College Apartment Tour

Good morning! I’m excited to share Riley’s apartment bedroom with you today. We had so much fun planning this space over the summer. She has a fantastic eye and loves the whole design process so it’s pure joy to work on rooms with her. Of course there is a major plot twist with this . . . I’ll share at the end of the post. I will also link all of the things we found extremely helpful for a college apartment bedroom.

COZY ROOM

While the room itself is quite small, it’s so cozy and comfortable. Fortunately, it came furnished so all we really needed to do was making it feel like home. We found the rug and bedding at Home Goods. This bedskirt is a dream to put on the bed and looks great.

ART INSPIRATION

Riley found this artwork and we used it as the color inspiration for the room. It’s so much fun and I love the vibe. The frame is from Target and very lightweight. Ryan bought her the cute stuffy on her bed just before she left for school. The long blue pillow was from her dorm last year and we found the floral pillows and striped quilt at Home Goods.

The wall color looks so much like Pale Oak (which we had in our California home). She reused her vanity mirror from last year and we added a Home Goods lamp.

WARM LIGHTING

These battery operated sconces are darling. They added so much warmth to the room. The white curtains were ones we used last year in her dorm room.

GALLERY WALL

The frames were a collection of things we found at thrift stores and around town. She found all of the artwork and we printed them at home. The lamp is really cute in person.

SHOP FROM HOME

The mirror is a Hobby Lobby find that she has had in her bedroom at home for years. We opted to bring it so she could use it in here. And of course no college room is complete without a basket of cozy blankets and Jellycats.

MOST LOVED ITEMS

• over the door shoe organizer for the closet
• hanging sweater bag for the closet
• under the bed storage – so good
• battery operated sconces
• genius bed skirt – so good
• foam topper (she loves)
• quilted bed topper
• black out liners that hang behind the curtains
• over the bed art
• brass lamp
• large white shams – we already had
• floral pillows
• striped quilt

A FAVORITE MOMENT

I love this photo because it brings back memories of such a wonderful quick trip. We drove 7 hours and moved her in to her room. It took us about 4 hours to do. We ordered take out and crashed. This was the next morning before we had to drive home. We walked the campus and had breakfast together. She was all smiles and it felt really good. And we knew we would be back a couple of days later for orientation.

PLOT TWIST

If you receive my newsletter, than you already know the plot twist. Holy cow! The whole reason we moved her into an apartment is because Notre Dame’s newest female dorm was not ready yet. As a transfer, she was not guaranteed a dorm room and chose to go the apartment route. Low and behold, on the first day of classes, she received the great news that a bed had opened up. Crazy turn of events but a welcome one. Our sweet girl ended up moving herself into her dorm room the first week of classes. She took very little and kept it simple. This wasn’t what we saw coming but sometimes God has different plans. And I am thrilled to report that she is doing fantastic and loving life on campus. I’m so grateful.

*A look at Riley’s freshman dorm room and things she found useful.