BYU students sometimes neglect decorating their Provo living spaces. BYU interior design professor Chad Gibbs assures students that designing apartments can be fun and worth the effort.
“Everybody needs a place that feels secure and safe,” Gibbs said. “Home is what traditionally does that for people. There’s a different kind of feeling that only exists in home. It’s somewhere we are more than anywhere else.”
BYU senior Kalyn Moore recently redecorated her apartment room in an attempt to make it feel more personal. She came away satisfied with the results.
“A lot of the pictures I hung up have sentimental value because they’re photos from home and my mission. They make me really happy,” Moore said.
She also she doesn’t consider herself an artsy person, but found joy in designing her apartment anyway. She said it made a big difference to her mood and how comfortable she feels in her room.
“My first couple years of college, I never put anything up on the wall. After adding a personal touch, it feels a lot more homey. I actually like spending time in my room now,” Moore said.
BYU sophomore McKale Simpson also redecorated her apartment recently by adding extra lighting and wall prints.
“It makes all the difference,” Simpson said. “Before it was just a place to be when you couldn’t be anywhere else, but now it’s fun because people actually want to be there.”
Simpson explained that, while she headed up the redecoration project, her roommates were there to help every step of the way. She said the apartment now feels like home for all of them.
Gibbs said it is important to work together on designing an apartment with roommates or a spouse. Gibbs applauds efforts like Simpson’s to design together as roommates or spouses. He suggested working together to design a space will help generate a relationship of trust and acceptance.
Students should keep decorating costs relatively low and instead focus on the time they invest into their apartment, according to Gibbs. He believes the time invested is more important than the money invested.
“College students are more attached to their space when they spend time on it rather than money,” Gibbs said. “The more you try to make your room somewhere you like, the more you will be attached to it.”
For people who have designed their apartment but want a change, Provo interior design blogger Mollie Openshaw from Design Loves Detail suggested in a blog post to “change around your decor, not necessarily buy new things all the time, but move things around and occasionally add something new.”
Moore explained her designing advice and how people who are designing should stay on budget.
“Keep it simple. Don’t necessarily follow trends, just do what you like,” Moore said.
Accomplish rhythm and repetition by having multiple items of the same shape or color.
Find ways to hide items behind doors or in storage bins so the room does not appear overfilled.
Choose one item to be a statement piece and have everything else build off of it.
The best way to create a feeling of home is to make the space personal. Use unique items to show personality.
Coming home to a pleasant smell will automatically make a happier space.
Plants bring great texture to a room and provide a sense of well-being.
