Spring Break
Students get creative at home
LAURIE MCGOWAN
Issue date: 11/6/08 Section: Athens Living
There also has been a growing trend toward eco-living. Nature is a reoccurring theme, and it's a perfect way to "get outside" while still being inside.
Kelly Ridenhour, a sophomore from Charlotte, N.C., has given a surreal, earthy feel to her living space. As a landscape architecture major, Ridenhour has taken to the walls. She has painted a dream-like tree on her living room wall. Ridenhour painted a poem from "Alice In Wonderland" on the walls upstairs. She also has taken one of her old childhood drawings of a landscape, placed it on the wall, and put an old wooden window frame over it to create the illusion of a scenic view of the outside.
"I think my place is pretty unique because it is pretty cheerful with a lot of warm, earth-tone colors. I also have lots of plants and a great patio. It helps everything feel alive," Ridenhour said.
The townhouse also came with its on personal touch of creativity prior to Ridenhour moving in. This lends itself to the idea to check out what previous owners have done or where they were going with the place. Ridenhour bought the place from a girl who was an English major at the University, and she had "already painted people along the stairway, which is the first things that caught my attention about the place." Ridenhour said.
At the top of the stairs is a boy holding one piece of a chord-cup phone talking into it. The chord spirals and tumbles all the way down to the bottom of the staircase where there is a girl holding the other end, listening to what the boy is saying," Ridenhour said.
Finally, the last step to conquer is the outside. Fortunately, José Buitrago, assistant professor at the School of Environmental Design, has a cure for what to do with all that concrete and how to make a garden from a space no bigger than four feet by four feet.
Once a college student and a renter, Buitrago said the cheapest solution is outdoor carpets. If willing to go a bit more extravagant, he suggested a new series of what he calls "a mix between wood and plastic square tiles. The plastic holds wooden planks together. It is a cheap way to make the appearance of a nice patio and gets rid of the sterile concrete."
Kelly Ridenhour, a sophomore from Charlotte, N.C., has given a surreal, earthy feel to her living space. As a landscape architecture major, Ridenhour has taken to the walls. She has painted a dream-like tree on her living room wall. Ridenhour painted a poem from "Alice In Wonderland" on the walls upstairs. She also has taken one of her old childhood drawings of a landscape, placed it on the wall, and put an old wooden window frame over it to create the illusion of a scenic view of the outside.
"I think my place is pretty unique because it is pretty cheerful with a lot of warm, earth-tone colors. I also have lots of plants and a great patio. It helps everything feel alive," Ridenhour said.
The townhouse also came with its on personal touch of creativity prior to Ridenhour moving in. This lends itself to the idea to check out what previous owners have done or where they were going with the place. Ridenhour bought the place from a girl who was an English major at the University, and she had "already painted people along the stairway, which is the first things that caught my attention about the place." Ridenhour said.
At the top of the stairs is a boy holding one piece of a chord-cup phone talking into it. The chord spirals and tumbles all the way down to the bottom of the staircase where there is a girl holding the other end, listening to what the boy is saying," Ridenhour said.
Finally, the last step to conquer is the outside. Fortunately, José Buitrago, assistant professor at the School of Environmental Design, has a cure for what to do with all that concrete and how to make a garden from a space no bigger than four feet by four feet.
Once a college student and a renter, Buitrago said the cheapest solution is outdoor carpets. If willing to go a bit more extravagant, he suggested a new series of what he calls "a mix between wood and plastic square tiles. The plastic holds wooden planks together. It is a cheap way to make the appearance of a nice patio and gets rid of the sterile concrete."
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