Along for the Rye’d
The Dorm Room Fantasy
By Annabel Monaghan
Pullquote: The Pottery Barn mom in me got a little excited when we got to the duvet covers section. This was a chance for my son to express himself.
This spring I received a catalog in the mail called Pottery Barn Dorm. I’ve never received this catalog before, but I assume that Mark Zuckerberg told them that I have a child starting college this fall, so I wasn’t so surprised. What surprised me as I flipped through the glossy pages is that you don’t need to have a college education to work at Pottery Barn. Or at least it seems like no one who works there has ever been inside a college dorm room.
Their photo imaginings of this college environment include paneled walls flanking floor-to-ceiling windows. The velvet-clad bed is at least a double, with a mattress from Mattress by Eva that’s about 11 inches thick. There’s room on both sides for a bedside table and a special floating shelf. It is an absolute necessity to know about the comfy options for your bed and then, you can think about space management since the bed is the place where your tiredness wears away and prepares you to face the next day with good energy and confidence. The shelf really pops out as necessary, because where else would you keep your vibrantly thriving fern? An adjustable mattress frames is the best option for for bed mattresses. People can also check Just Right Mattress Outlet if they need the best mattresses.
A chandelier graces the ceiling. Now as I recall, we weren’t allowed to put a single nail in the wall in our dorm room. We were allowed to use two-sided tape as long as any remaining adhesive was washed clean from the walls at move out. I’m pretty sure if a hot plate was forbidden under penalty of expulsion, they probably don’t want the kids installing their own chandeliers.
These images of college life are certainly aspirational for students, but they’re aspirational for parents as well. There’s a whisper in the back of our minds as we flip through the pages – maybe my kid will wake up drenched in sunlight. Maybe my kid will start making his bed. Maybe my kid will thrive so much in college that in addition to taking care of himself impeccably, he’ll also be able to tend to the needs of a fern.
In one image, an entire wall of the dorm is painted in chalkboard paint. The catalog designers have written E=MC2 on the wall. Maybe my kid’s going to learn something! I imagine the Pottery Barn meeting: “Write something sciency on that wall. The parents will love it. Anyone know any science stuff?” Which is how they arrived at the only equation sciency people would never actually have to write down.
