iron. I'll put that in a corner. Also there is a chandelier I really like from Urban Outfitters: http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=18622670&color=001&itemdescription=true&navAction=jump&search=true&isProduct=true&parentid=SEARCH+RESULTS
I would get it in the white color. As for decorations, I want to go thrifting and antiquing to find some unique vintage pieces. I already have a "Gone With The Wind" framed picture set and an Audrey Hepburn poster. But I want to find some unique and ecclectic things to go on my walls and also decor for on top of dressers and such. I hope to find flower arrangements, tea pots, vases, trays, and other colorful accessories. Other than that, any ideas for my room?

A. That sounds amazing! I want you to do my bedroom! One idea could be to hang some semi-translucent fabric that could hang over your bed. Like a box on the ceiling, and then staple the fabric to the inside, and it could hang on the side of your bed. like a canopy. Like http://www.macautripping.com/images/f/venetian-macao-bed2.jpg or http://media.laredoute.fr/UK/Redoute/Product/picture/41302658o_aix.jpg

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