Your First College Apartment
Adjusting to student life can be difficult enough with the expectation that you become a top-tier interior decorator overnight. And yet, there seems to exist an assumption that once you step into that first college apartment in Denver, you’ll know what to do without even a scant bit of guidance. Unless you’ve been binging on HGTV, the reality is you’ll be lost in a sea of paints, fabrics, and furniture options if you try to decorate on your own, so let us offer some advice to set you on the right path.
We’ve taken a look at some tips from the pros and rounded them up into one list so you can have an easy reference to come back to while you’re getting your living space in order. With any luck, you’ll take some of these design tips to heart, and have the time of your life while you’re decorating your first college apartment.
How to Decorate Your Space
So, before you do any actual decorating, you’ll want to get yourself in the right mindset, which is as simple as hopping over to Pinterest and taking a look at some decorating essentials for a first student apartment. Why is this important, you may wonder? Oftentimes, the mere act of looking at what you might want to do with your place will get you inspired and get your “creative juices” flowing. You’ll be well on your way to having a fabulously decorated space in no time. As for specific advice…
Prioritize “Embellishments” Over Furniture
If you were moving into your forever home, a decorator might tell you to purchase the sturdies, most well-crafted furniture money could buy. You’d want it to last, after all, and having the best would really increase the value of your space.
Not so in your first college apartment. In fact, what you’ll want to do is nearly the exact opposite. Instead of blowing a bunch of money on expensive furniture, head to the cheaper side and make your furniture look nice by way of embellishments.
You can, for instance, grab a cheap IKEA bed frame, then make it look like a million bucks with a good-enough mattress and some nice bedding. Your wallet will thank you. You’ll have more to spend on decorating other bits of your apartment. All-in-all, saving what you can is going to be the superior option.
Make Things Less Boring With Artwork
You want a quick way to spruce up those barren walls? Look no further than great artwork. There are a few ways you can pull this off, but all of them share the fact that you’ll be covering up large stretches of you walls that are currently covered in naught but paint. One of the easiest ways to go about it is to tack up some posters, but if you really want to get sophisticated, you can take wall art to the next level…
Canvas prints allow you to blow up some of your favorite images into wall-sized art for a reasonable fee, and allow you to skip the hassle of getting your pictures framed. You just need to grab some nails and pick out a few spots to hang your art.
Remember to plan smart when it comes to your art and maximize your use of space. For some walls, a couple of big prints might work best, but for other walls, a large print coupled with a few smaller prints may provide a more appealing effect. Think long and hard beforehand about what will bring the most life to your living space.
Maximizing Space Is Always a Great Idea
Even if you’ve splurged on the most spacious apartment you can find, you’ll do well to maximize your available space (since even the largest apartments tend to fill up fast). There are dozens of organizational strategies out there, designed to help you fit as much as possible into an apartment, but to make a long story short, there are few factors you should always be keeping in mind.
Look for opportunities to take advantage of verticality. Sure, storing things on one “plane” in your apartment can work at times, but to make use of all the space you have available, you’ll have to start thinking about how you can stack things to free up floors and counters. Shelves, hooks, clips, and clamps will be your guides here. Incorporate them all into your apartment to make it feel more spacious.
At the same time, you’ll need to be looking into efficient containers for your living space. You’ll want them to be functional, but if they blend in with the rest of your decor, that’ll be even better. To make sure everything you get is matching, you’ll want to stay true to one final bit of decorating advice we have for you…
Do It All in Pairs
Whether you’re buying glass containers, lamps, or any other inexpensive items for your apartment, make sure to grab multiples. You never know when repetition of a particular idea or theme is going to bring your whole look together, so it’s best to have a few extras decorative items on hand to experiment with.
What’s more, when you aim for items you can double or even triple up on, you’ll be saving yourself money (compared to purchasing a similar big ticket item you can only get one of in total). Remember to play it smart with choices like this, and your apartment will come together in no time.
Make Those College Apartments in Denver Look Fabulous
Of course, you’ve got a bit of a head start when you reside at fabulous urban locations like Colab. For starters, there are a wealth of floorplans, from studios all the way to expansive four-bedroom units for you to choose from. Once you’ve got your ideal space picked out, you’ll have an easy go of making it look great, as these residences are designed with contemporary living and aesthetics in mind. So go ahead, make Colab the place to be, then make your first college apartment look like an ideal dream destination that’ll be the envy of all others.
