dorm room delight

Over the summer, we teamed up with Tuscaloosa Magazine to pull together the quintessential Matt Clinton Designs dorm room. Over the summer, girls flocked to the shop for dorm decorating tips and ideas, so it was an honor to work with the magazine to design our ideal one-room collegiate living space. Although many people in this town gravitate towards crimson and hounds tooth, we decided to take a new direction with a fresh, bold color palette. We have the look styled in our windows and we must say, it's been a hit, even among those who bleed crimson and white.

The magazine is on stands now and here's a link to the article online.

college prep

Sometimes we miss coed life at The University. Fortunately, we get to stay in touch with our alma mater throughout the school year, working on parties for various University, sorority and fraternity functions. Now that summer is here, campus is a little quieter (and traffic is much lighter!), but not for long. A new crop of kids (err...young adults) are gearing up for summer orientation visits and starting their next chapter in Tuscaloosa. As we've mentioned, we outfit some fun and fantastic dorm rooms each year, and oftentimes students can keep most of their fabrics and accessories for years to come.

Yesterday, we met with a lovely lady from Schumacher fabrics who shared some of her favorite bright prints. Many of our top picks hailed from fashion designer Trina Turk's collection. It's an upper-end indoor/outdoor line (worth every penny!) that will hold its pizazz through just about anything during a four-year jaunt on campus – even an impromptu toga party with John Belushi and Otis Day and the Knights.

dorm room decor 101

As families and friend make plans to visit campus this weekend for the big A-Day game, we are reminded of a few weekends ago, when swarms of soon-to-be freshmen girls came to town for the University of Alabama Panhellenic Weekend. Panhellenic Weekend is an opportunity for the girls and their parents to get to get acquainted with all of the sororities and campus life. Over 1,000 girls showed up (!) and the MCD team, along with a few other local vendors were invited to meet and greet with the girls and showcase how we can work together. (Our tablescape is pictured above.)

Matt Clinton Designs offers flower delivery on Bid Day (one of the busiest days of the year for us) and – believe it or not – dorm room decoration. Some people raise their eyebrows at the thought of custom bedding and window treatments for dorm rooms, but it helps bring a sense of home to the dorm-life and is very sensible in some cases. For example, it can be tough to find a dust skirt with a 31" drop! Additionally, we have all of the measurements for the dorm rooms on hand, which helps to take a little stress off of the parents. We already have a few appointments set for the summer and will be sure to post some before and after images in the fall.