Pictures, Posters, and Polaroids: Three Approaches to Room Decorations

Boarding schools are often called mini colleges because they offer the experience of studying and living away from home. Boarding students can customize their living spaces to suit their individual lifestyles, creating a peaceful refuge for solitude and power naps or a bustling social hub fit for sleepovers and late nights with friends. Choate is no different — through various decorations and furniture arrangements, students have personalized their rooms to be their home away from home.

Archbold Fifth-Form Single Room

Three-year fifth-former Supriya Chang ’21 has a reputation in her dorm for having a charming and tastefully decorated room. A neatly aligned mosaic of black-and-white photos and printed quotes greet visitors as they step through the doorway. Adjacent to the picture spread is a small alcove for clothes where Chang has hung a full-length mirror with warm lights wrapped around the white frame.

 Chang’s room decorations had a much lighter color scheme in the past two years but have slowly evolved as her preferences changed. “The color scheme I’ve had for my room had always been more childish colors like mint green and pastels. But now I tend to opt for classier, a little more mature colors like black, white, and beige,” she said.

While many people admire the dedication and creativity that goes into creating an aesthetically pleasing room, Chang stressed that functionality is her top priority. She wanted her room to be both appealing to the eye and practical, which is reflected by her furniture’s layout.

“The way I position and organize everything makes my daily routine a lot simpler,” she said. “When I wake up in the morning, I get dressed and pick my jewelry out right across from the mirror. When I leave for the day, I can quickly glance and make sure everything matches and looks good.”

 

Tenney House Sixth-Form Single Room

Head Prefect John Wilson ’20 has a room that includes a large blue couch and posters of hot sauce and Spongebob. For Wilson, meticulous organization and matching decorations is less of a priority than creating a comfortable and approachable space.

“It’s important for me that my room is somewhere that my prefectees feel welcome to come and talk to me at any point,” he said. “In terms of decorations, my approach hasn’t really changed since freshman year. The things I put in my room are just things I like. They might be a little mismatched, but it’s not a big deal to me.”

What distinguishes prefect rooms from others is the privilege of being able to have mini fridges. According to Wilson, the hard work and commitment that prefectship entails is compensated with this special privilege. In dorms without fridges, prefectees may ask their prefects to store food and drinks in their personal mini fridges, leading to more frequent casual conversations and check-ins. Likewise, because sixth-formers are allowed to have video-game consoles in their rooms, prefects and prefectees have more opportunities to talk and bond over this.

Bernhard House Fifth-Form Double Room

Jenny Guo ’21’s room features her and her roommate’s desks by the two windows in the center of the room, flanked by a bookshelf. Glow-in-the-dark stars hang above her bed, and a colorful variety of sheet masks can be seen in an open drawer. With the exception of a few decorations, Guo’s half of her room is minimalistically clean and tidy.

 Guo prides herself on maintaining a neat and organized space at all times; for her, minimalism and healthy habits limit distractions and help her be productive. 

“Having less stuff in general means there are less distracting things in your room, and you can focus more on homework,” Guo said. “Also, every morning, I make it a point to make my bed — it’s a good way to get your mind in an organized mindset for the rest of day. I also have a clock on my desk to constantly remind me of my deadlines and keep me focused and on the grind.”

 Sharing a space with a roommate often entails dealing with differences in lifestyles and cleanliness. “The first few days I lived with my roommate, we had a good talk about keeping our room clean. Although it’s a shared room, we still respect each other’s personal space, and we agreed to keep our belongings on our halves of the room,” Guo said.