Hey! I’m Emily, the author of the blog Standout Spaces where we’ll dive into the unique ways students turn their dorms into their own personalized havens. From the peaceful minimalism of one student’s calm oasis, to another’s loud and artistic vibe of a space, no two rooms are the same and I’m here to show you that! Many students have tips on how to make their space usable by reshaping and remodeling, so let’s explore!

“I don’t think I am the right person to interview for this,” Katie says uncomfortably. 

But, I think that this is untrue. 

In Morril 302 in room A, Katie Stager, a senior at VTSU Castleton, has one of the coziest and comfiest dorm rooms I have ever been in. But with Stager, what you see is what you get. 

As soon as you enter her room, the first thing you’ll notice is not an inch of her walls are not covered. 

And it’s evident, she loves to ski. 

“My life is skiing. It just makes sense that my room shows that,” she said. 

One of the walls in her room is covered with photos, but only photos of skiing. Her family is shown on the lift up the mountain, a few of her friends are shown after a wipeout with their skis planted in the snow around them, and a very special picture shows her and boyfriend toasting their ski trip with fireball shooters at the top of the mountain.

Another wall in her room is veiled with a beautiful tapestry showing two people skiing over the Appalachian Mountains.

To Katie, skiing is everything. 

“Oh yeah, I have my skis in the corner,” she says motioning to the corner of her room. 

Katie’s room smells like vanilla and fresh laundry. She has multiple soft lit yellow lamps around her room with warm colored string lights lining the ceiling.

“I’m scared of the big light. If you turn it on, you’re kicked out,” she said with a laugh.

Her room is full of snacks too. Pretzels, chips, multiple cereals, and surprisingly, a huge container of rainbow sprinkles. 

“You just never know when they’ll come in handy,” Katie said when questioned about her sprinkles.   

Katie also has some of the coolest decor I’ve seen. Alongside all the photos of her skiing memories, she has many posters dedicated to music artist Harry Styles. There’s a board with a quote from her favorite song reading “We’ll be alright.” She has a whole shelf dedicated to fake plants, some true fake plants and some created out of Legos.

When asked about this shelf, Stager replied bluntly, “I just like plants. I told you I’m not a good person to interview.”  

Though I learned that may be true, after Katie’s room spoke more to me than she did, this has been one of my favorite rooms to cover on Standout Spaces and I am excited to get into her stash of sprinkles.