Cool rooms—IU style

By Susan Williams

For the past four years, Indiana University Bloomington’s Residential Programs and Services has showcased domestic creativity on campus with a “Cool Rooms” contest. The challenge? To decorate a space that is something like 10 feet x 13 feet, transforming it from beige neutrality into a comfy and very cool home away from home.

Hannah Holt, an IU sophomore majoring in journalism and gender studies, is one of this year’s winners.

Now, 10 x 13 is a small space. Even Trading Spaces, the wildly popular television show in which neighbors spend a weekend redecorating a room in each others’ houses, has a square footage requirement. IU’s dorm rooms don’t make the cut. To be fair, based on size, it’s safe to say that no dorm room in America would. So how do the winners go about turning a minuscule space into something cooler than cool? Let me count the ways.

Start with a theme, say, like “lips.” The photograph at right shows Hannah Holt, an IU sophomore majoring in journalism and gender studies. One of this year’s winners, her favorite movie character is Margaret “Hotlips” Hoolihan from Mash. Lips are everywhere in that room, from floor to ceiling.

Two years ago, IU students used faux animal prints, icicle lights, decorative painting techniques, and fountains (five in one room, to be exact), among other things, to do the impossible. One small space included a “Happy Days” sort of soda shop dining area. Another housed not only two students, but also a life-sized, talking Austin Powers cutout—very “shagadelic” and extremely cool.

IU Home Pages is currently in the midst of photographing some of 2002’s winners for a January issue. But for now, check out the coolest rooms on campus in 2000 by going to the following arvchival Web site:

http://www.homepages.indiana.edu/120800/coolroom/index.html

Join us online in January for the 2002 winners.