"Mom can you decorate my college apartment?"

My son is entering his junior year at University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
He told me entered into an arrangement
for living in a duplex with 9 other students,
so there are 5 young collegiates on each side of the house.
This was the picture he sent me of his room when he asked
me to please decorate his apartment bedroom
so that it would be the nicest kid's apartment out there.

I thought it was really cute that he thought that much of his
mom being able to decorate a space he would love.
As the days ticked down we got a plan together that
involved blue wall paint and a few things he could take from home,
including his bed, the big flat screen tv
and a rug I had just retired from the TV room.

Then Joni from Cote de Texas wrote an entertaining post
on decorating her daughter's first college apartment.
Elizabeth was very pleased with how her pad came out,
and who wouldn't be!

She had a nice set up in the dining room...

And a gorgeous set up in the living room with new white sofas from IKEA.
I was glad Colin didn't read Joni's blog.
He was gettting really excited to think I was letting him take the old TV
and the console unit with him.

There was no talk about going to IKEA or any
other store for that matter, besides Lowes for paint.
Thank goodness.
I wrote Joni and said it was better to have sons at times like these than daughters...
and told her I could never post on my son's college apartment,
but then I realized, it might be kind of fun!

So here is where my precious little darling,
the last of my three sons, is going to be living:

This is Colin's new address in the picturesque college town of Amherst, Mass.
Yeah, this is a house. Where my son is going to live.

We were TEAM COLIN:

Mr. Maison Decor, Colin's dad Barry,
and me~ready to perform a fast makeover on his bedroom

Mr. MD had the right stuff to move his things,
this great utility trailer attached to his truck, so that part was a breeze.
We rolled right into college town, about a 2 hour drive on a beautiful day.

This is the front of the house.
The construction is vintage cinder block with clapboard at the top.

A few trees dot the property...maybe the landscaper had the decade off...
and some kid lives in the front porch area
and has weatherized it with foil back insulation panels.
I was grateful my kid had a real room.

Lets go inside~up the side stairs....

And down the back porch (don't step on any glass)
and into the house through the kitchen door.
TEAM COLIN was trying

to be as excited as Colin was about him living here.
I wondered what Joni would say....

Well lets start with the bedroom.
Colin has a roommate Mike and Mike had already dropped off his mattress.
The walls were going to be painted and I can't tell you how terrible they were.
One million nails, breaking plaster chunks,
painted over tape and all done in a glossy peach finish. Yikes.
Well we were going to let go of our perfectionist thinking and just get to it.
Our prep work involved pulling out the nails and stirring the paint.

Tobey had enough, and headed for the door...
but we were just about to get started.

Barry and I were going to do the cutting in.
We like to use angled sash brushes 2" wide.

Mr. MD and Colin were going to do the rolling.

I had to peel off masking tape leftover from another tenant some years ago...

We even brought some Scotch Blue painter tape along, just in case.
We finished painting the room in 90 minutes,
set up a box fan and then started dragging in the stuff.

A leopard carpet that left our family room
was now the perfect spot hider for Colin and Mike's room.

This cable wire was previously taped to the floor with duct tape...
Mr. MD was going to fix that.

Colin and his step-dad laid out the bed on the bed frame.

Next was the tv console unit that I had painted
with henrietta paint for a room that I thought
was supposed to be Bohemian Morroccan style...
but Colin vetoed that saying he didn't want a CRAZY room. Duh.

So I painted over the Henrietta doors with a coastal looking stripe

that included a center stripe in his new wall color.

To Colin's delight he inherited the big flat screen from our NH house~

we sold the house and it has been down in the cellar ever since.

This is an old picture of the Boston skyline that Dave has had for over 30 years.

Colin loved it, and I have to admit it looks great in his room.

Now onto the window treatments~
I found 4 tab panels in an ivory duck cotton on clearance for $7.78 each.

Yes, that makes me happy, two finished windows for less than $32.
I got the simple black iron rods for the same price too.
What a bargain, and it immediately cozied up his room.

The sword and shield is something
I bought 20 years ago at an auction for my son Brandon
who was into knights and dragons...
but it has been in the cellar utility room behind the oil tank for awhile now,
and Colin thought it would be a cool statement piece.
I hung it right over his pillows~don't move kid!

Can you see the layout of the room is
two beds against the wall opposite the tv?
There is a laundry station in the center of the beds~
Colin likes to sort his laundry,
so this was important to stay organized with his dirty clothes.
I taught all my boys to start doing their own laundry when they were 8 years old.
It has paid big dividends.
Never too young to learn to do that task~
and their future wives will love it.

The laundry station is hidden by these two chairs
I bought at the Salvation Army for $5 each.

They are Eastlake style, old oak chairs and I didn't touch them.

They are now set up for gaming across from the TV

and they perform double duty by hiding the laundry station.

An old aerial photograph of Fenway Park was purchased

at Salvation Army and hung it up over the

dirty clothes hamper on wheels, from Costco.

We have a couple of these laundry sorters..
they each come with three bags.

Colin asked if he could have an extra bag from one of the other sorters,
so he and Mike could both keep their darks and lights separated.
SURE! I love that kid. (But we forgot to take it and left it at home).

Colin's room all finished with the help of TEAM COLIN.

The cost: $34 for draperies, $14 for hardware, $10 pair of chairs, $35 paint= $93!

One happy and grateful kid = Priceless!

I kind of wondered what Joni would say about that too. Hehe.

Well we didn't bring anything much else to fix up this place,
but here is a shot of the dining room.

This is a room that is not used much by 5 college kids.

Colin spotted our old family bar, vintage 1970,

in my parents basement this summer
while living with them on Martha's Vineyard.

If you go in my parent's cellar, it is like taking

the time machine back to when I was in high school.

Anyway, he asked them to donate it to his apartment and they granted his wish.

Here Colin and Mike help Mr. MD
set up the gold "naugahyde" bar with chrome details.

Mike, Colin and TC happily posed for a pic for my blog~

I kept hearing how cool and retro this bar was!

I am retro too now I suppose.

I can only imagine how much studying will take place at this bar.

TC gave me the tour of his room~
the sideporch insulated one I showed you earlier.

He has all kinds of things he decorated his room with ,

to include a Goonies poster, two halloween masks

and a large Boston banner hanging in his spacious area.

TC's awesome sports banner hiding the insulation
and his totally cool room brought to mind things like this~

As a mom you just have to let them go and find their own way...
I told Dave they were like little puppies let
out into a field for the first time and
they were all so happy to be scampering about on their own.