Liven up your dorm room — and still live within your budget

By Nicole Tsong
Seattle Times staff reporter

Seattle interior designer Jann Placentia usually shops at the exclusive, high-end Seattle Design Center for her clients. But when her son was preparing for college last year, she headed to a collegiate standard: Bed Bath & Beyond.

Budget, rather than design, was at the forefront of her mind as her son's tuition bills became a reality, she said, but design never goes completely by the wayside in her household.

They picked out items that reflected her son's personality, like khaki and blue sheets, holiday lights and posters.

"It's not just like decorating his room," Placentia said. "We had to do his bed and think about having a temporary portable existence that somehow would be his own statement. That was a very interesting thing."

Professional help

We enlisted Placentia and her professional design eye to help put together a sassy, well-designed dorm room on a $400 budget. We spiced up the décor with items from Urban Outfitters and found functional, affordable pieces from Ikea to fill out a standard freshman double room at the University of Washington's Lander Hall. (The room came with a bed that can be lofted, a wardrobe, bookshelf, desk, chair and bulletin board.)

Here's what we learned...