Elisabeth’s Dorm Room

Last month my baby left for college – moving from Texas to Boca Raton, Florida, to major in Photography at Lynn University.  You have to know Elisabeth to appreciate it – she being in Boca Raton and all, majoring in Photography.   Not exactly the same as toughing it out through pre-med at some freezing, northern Ivy League school.   No, she’s out catamaraning in the Atlantic with new friends.   Ben and I just pray she is actually attending a class or two here and there.  Of course her leaving the nest for a dorm  got me all excited – thoughts of decorating her dorm room took up endless hours of daydreaming.  Reality is a bitch.   Elisabeth really didn’t want too much of my help with decorating, although she said she did to be nice.   In the end, she decorated her own room and I tried to keep my mouth shut.  It was hard. 

Dorm room designing is big business today.  Late summer, all the large discount stores like Target and K-Mart have special sections for dorm room decorating.  There is even an interactive web site to design your own dorm room with actual 3d plans from your college.  HERE.    Stores like Pottery Barn Teen, Anthropologie, and Urban Outfitters cater to dorm dwellers.   It’s all so different now than it used to be.  When I went to college in 1972, I took my sister’s 3 year old pink bedspreads  (one for me and one for my roommate – hi Helaine!) and one print for the wall.    This summer, we sent a car load of Elisabeth’s things down to Boca, plus numerous boxes via Fed Ex.   I tried to put a sunburst mirror from Ballard Designs in the car, but Elisabeth had a screaming fit and refused to let me send it.  I tried, I really tried. 

 

Boca Raton, Florida on the Atlantic Ocean.   This is the view outside from our hotel room.  

 THE FANTASY DORM ROOM:

Fantasies of a dorm room – these pictures fueled my dreams of what I wanted Elisabeth’s dorm room to look like.  She had other ideas.   Here, Max Sinsteden, featured in New York Magazine, totally changed his dorm room into a Ralph Lauren advertisement.   Max worked part time for Charlotte Moss which explains where he is coming from.   Something tells me we’ll be seeing much more of his work in the future.  Looking down – Max brought oriental runners to cover the floor and he skirted a chest in plaid fabric.  His bed has bolsters in paisley and doubles as a sofa/day bed. 

Max was lucky and was able to paint his dorm room.  I’m sure he’ll have to paint over it when he moves, but so what?  It’s totally worth it.   Elisabeth’s would have shot me if I painted her dorm room.   I love this gallery wall.   

Max even brought all his design books – I spy An Affair With A House by Bunny Williams and another book on Elsie de Wolfe.  

Max skirted a table in plaid fabric and set up his own bar.   An array of liquor like this would get Elisabeth kicked out of school!   Max even added curtains with a trim, no less. 

VINTAGE DORM ROOMS:

This dorm room is famous for being Edgar Allen Poe’s at the University of Virginia.   Great wood floors and beautiful antique furniture.   So unlike the dorm rooms of today. 

This dorm room at Harvard’s Westmorly Court was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s.   At the time, the dorm was brand new and boasted central heat, electricity, and modern “hygienic” bathrooms.   FDR’s suite was over 600 sq. ft. with four rooms and 14’ ceilings.   There was a working fireplace too.   His mother Sara decorated his room in the Victorian style.  

  1880s Princeton dorm room had beautiful wood furniture and cute curtains, along with wallpaper.

Dorm rooms were not always as boring as they are today.   This dorm room from the turn of the century actually resembles Max’s above.   I love how dressed up they were just sitting around studying.  

Another cozy dorm room, along with a quilt and lots of pictures on the wall.  

  I love this dorm room – notice the fishing net that holds all the pictures in it.   This room has wallpaper and trimmed out pillows.

Those hair-dos!  Notice all the bentwood chairs.

This pretty dorm room has matching fabric on the chairs and table and valances.  Love the lamp. 

From the 50’s – cute wallpaper and bedspreads.   They must be wearing uniforms!    Dorm rooms with character like bay windows and paneled doors are a thing of the past except at older colleges. 

Here is an historic photograph of James Meredith studying in his dorm room, while an FBI agent talks on the telephone.  In 1962, after then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy brokered the deal, Meredith was the first black student admitted to the University of Mississippi.   Neatly dressed in a tie, his dorm room is dismal and quite depressing. 

 Fake Dorm Rooms:

This summer, My Home Ideas HERE decorated a dorm room.   I sent Elisabeth all these pictures – I had visions in my head of us making those burlap headboards together.   She thought this was really cute, but she had her own ideas for her dorm room.

The burlap wrapped “headboards” are the cutest. 

This bed had a different shaped headboard.  Love the mix and matched bedding.

I thought this was another really cute dorm room.

This picture had me really going.  It is so “Elisabeth” who has a purse fetish.    I guess you have to buy purses to match the sheets???

  They must have liked the purse idea too! 

If only.   Love the cow hide rug and the quilted stools.  

Pottery Barn Teen is filled with great ideas for dorm rooms – except the furniture in dorms is never, ever this cute.

Oh, yeah, sure!   Make your dorm room look like a boutique.   I can just see all the neatly folded clothes out on display. 

More fantasy.   Would you have to buy a wardrobe to match your decor?   Please.   T-shirts and jeans don’t look cute on hangers.

I Suwannee had a “design a dorm room” contest on her blog HERE.   Lots of blogs made up inspiration boards of cute ideas for dorms.   I only hope their daughter’s let them decorate their dorm room.

Real Life Dorm Rooms:

HGTV’s Rate My Space has over 600 dorm rooms featured.  Most are of girl dorm rooms.  And most girl dorm rooms are black and hot pink with either damask or zebra designs, or both.  They also have either an Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe poster in them.  Another big trend is to cover white walls with sheets, construction paper, or posters.    Most of the Rate My Space rooms are beyond awful, but a few are cute.

The typical pink and black – with both damask and zebra, along with the popular chandelier motif.

  Another popular color scheme is turquoise with either black or brown.   Lots of damask prints and lots of faux chandelier chic. 

 Design by:  http://www.decor-2-ur-door.com/

I thought this was cute – monogrammed poster board paper headboards.

  Look at the shade – a KWID inspired fabric!   I thought this was cute for a real life dorm room.  Great rug and futon.

Mom helped out with this room.    You can always tell the ones where Mom had a big hand in the decorating.  No way a daughter would have a bolster pillow made up touting her “big sis” sorority status. 

Design by:   http://www.decor-2-ur-door.com/

 

Shabby Chic Dorm Room:   This girl taped wallpaper on her walls.   I can only imagine Elisabeth letting me do that to her room!  

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Most depressing:  OMG.  Arsenic and Old Lace.   It’s just all so dreary and dusty looking.   Notice the feather pen on the skirted table. 

  This one is really cute – a Tiffany gift box inspired bedroom.  Clean and simple.   Cute student too.   

Elisabeth’s Dorm Room:

Here’s what we started out with – a cross between a classroom and a hospital room.    Her room is huge with two giant walk in closets and its own bathroom and vanity area.  This is her half of the room.   I tried to get Elisabeth’s roommate to “match” but they bought their own bedding.  At least there is no carpet – just lovely gray linoleum.   Lots of beautiful furniture comes with the room.   

The window area.  What I would GIVE to add curtains and rip those blinds down, but Lizzy would disown me!  

Elisabeth bought the brown and white damask bedding herself, online, from Pine Cone Hill.   She had it monogrammed in pink and added the pink peony sheets from Pine  Cone Hill.     I bought the two lamps from Target with matching brown shades.  

Elisabeth bought the “Chanel” lamp at More Than You Can Imagine” HERE in Houston.   She also bought online those cute vinyl baskets in brown with pink monograms.   I found the small Dash and Albert rug at Olivine HERE.  I wanted to buy her a large Dash and Albert rug, but she insisted on a white Flokati rug, with matching pillows.   

 

Here’s her white rug.   She made the two photo collages for her wall.

We bought her cute desk chair in white from PB Teen.   We are still looking for a little futon or sofa to go against the windows. 

I bought her white towels with brown monograms from Pottery  Barn.   Yes, her initials are SEW.   Sarah Elisabeth Webb.  And no, I didn’t think of that before.

Thanks Dad, who happily pays for it all. 

Her College:   Pictures for my family

Here’s a few pictures from her college, Lynn University.   It’s a small, private college with only around 2,500 students, many of whom are international students.   The campus is over 100 acres, so it’s very spread out.  I took these pictures with my new I-Phone.  They came out just as good as my Nikon!

There are numerous lakes throughout the campus.  See the ducks?   The campus is right across the street from the much larger Florida Atlantic University. 

The school was started in the 60s, so the buildings are mostly contemporary in style. 

 This is a cute coffee shop on campus.

This is right outside Lizzy’s dorm.  That’s her under the huge Banyan tree.  

Hmm.   The latest in fashion – wear a plastic shopping bag on your head.  Elisabeth and her room mate take a break from hours of studying.

Scooping the Magazines

 

The new October Veranda is out, beautiful– as it always is - full of drool-worthy houses that are totally out of my price range – just like I like it.  But on closer inspection,  the October Veranda looks familiar, very, very familiar.   Why?  Might it be because two of its feature stories have already been seen here on Cote de Texas.   What?   I’m kidding, right?    Nope.   What’s going on with Veranda today?  Why the recycling of old stories?

 

 

“OY Suzani!!” story from Cote de Texas March, 2009 – seen in this month’s Veranda.

 

Veranda and the late Southern Accents were always the cream de le cream.    They were the two magazines that I would circle the Barnes and Noble parking lot  for - waiting on the Thursday delivery truck to bring the newest issues.   Over the years, so much has changed, but thankfully, much, like an old friendship, has stayed the same. 

 

A favorite Southern Accents cover – maybe my favorite one ever.   This cover inspired a rash of lilac colorways that were added to fabric houses.

 

Of course Southern Accents is now gone, a victim of the bad economy and scarcity of ads; readership was never the issue.   For me, the death knell started when I first noticed the paper they were using.  Instead of the usual nice and thick variety, SA switched to thinner and lighter paper.  You know, the exact same kind of  lifeless paper that Southern Living uses.  Cheap.   The beginning of the end.   When it was announced they were closing their doors, I was sad for days – I say this with no exaggeration.   Southern Accents had been such a large part of my life, it was a design bible.   Each month I would rush to see if any favorite Houston designers had made it in the issue.  This was before the internet and design blogging, and the ability to follow designers portfolios was nearly impossible.   Magazines alone made it possible to see what designers were up to;  magazines gave you a glimpse into their current aesthetic.   It was a family affair.   Many issues my mother, or my aunt or my sister would call and we would discuss it, house by house.  If it was an rare “bad” issue, we would warn each other:  “got the new SA, don’t bother.   It’s TERRIBLE this month!”   Or, “go get your issue and turn to page 140.   I just love that!”   You see, these magazines mattered to a lot of us.    Back then, they didn’t publish each month and the wait for a new issue was torture.  At least SA came more often than Veranda, sometimes it seemed as if the new Veranda would never arrive.   But it did and still does, while SA is gone forever.

 

 

 

  All In The Family:  This beautiful house was editor Lisa Newsom’s son’s.  Another classic cover and story. 

 

Over the years Veranda quietly changed.   Their southern-only editorial material went international.    The shift was subtle.   I hadn’t even realized that change was intentional – I always assumed  the non-southern houses were the second homes of rich and famous Dixie-ites.   And yes, Veranda’s paper quality suffered too, just like SA’s.  Pick up an old Veranda and feel the difference, it was almost like reading a design book, certainly not some rag you could pick up at the grocery store.   Which brings up another difference – Veranda was never found in a grocery store or a drug store.   It was special, a jewel that didn’t mingle with Track & Road or True Romance.   You had to seek it out to find it.  But that’s no longer true either since Hearst bought the magazine in 2002.    Veranda even went digital a few months ago and finally rolled out a viable web site.  Will wonders ever cease?

 

Ay.   Was there ever a prettier cover?  Simple perfection in a Belgian country mansion owned by that country’s top fashion designer.

 

Despite all the changes at Veranda, the magazine basically looked the same.   It never changed drastically, it just tweaked things here and there.    It may think it’s now an international magazine, but its roots are southern and always will be.   A few months ago founder and editor Lisa Newsom quietly stepped down, replaced by former domino alum Dara Caponigro.   Gulp.    domino and Veranda?     The blog gossip was brutal.  It wasn’t personal against the new editor who is universally respected, it’s just we didn’t want OUR Veranda to become the “how to get this look for less” magazine for Kappas and Pi Phis.    So far, so good.    I haven’t noticed Dara’s impact yet, but I’m sure it is coming and will probably be good.  She knows what she is doing.   Young and talented, maybe she is what the magazine needs – fresh blood and all.    I just hope she knows what to do with a Pam Pierce or a Carol Glasser house, the importance of them and others like them.   The verdict is out.

Which brings me back to this issue – why all the old features?    Much of this month’s Veranda is very old, recycled news for Cote de Texas readers and bloggers in general.      On the Skirted Roundtable, then House Beautiful editor Stephen Drucker told us (listen HERE) that  he liked to run features as soon as they were photographed.  He didn’t believe in holding onto stories longer than a few months, a year - tops.    It’s unfair to the designer, he said, because if you run work they completed four or five years ago, it doesn’t really reflect their current style.   Five years is an eternity in the design business.   

 

A Houston legend:  Kay O’Toole’s former highrise apartment.

 

So, what happened this month at Veranda?   I KNOW I shouldn’t be writing this.  I should keep my mouth shut and be a good little blogger.   I don’t like to go negative here, and I rarely do,  but, I’ve gotten numerous emails from readers about this, questioning it.    Making editors unhappy isn’t in the best interest of bloggers. 

On the last Skirted Roundtable (Listen HERE), we discussed the importance of blogging to magazines, again.  Yet again!   I said and I do strongly feel this, that a few years ago the magazine editors seemed apprehensive of bloggers potential power and they courted us.    Today, they are no longer threatened and shouldn’t be.    Blogs and magazines work hand in hand.  Blogs need magazines, not the other way around and editors know this now.   We aren’t a threat, we never were.   We’re more like free advertisers, valuable advertisers for sure, but still free.    

Digital magazines like Rue and Lonny pose much more of a threat than bloggers like me or  “My Pretty House” do.    Still, as Margaret Russell told us on the Skirted Roundtable (OK, enough with the Skirted Roundtable already!!) popular bloggers might reach 50,000 readers a month.  Magazines reach over 200,000.    That statement alone put us in our place, fast.    Reflecting on Russell’s views, I’ve taken myself much less serious.   I’m not a magazine, I’m not a writer, nor am I a photographer.   I’m just a woman sitting in her sweat pants with holes in them pontificating from my backyard about what I like.     Trust me, there’s no one quaking in their boots about this.   

 

October’s House Beautiful:   Is it an ad or an editorial statement?  Who paid for it and why?

 

Still, it was a shock when I read a two page ad/editorial in the new House Beautiful defending magazines against the internet by asking “Will the internet kill magazines?  Did instant coffee kill coffee?”   Two pages with no hint as to who wrote it, who paid for it and why.   According to the ad, readership is up, especially in the younger, most important demographic.    Magazines, the ad says, do what the internet doesn’t:   “neither obsessed with immediacy nor trapped by the daily news cycle, magazines promote deeper connections.  They create relationships.”   Yep.   I agree with that.   I live that.    But two pages to make a point?  Someone sounds awfully defensive.    And speaking of immediacy and daily news cycles, how old should a project be before a magazine deems it too old to run?   Why hold onto stories when you risk the chance of the pictures leaking out to the internet months and years before you finally go with it? 

 

J. Randall Powers gorgeous townhouse project in this month’s Veranda.   This project has long been one of my favorite of Powers.  Photo from PaperCity who ran this story years ago.  Additionally, pictures of the townhouse showed up on real estate web sites when it was put up for sale. 

 

So, buy the new Veranda, I did.  As usual, the photography is gorgeous.   Their pictures cover both pages in many instances and there are some wonderful designers featured this month.    Although if you are short on cash, you might just want to read this story of mine “Oy Suzani” – from   March, 2009 (HERE.)   It’s the same spec house from Mary McDonald shown in this month’s Veranda.   Pictures of this house have shown up all over the internet this past year.   Or, to read about the Randy Powers house also featured this month, see my own article called “Chinoiserie Central at Piano Nobile”  HERE.  This gorgeous townhouse by Powers was actually first shown years ago in PaperCity, a Houston magazine.   I know Powers is thrilled to have his work seen in Veranda, no doubt, but I can’t help wondering if he would have rather had a more current example of his work shown.   Probably.      Then, there is the profile on Timothy Whealon, that wonderful young interior designer, which showcases a house that has already been featured all over the blogs.   The bloggers  took their pictures from Whealon’s own web site.      I’m sure Veranda would have preferred Whealon not post those pictures until their story was published, but how many years could they expect him to hold off?  One, two, three years?    Once a photograph turns up on the internet, it goes viral, it spreads from blog to web site to blog, over and over like a nasty cold, until no one can actually say where the original picture came from.   And yes, I know, copyright issues and the internet are much debated, heated topics best left for another time. 

Finally, there’s the Veranda story about Edith Head – yawn.  Please don’t tell me that Veranda is going to take up Architectural Digest’s mantel and  showcase Hollywood ad nauseam.   Now that Margaret Russell is heading up AD, maybe their Hollywood adulation will end.  Hopefully.  But really, Edith Head in Veranda?  Seriously? 

 

October’s House Beautiful:   gorgeous new decor – eye candy to inspire, to lust for, to dream about.   Interiors like this by Daniel Sachs are why House Beautiful is at the top of their game.    

 

I know times are tough for the magazines.  And like I said, I probably should  just kept my mouth shut and hope that maybe soon we’ll be getting current stories from Veranda never seen before, of projects just completed.    I can’t recall ever seeing a house in House Beautiful that was first shown all over the blogs.   I could be wrong about that, but that magazine always looks fresh and current.    And it is always a a surprise, a visual feast.   This month’s cover story shook me to my core, leaving me to question, again, my own aesthetic.   The heavily ethnic, Indian and English inspired interiors by Daniel Sachs left me speechless.    Bland Belgian-who????  There are so few quality magazines left, so few design magazines of any kind left, and I want to be surprised, I want to be speechless, I want to be inspired.   I want to get my magazine and have my mouth fall open and just stare and gape and read and reread and scan in the pictures and talk about them here on the blog or on the Skirted (ok ok ok – I won’t say it again).  

 

Jill Brinson’s Atlanta house was the subject of much adoring blog buzz.

 

The last time that truly happened for me was House Beautiful’s cover story of Jill Brinson’s house HERE.   GAWD.    It inspired me, it awed me, it made me green with envy in a very good way.   It provoked discussion and blog buzz.    I want that from my magazines.   Every time, every issue.   Too much to ask for?   Probably.  Yes.  Too much.    I’ll settle for once a year.