Tips for turning your college apartment from drab to fab

Moving into your first apartment can be a depressing experience. At first, you are excited about being out of your parent’s house or your dorm. You dump all of the boxes containing your belongings onto the ground, and after unpacking discover that you have enough items to furnish your closet and half of your bathroom.

You have one pot, three forks, two spoons, a melted spatula, one torn Bob Marley poster and/or a Breakfast at Tiffany’s poster, a sad-looking couch, a folding chair and a set of bowls that have “do not microwave” written on the bottom.

Suddenly your studio apartment looks much larger. Don’t worry. There are some easy ways to make your apartment more livable.

When it comes to furnishing your apartment, Ikea is your best friend. Those Scandanavians really know how to make cheap furniture.

Maybe it’s an offshoot of their Lapland Socialist paradise — they just want to share everything with everyone. Ikea has great prices on just about everything — the only exception being their larger furniture pieces, such as couches and armchairs.

Target is a great place to find cheap items for your new apartment, just stay away from the college section. The college section is the neon-hued eyesore with the faux-furniture. There is nothing that screams you are a poor college student than neon-hued furnishings. Furthermore, The items you buy will give you a headache and you will inevitably replace everything within a few years.

Thrift stores, garage sales and Craigslist are excellent places in which to search for larger pieces of furniture. If you find an item that is cheap but a little worn, consider refinishing it. You’ll be surprised by what you can accomplish with a bucket of paint or a slipcover. Not to mention you will be able to brag about how you refinished that coffee table or media cabinet to your friends.

Here are some general tips to help you get started with the decorating process.

People have a tendency to push all of their furniture to the wall. In doing this they think they are creating more living space, but in reality they are creating dead space.

Unless you are planning on hosting square dancing parties, or like to walk in circles (this is especially tempting during finals week) try to not do this. A better option is to arrange your large pieces of furniture as if they are room dividers.

If you have one couch placed against a wall, consider placing a small love seat or armchair across from it in a diagonal position. Doing this will break up the longhouse feel of your apartment and give the illusion that you have a living room.

Hanging pictures is an art form, and is often the most frustrating part of moving in. When you hang pictures be sure to place them at eye level — you should not have to squat down or stand on a chair to appreciate them. An exception to this would be if you are hanging the pictures in groups.

An interesting way to do this is to buy several old picture frames from a thrift store, spray paint them a solid color, and hang them in a geometric shape.

You could either leave the frames empty, place photos in them or frame fabric or wrapping paper with a cool design on it. Get a friend or roommate to help in the hanging process, as it saves a lot of time and prevents a lot of frustration.

Create vignettes. The general rule is to group together a short item, medium height item and a tall item. Grouping things in this manner will make your ceiling look higher, and give your apartment more of a balanced feel.

An example of this would be a chair as the low item, a picture or end table as the medium item, and a floor lamp as the tall item.

Create your own decorating style. You can always tell when you go to someone’s home if they bought everything from the same store.

Doing this will make your new space look like a hotel — you definitely don’t want this. Try to create a style that represents you in some way. You will feel more confident in yourself and your abilities when you have a grown-up apartment that reflects your ambition and age.