Bringing Dark Academia Aesthetic Into My Room

Recently, I been into re-decorating again. It all started when I first got my round table about two months ago before it gradually changes to paying attention at every 'small little details' in my room. It's not hard to find inspiration these days. I simply just type Google or seek for it on Instagram/Pinterest and walla - a hundreds of suggestion will appear. However, with this power to chose also comes with massive headache. 

"Which style suits me the best?"

Once upon a time, anime and manga plays a huge part in my life. Then, around 2 years ago - I discovered minimalism and my life wasn't quite the same after that. I give up my posters, tucked away my anime DVD's, and tries to live up with minimalism expectation. Only that... it wasn't really working out for me. But that is not the reason why I write this post. The main reason for this post is to share with you my new interest which is interior-decorating. 

To be honest, I'm not really clueless when it comes to decorating. In fact, my entire family house (that includes living room, dining area and kitchen) is decorated single-handed by me and personally I'm quite fond of it. But with my little experience in all of that, it doesn't mean that choosing the right style for my room wasn't hard. I was too heavily influenced by the Pinterest and Instagram post that I forget to ask the only person that really matters... 

ME.

I start re-decorating my bedroom by choosing colors. I don't really know what I wanted, but ultimately I choose blue as the main inspiration. Cerulean blue curtains, cerulean blue chair, turquoise blue tray.... Anything that have to do with this particular color I need to buy. However, it does gets pretty boring after a while so I begin to seek for different vibes. Somehow, dark and warm color such as beige, white and peach becomes a couple of my new favorites.

One of the examples of my bedsheet color choices (peach, brown and white)

When it comes to re-decorating or buying sheets, I stick to these retail stores; Daiso, Kaison and Homepro. I have a couple of IKEA items naturally (my bedside table, clothing storage, and laptop tray table) but wasn't too crazy about it due to its unavailability in my state. However, for those items that I wish to have but couldn't find it on retail store - I will seek for it online. Shopee become my favorite site to shop at and I had brought plenty of interesting stuff in here over the years. It's truly an exciting feeling when my room slowly shapen into something that I'm proud to call 'bedroom'.

Aside from some Korean inspo that I manage to steal from here and there - I also start warming up to 'Dark Academia Aesthetic'. Now, to explain it would require me to spent more times than I need in this post, so I'm going to be brief in my take on it. Basically, I'm focusing on retro and vintage-looking stuff for my room. You can find more explanation about what Dark Academia actually means from here. I had to do most of my shopping from online (70% of items only available from China) and it took forever to arrive. So, between waiting and shuffling, my bedroom had experience countless change and finally, here's the end results;

My bedside table lately. I begin collecting these antique looking items as soon
I realize the kind of style I'm leaning in. So, I got the retro candle holder, pocket watch,
feather pen (that I have no intention of using), some wooden frames and last but not least - tulips. 

My favorite slot from the bookshelf. 

I was not an artsy student when I was younger. However, as I learn more about Dark Academia style, I become more fond of ancient Greek history, art, sculpture and all that. So much that I think it will be great addition to my room. Candles also plays a huge part in this style so I make sure have some laying on the background somewhere. I also brought a candle holder on purpose to fits this style. Talk about going to an extra length. But in the end it all worth it because I freaking love how everything turns out.  The David head by Michelangelo (an Italian sculpture) took over a week to arrive and at first I'm scared that it's gonna break but in the end - all well that ends well.  

A designated slot for my candle burner and to store my
oil fragrance

Do you have a favorite scent? I do. One of my favorites is called 'Shang-rila'. Why? Because it smell oh ever so divine. I started using oil burner a few years ago and had tryout with more inexpensive scent from Hinode shop called 'Apple Blossom' and 'Fruitopia'. Then, I started to move on to Lovely Lace, 'Dewberry'. After a while, the Dewberry begin to irritates my nose so I change to a new brand called 'Mayci'. It's a bit softer than Lovely Lace fragrance oil, but definitely better than Hinode shop brand. I been using it since last year and honestly I couldn't even think about using other brand than this.

I love reading classic literature. There something about an idea, stories that was written years and years ago that still relevant to this day that appeals to me. Also, because I got most of these books at half of its price ( I even have 5 more waiting to be delivered to me at my point of writing). I don't have any serious, hardcover book in my collection yet, but I do have a couple of titles that I'm proud of such as in picture above. From 'The Catcher in the Rye' to '1984' by George Orwell - there's no stopping for my quest to search for these classic books. There's two so far that I'm still haven't been able to find yet (The Painted Veil & The Collector) and Covid-19 is not making it any easier to me. Those two are my all time favorites. Oh boy... I do wish someday I'll be able to get my hand on both of them :(

With all of my re-decoration and makeover, you must be wondering - where in the world did I choose to put away my old stuff? I didn't throw them away (if that's what you think). I stored them (or more accurately, boxed them). It's one the simplest trick you can apply if you don't want to throw away anything and still wanted the space to look neat and awesome. All of the boxes I got are from Daiso (yes, that 100 yen store!). I don't think re-decorating should be expensive and it always wise to cut corners if you can.

                                                                

An example of Daiso boxes. Not the wooden one.
That one was a lot more expansive. 
You can tell by the extra details and whatnot. 

What I got to replace my anime poster are this poster of half-naked ladies. 
Talk about an upgrade. This one takes the cake. 

So, I told you that I already got rid of my anime posters. What's left now is this unmovable trace of tapes and sticker from my youth that keep staring back at me. I have no intention to paint over that sh*t. Well, what do I do, then? Putting another poster, of course. Is a highly effective solution to a simply annoying problem. Not only that the tapes remains are gone now, my wall also look sophisticated after the fact and well... grown up. 

A tiny section that I have no idea what to do yet.

There's this small corner in my room that I planned to turn into my sculpture collection area. As I told you, I been into ancient Greek lately, so there's a couple of sculpture and arts that had caught my attention.  However, this plan is pretty much in the motion and I'm still constructing and de-constructing if I'm going to go through with it. Honestly, I hate crowded space but for this one - I think I'm going to give it a pass. Also, if you're thinking that the location of Audrey Hepburn poster is a bit odd - then you're right. It is. But it's only there to cover up a crack on the wall. I mean what can I say? A fifteen-year-old house would do that to to you :)

Phew... now that's a long post to write. I guess, that's it guys for today's post. As long as there inspiration board on Pinterest and Instagram - I don't think I'll ever get tired of re-decorating. It's gives me a lot joy, comfort and excitement whenever I see my bedroom slowly transformed into respectable place. It may sound ridiculous for some, but for a homebody like me - it's a huge deal. And I will continue search for new things and doesn't let me interest in re-decorating ever being complete.

Anyway guys, I guess that's it for today's post. It's been nice talking to you about my re-decorating phase and all that. Thank you so much for reading. See you soon on my next post. Bye bye now!

Yours truly,

Mimi