Teenage Bedroom

Today I thought I’d post about something very important to me: my bedroom. There have been many versions of my various rooms, ranging from the pastel pink bedroom of my young childhood to my dorm room to now, my first apartment.

Kristen’s Bedroom Timeline:

2006-2008: The Tent

My bedroom when I was 15-17 was the best. Clearly, the highlight was the tent, but I loved everything about it. The walls were a pastel purple—totally ugly, I did hate that part—and I picked out the tie-dye border when I was 10. But over the years, I collected more and more odd objects to hang on my wall. (Let it be known that I had more than one public bathroom "DO NOT FLUSH FEMININE HYGENE PRODUCTS" sign, including one from a McDonald's in Tokyo). I was really into Alternative Press magazine, so I had a wall totally covered with clippings of bands I liked. Inside the tent was my mattress, stereo, and CD collection. I spent most nights sitting in there, writing and listening to music. It was like heaven to me, especially when I was in my angsty phase.

2009-2010: The Dorm

Let me say it now: I hated living in the dorms. Especially my freshman year. The people upstairs were loud, my RA roommate never talked to me, and I felt hated by everyone on my floor. But it was hands down one of my coziest rooms, and I don't just mean the bed. 

The bed was a typical extra long dorm bed, but with my jersey sheets, it was the best bed ever. On the wall were pictures of me and my friends, along with my favorite poem ("What the Living Do" by Marie Howe, in case you were wondering). One of my friends and I made boob prints over spring break, which I obviously had to hang over my bed. I also strung Christmas lights around the pipes by the cieling, which gave the whole room a warm glow. As frustrating as winter can be, my favorite thing to do was snuggle up in bed and watch the snow fall while listening to really good winter music ("The Bird of Music" by Au Revoir Simone, just so you know). It was hard to say goodbye to this room. But I did, and put up with another unremarkable year in the dorms, until I was able to move into my new room: 

2011-2012: The Closet

My current room is tiny. It's exactly as wide as my twin mattress is long. I know I have a lot of things, but I can barely fit the necessities in here. But what's great is my access to really good color printers at work and a great collection of pictures to put on my wall. 

Note the new shoes on the bed; they're Jeffrey Campbell and I am SO EXCITED about them!

See? Told you it's tiny. A cheaply made Urban Outfitters tapestry can more than cover the back wall. But as tiny as this room is, I love it. Each wall has its own collage, and I have a high ceiling, which makes it harder to hold heat, but it also makes it feel a bit more open. I chose to have a bookshelf instead of a dresser (because it's so tiny, I had to choose one or the other), and I keep all of my makeup and perfumes on top of it. The rat cage is next to my bed, so when they start chewing on the bars right after I've turned the light off to go to sleep, I can hear it loud and clear. 

Bedrooms are a really great thing. In my Tumblr adventures, I managed to find this fantastic blog dedicated to teenage bedrooms. Check it out!

--Kristen