Give the Old College Try to This Style
There is a crispness in the air, the leaves are starting to change, football season is in full swing and school students are well into their semesters, looking forward to fall break. I am so jealous of them! I think my own thoughts about classic collegiate design stem out of your romantic ideal of brick Ivy League dorm rooms of the 1950s and ’60s, The Official Preppy Handbook along with the movie Animal House.
The reality in the age 18 for me was moving into an un-air-conditioned characterless construction that has been so poor it has since been torn down. (Oh, and I am not kidding, the dorm was known as Balz. Yup, pronounced like you think.) However, the Balz encounter didn’t dash my collegiate design fantasies. I bedecked that gloomy area in Laura Ashley (give me a break, it was the ’90s) and still think about blue blazers, leather-bound publications, leather club chairs, fireplaces and plaid blankets once I think of collegiate aesthetic.
If you’re yearning for a tiny fall semester fashion, here are a couple ways to bring it to your property.
Proceed for classic tartan designs. The ideal collegiate style mixes lots of plaids. We’re talking blankets, upholstery, kilts and even pants.
Get the lowdown on the difference between “tartan” and “plaid”
Patrick Sutton Associates
Channel your internal Winklevoss. I understand these oars are not really the kind used by today’s crew groups, however, the technologically superior, high-energy oars of today just are not as magical. Crossing two of them over a bed or even a fireplace still gives a nod to Head of the Charles style. By the way, Head of the Charles is a really fun thing to attend during fall break — ahem, I mean, October Reading Days.
Stonewood, LLC
Go for a last club/secret society/faculty lounge vibe. Speaking of the Winklevae, The Social Network is just another one of those movies that gave us an inside look at how the elite within the elite live faculty life. Well-worn leather upholstery, club seats, brass tacks, dark wood paneling, built in shelves, Oriental rugs and a roaring fire finish the appearance of how we imagine an exclusive club or college lounge. To put it differently, have lots of leather-bound books along with also an apartment that smells of rich mahogany.
By the way, Harvard does not allow movies to be filmed on campus so we were really looking at a few prep schools and Wheelock College when we had been seeing The Social Network.
Adrianne Drazin Interior Design
Hang a school banner with pride. Classic yarn felt banners and blankets have a classic appearance that lets you show off your college pride. Also, they can help subliminally prep your Small Einstein for all those program essays in his or her future.
Adrianne Drazin Interior Design
Don’t fret, this parent does not appear to be insisting upon Harvard. Junior’s options are available thanks to the plethora of college T-shirts flipped throw pillows.
Sarah Greenman
Produce a research carrell atmosphere. Sometimes in college you need to sequester yourself into an isolated corner in the piles with a smuggled-in coffee and no interruptions.
This type of environment can also make you get down to business in the home. Keep everything you need to get your work done within reach, switch off your telephone and hunker down in a cozy library corner.
Sweet William
Hang academic graphs and posters. Botanical graphs, large-scale wrapped maps, anatomical drawings and other scholastic posters have been popular for several decades, represented by the costs you’ll see when you try to locate them online.
They make for interesting lessons, conversations and artwork, and remind us of a time when you weren’t looking at all this stuff on a notebook.
Nancy Woodhouse, Allied ASID
Display classic trophies. Seeing steeplechase races while wearing large hats was among those classic collegiate experiences I had that really jibed with my old-fashioned ideas about faculty.
No winner’s cup ever made it to my dorm room (like I mentioned, I just observed), however, the notion of classic trophies and Jefferson cups is very old-school school. These classic items are enjoying a resurgence recently (spy them here; it is hilarious), adding conventional flair to libraries, bedrooms, foyers and even bathrooms.
Daniel M Martin, Architect LLC
Show your colors in an original manner. This exact academic family created nautical flag-like paintings with the school colors from all the universities they attended. The white one is holding a place for wherever their kid decides to go to graduate school.
Watch the rest of this basement
MacMurrayDesigns
Pay homage to a favorite college team, heritage or occasion with a mural. This is in honor of The Beanpot, an Yearly tournament between the hockey teams from Boston College, Boston University, Harvard and Northeastern University.
Mural Art LLC-Wall Murals and Fine Art
This notion is for serious fans only and works best in a playroom, kid’s room, home gym or basement.
Siemasko + Verbridge
Use a classic trunk as furniture. Do children still utilize trunks to pack for college today? I don’t have any idea, however, we did. When you don’t have much furniture, they make great nightstands, coffee tables and even extra chairs at the dorm, and they do at home now, too.
Have a look at some fantastic steamer trunks
Show your colors: Do you have anything around the house that honors the college you attended or has been inspired by collegiate fashion? Let us know in the Comments section.