Spaces & Faces: Sophia

Meet one of my roommates from Seattle: Sophia! We only got to live together for a couple months before I moved, but they were some damn good months. Not only do we get along really well, but look how cute her sense of style is!

I love this idea– she added velcro to the back of her makeup palettes so she could hang them on the wall and easily remove them to do her makeup. This is a great space saver and a really unique way to decorate your walls.

These skulls are leftover from her birthday party (her birthday is on Halloween, so all the decor was spooky themed). I love this Bob's Burger's window poster– it's from the first episode and you can actually see it from the street below us.

Spaces & Faces: 3201

Welcome to my apartment! (Finally). I've lived here since October 2015, but apparently it's taken me over a year to finally get my room to the point where I can put it on the blog. Now, just in time for me to move out in a couple weeks, here is a look at my living space.

My bed is where I spend most of my time. I've had most of these pillows and this duvet cover since freshman year, so my room aesthetic has largely remained the same. Emily painted this beautiful piece of art as a rough draft for an incredible gallery piece she did, and I got to keep it because I was one of the people that posed for her.

I've slowly been building up this gallery-style wall since I moved in: it was originally just the quote cards, but has since grown to incorporate my first-ever wedding invite, my sister's grad announcement, some DIYs, and some miscellaneous pictures.

I love the aesthetic that hanging up my jewelry creates. Not only is it like a little wall of art, but it's a super practical way to store my necklaces.

I love my &s: I hope to acquire more of them as I continue decorating my living spaces.

The foot of my bed features some of my own paintings of little succulents.

All of our furniture came from the university, but we do our best to spice it up with our own unique touch, like these DIY wine bottle vases.

Carolyn has a bunch of really cute quote canvases: these are two of my favorites. It doesn't hurt that they're both so aesthetically pleasing.

Living with two dogs (and three women) is a whole bunch of fun. We spend a lot of Friday nights together on the couch watching Harry Potter movie marathons and sharing junk food.

Spaces and Faces: Emily

When Brendan and I drove down to California, I had the excellent chance to see my best friend and the home she grew up in. As I've mentioned, I think someone's space is an excellent representation of who they are, especially when their space has been developed throughout their life. Emily's high school room is the perfect example.

The first thing Em told me when I came into her house was that her mom was looking forward to repainting the entire house because it was like a giant crayon box. Emily's room was no different, being entirely painted sherbet orange. "I surprised myself choosing orange paint because I've always been a blue kinda girl but I went to pick out paint chips and randomly saw the color and was like 'yup, that's the one.'"

Emily had decorated most of our room last year, and I was not surprised to that her room at home was adorned with the same creative flair. She had a story for everything I asked about: from the sunglasses near the ceiling ("they broke, but I still wanted to showcase them") to the collaged hand on her shelf (a project from art class).

"Over the years I hung up a lot of my own photography... All of the black and white prints are mine, and a lot of the colored ones around the door frame, too. I just really wanted it to be a space that reflected me and what I was thinking creatively, so every time I found something or made something that seemed right I put it up!"

"I made the painting space this summer... After taking a painting class during winter quarter I'm spoiled and feel like I need an easel, but I'm also poor so I just taped a bunch of garbage bags to the wall (to protect the paint) and hung up my canvases off of thumb tacks. It was a godsend this summer, since I've discovered that painting is truly a way for me to relieve anxiety and unwind."

My Space

Those of you who saw my Instagram post this morning know what's coming: a room tour post! Living in campus living means everything is pretty compact and often disorganized, so it's taken me a while to get my room to a level of cleanliness acceptable to take pictures of. My roommate put up these awesome lights this weekend which really makes the whole place feel a lot homier.

A photo posted by Hannah Goldstein (@thehannahgold) on Oct 10, 2014 at 12:18pm PDT

I love the idea of decorating my room, but I never quite get around to doing it because I'm worried it's not going to turn out exactly the way I want it to. Here's what I've done so far, though!

Dorm Room Essentials

I've been at school for just over a week, but we're not all entirely moved in yet (it's hard to move in, catch up with friends, and start class all at the same time!). While I work on getting that taken care of to allow for the best dorm room post of all time, I figured I'd provide you with my dorm room essentials as learned from my two years living on campus.

I love this blanket-- and the little angel peeking out from under it! I took a bit of a risk getting it in white, but it so reminded me of something Kim Kardashian would put in her room that I couldn't resist. Besides, it reminded me of this white sheepskin rug I used to lay on as a baby. It's always nice to have something that reminds you of home in your dorm room.

For some reason, I can never bring myself to buy art or posters. I have approximately one poster from an xx concert hanging in my room at home. Other than that, I have photos, paintings, and drawings decorating my walls. However, I will make an exception for these particular posters. To be fair, I did design them and they're available for sale in my Zazzle store. Sure, this is a little bit of shameless self-promotion, but I wouldn't have made them if I didn't truly love them! *Bonus*: use the code ZFALLSPECIAL and save 15%! Buy left middle right.

This isn't even the beginning of my stash of tea memorabilia-- I also own sugar, honey, an entire container of assorted teas, and an electric kettle. Tea is so important to have in your dorm room because it can provide so many things. It helps a sore throat, can aid in waking you up, and the ability to make yourself tea in the comfort of your own home instead of having to go to the dining room (like you do whenever you're hungry and/or thirsty) gives you a much-needed sense of control. Plus, how cute are these mugs?

I'm not exaggerating when I say I use washi tape on everything. Beyond spicing up some boring old containers from Goodwill, washi tape lines my bookshelves, the light switch, and my desk. It's such an easy way to make your space yours, especially when anything you do to your room has to be reverted at the end of the year.

We have Christmas lights lining our entire room (the school-provided fluorescents will kill your self confidence and make waking up that much harder), but these little flower stems are my favorite alternative lights. They're cute on and off, and can serve as everything from a night light to a lamp to ambience lighting.