Accessorizing Your College Space on a Budget
Take a second to imagine your longest and most draining day of school and work. At the end of that day you probably come back home after having had a full day of classes, followed by hours of studying in the library. At that point I'm sure all you want to do is crawl into your bed, get comfy, and forget about everything you still have to do for that week. For me, coming home to not only a cozy bed but to a warm and inviting living space is a necessity. I love being able to just relax in my own room after a long day and forget about all the stressors my busy schedule brings me. After four years of playing around with this idea of coziness in my college houses, I have finally mastered what it takes to create this personal living space of comfort and relaxation. How do I do this you may ask? Well it really just comes down to knowing what types of accessories and decor can help create this type of living space and what the best places to purchases these items are. Through much research ad personal experiences, I have created a collection of the items that I believe to be the most important when creating your "cozy" space.
My Visions and Ideas of Cozy Spaces
Why these elements matter
Many of the elements highlighted in the photos above are important to take note of when trying to create your own cozy space. These photos show the use of soft, neutral colors; an abundance of pillows, blankets and rugs; table lamps, hanging lights, and natural light from windows; bins, baskets, and shelves for organization; and lots of plants, flowers, and other elements of nature. While all of these elements may make a space look and feel nice, they also have many functional and hedonic values as well. Some of these benefits include adding warmth, texture, ambiance, pops of color and more to a space.
Where to find these elements on a college budget?
While having a cozy space is essential for relaxation, it
does not always come cheap. However, there are many stores and online sites
that are great for students, like myself, who value price but also the quality of their home decor and accessories. With previous interior design experience, l was able to get the inside scoop on what home decor stores have the best options, the best quality, and most importantly the best deals. From this knowledge, I have generated a shopping guide to help you begin your journey in creating your cozy oasis.
Best Qualities:
Target, when it comes to home decor and accessories, offers a wide variety of products to their customers. They have everything from bath towels, light fixtures, furniture, and more. However, many of my favorite items to purchase from Target include bedding items, wall decor, rugs, and small accessories. With their large diversity of items, Target provides customers with variety and experiential values (Angell, Lecture 2, 9/12/17).
Differentiating Factors:
Target is great at offering customers discounts and coupons for all sorts of products. They also make it possible for customers to shop online, in addition to shopping in stores. A couple ways Target tries to reach out to their customers is through commercials and catalogs that reach out to customers hedonic, or emotional values (Babin, 2016, p. 29) by showing their products being enjoyed by families and other individuals in their homes.
Best Qualities:
Homegoods, being specifically a home decor store, has the best offerings of small accessories and knick - knacks, table lamps, wall art, picture frames, and small accent furniture. While the experience in the store may be a little overwhelming for some, they do provide customers with great quality items for very reasonable prices.
Differentiating Factors:
One of the main differentiating factors of Homegoods is that they are constantly changing up the inventory in their stores. They keep very few of the same items stocked at all times, therefore it is very rare to see others with your same Homegoods purchases. This constant cycle of change in their inventory provides customers with experiential and originality values (Angell, Lecture 2, 9/12/17).
Best Qualities:
Wayfair, being an online store only, is very popular among our generation. With our busy lives and packed schedules, they make it easy to find exactly what you're looking for without the hassle of physically going into a store. They too have a wide variety of items for customers to pick from, but the items that I think are best to purchase from this site are furniture pieces. This is because they offer great quality products for prices much cheaper than anything you would find at other home stores.
Differentiating Factors:
Wayfair offers customers the chance to get free shipping after spending a specific amount of money on your purchases. This is a huge benefit for customers due to the fact that typically the price to ship furniture items from other home decor stores can be very expensive. While being very economical, Wayfair also offers many beneficial values such as quality and convenience (Angell, Lecture 2, 9/12/17).
Sources:
Angell, A. (2017, September 12). Marketing 313. Lecture
presented in University of Michigan.
Babin, J.B., Harris, E.G. CB, 6th edition
Photos taken from: Pinterest and Google
It took me all four years as well to finally perfect my college living space. I totally agree that the soft neutral colors are the way to go. I also agree that Target is the best for bedding on a budget. They have some really great throw blankets as well as cute comforters and quilts! Personally, HomeGoods is one of my favorite places to stop in when shopping for the home. Like you said their inventory is constantly changing and I really value you their quality, diversity and how affordable it can be (Angell). I have never tried shopping at Wayfair, but from what you have explained I think this store is directly in line with my values of quality and affordability. I self express through the way that I choose to decorate my home (Angell). I am excited to read more about how you choose to decorate your college space and how you choose to self express through that!
ReplyDeleteAngell, A. CB Chapter 2: Value. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Angell, A. CB Chapter 6: Personality, Lifestyles, and Self-Concept. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
I love the way you set up your blog to be relatable as well as personal. I feel like you are speaking to the everyday college student (me) as well as expressing your own struggles and values. I completely agree that having a cozy room that you want to come back to is so important! It's always so hard running around to all the different stores trying to find the perfect items for you - that are also affordable. You made some great recommendations and its helpful to see the best qualities and differentiating factors of each one. I've always found my best original pieces of HomeGoods that have both originality and economic value (Angell, 9/12/17). Additionally, Target is a great place for the convenience factor, they have so many different supplies so you can get all your shopping done at once (Angell, 9/12/17). I think through your experience and knowledge about so many different stores in order to make your college room great, you evidently have self-connection to these specific brands as you have used them in your own room (Babin, pg 121). I would definitely keep reading your blog about keeping college cozy as it is important to me too! You should make a business out of helping college students decorate :)
ReplyDeleteAngell, A. (2017). CB Chapter 2 Value. Lecture presented in University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Angell, A. (2017). CB Chapter 6: Personality, Lifestyles, and Self Concept in University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
Babin. B., & Harris, E. (2016). In CB 7 (7th ed., pp. 121). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
I enjoy how you set up your blog! I too value coming home to an inviting an cozy space. I liked how you referenced the duel value you (and others) can get from some of these items- fulfilling both a stylistic goal in addition to the many functional benefits. I frequent the stores you mentioned in your post and think that each of them provides different benefits to the consumers who choose to shop there- even if they may be all searching for home decor type pieces. For instance, one of the benefits Target provides in addition to the actual product is convenience. If you are going out to grocery shop or buy school supplies but also need a storage solution, you can check everything off simply by going to one store (Angell, 13 September 2017). Wayfair, being exclusively an online store, provides its consumers with the ease of shopping at whatever hour they please in the comfort of their own home (Angell 13 September 2017). In addition, they also simplify delivery. For example, they sell mattresses online that get delivered to your door and once unboxed they expand into full-size mattresses- which are also extremely comfortable and practical for everyday use. There are also some stores such as TJ Maxx and Marshalls, which are a part of the overall Home Goods umbrella, that sell some unique and quality home decor pieces. However, there is a tradeoff with convenience when looking at these locations, because although you can find nice items at great prices, there is no guarantee they will have what you are looking for and do not have much variety. I typically find items here when I am not looking for anything in particular, which may speak to how they brand or display their items to entice shoppers to buy, rather than going in for a specific need (Angell 18 September 2017).
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog, and look forward to your future posts!
Angell, A. (2017). CB Chapter 2 Value. Lecture presented at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.
Angell, A. (2017). CB Chapters 3, 4, and 5 Perception, Learning, Motivation. Lecture presented at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.