Dorm Room Coziness
Reported by: Ashleigh Scheuneman
Glancing around the room of white walls, ancient carpet and identical furniture, Abigail Strong felt a chill in the hot August heat as she surveyed her dorm room for the first time. This was where she was supposed to spend the next four months of her life?
A freshman at George Fox University studying interior design, Strong got right to work making her dorm room feel as welcoming and cozy as she could. Moving into a dorm for the first time is daunting, and as the weather gets chillier and students are spending more time indoors, a cozy dorm room becomes an even more important aspect of college life.
“I was so excited to decorate and get the dinge out. And it worked,” said Strong.
Strong, along with another interior design major named Avery Kornoelje, both believe in the importance of a rug and plenty of pillows in a dorm room.
Korneolje said: “For the floor, I always like to have a rug in my room just because when you put your feet on it, it’s warm.” She also said that going in on a rug together with your roommate will help with the financial burden.
As for pillows, Kornoelje said: “For your bed, having extra blankets and pillows creates more coziness because you can use those blankets to wrap up in. Also visually, it adds layers to your room. It makes your bed inviting.
“Also, having different textures adds coziness. So like having a really fuzzy blanket or rug and having pillows that are different materials,” Kornoelje said.
This layering concept is a design rule Kornoelje lives by.
“It’s all about levels. Different levels of lighting and different levels of things on your bed,” Kornoelje said.
As for lighting, Kornoelje discourages the use of the overhead light provided in the dorms.
“Turning off your big room light is a really good way to make the room cozy. Like, just turn that thing off. It doesn’t do any good,” Kornoelje said with a laugh.
Instead, Kornoelje suggests using the ever popular fairy lights, lamps, and other fun lighting fixtures.
“I’ve heard that there’s a design rule that you should have as much light going up as you do coming down,” Kornoelje said. “If there’s a big ceiling light, you should also have another element of light that makes it more cozy. For example, a lamp or string lights so that you can have one off and one on and just have different lighting settings versus just one big overhead light.”
Strong and Kornoelje also said that one of the most important concepts for a room are the personal touches.
“A good idea is to add an emotional element, like having pictures around,” said Kornoelje. “It’s cozy to have pictures of your family or friends up, or something like that.” Kornoelje also said that covering up blank wall space is necessary to achieve ultimate coziness, and pictures are a good way to do this.
One of Strong’s personal touches is a painting of children crossing a log over a pond and proceeding down a path through pine trees.
“Adding little personalized touches, things that remind you of home, is really cozy. I brought my giant piece of artwork,” Strong said.
Cozy varies for everyone. For Strong, plants are essential to make her room feel cozy. “Plants add so much. They add that extra something. They make the space happy,” Strong said.
For Kornoelje, her essential oil diffuser and heated blanket are her favorite things about her room. “One of my favorite things is to have a heated blanket,” Kornoelje said. “I also really like my essential oils diffuser because you can change out the scents. I think that’s really helpful to create different moods, like studying versus sleeping.”
Despite the chilliness that has pervaded the outdoors, Strong and Kornoelje are keeping their dorm rooms warm by adhering to their personal definitions of coziness.