Planning a Dream Lolita Room

To have a room dedicated solely to frills is what a lot of lolitas aspire to. It’s a mark of sorts of a lifestyle lolita, as well as a practical solution to storing and separating your lolita fashion from other clothes (as lolita may require more effort to maintain in good shape). Being in a position of living with my parents, I have dedicated a great deal of thought to dreaming about and planning that lolita room for when I have a place of my own. As this is finally starting to take shape, I thought I’d share my ideas with you.

Walls

This is one of the most important things to consider. For many, the lolita room serves as a backdrop for outfit shots. The more diverse your wardrobe and the more substyles or colours you wear, the more crucial it is to have a backdrop that will compliment (or at least be neutral against) all of those. Gothic outfits against pink background can be jarring and as much as I love my current plum walls, I have learnt the hard way how dark they make my already fairly dark room.

As such, right now I’m leaning very heavily towards a bright floral wallpaper with a well-separated pattern. Victorian florals are too dark and busy, whilst completely modern ones have flowers that are way too big. Think quaint country house, where a cream or white wallpaper is adorned with small bunches of flowers in dusty or light pastel shades. Something like this would reflect enough light to make the room brighter, as well as wouldn’t be too plain to make the photo background too empty. Whilst such a design might be a bit too cutesy for goth coords, since I wear it so rarely it wouldn’t clash and it would complement my classic and sweet outfit shots perfectly.

Given how long it took me to find something even vaguely matching what I envision, it will be very hard to find exactly the kind of wallpaper I'm after.
Picture from eBay.

Furniture

Continuing with the quaint country house inspiration, I have set my eyes on dark wood furniture. What would actually be in that room will of course depend on how much space I actually have to play with. A large chest of drawers and a wardrobe with a rail are the two things I’d really like. Yes, clothes racks can be pretty in pictures, but every time I see one I get paranoid about fading and sun exposure damage to the clothes, so would rather not have one myself. Dark wood would play well with classic looks, balance the gothic ones a little better against the wallpaper and contrast nicely with sweet outfits, so an all-round pleaser.

Again, I couldn't find anything near what I have in mind, so I went with the next aesthetic thing I came across that I liked. I always liked kitchy stuff - this is the least kitchy picture of the ones I considered adding here!
Picture from Aprar.net

Storage organising

I mentioned a large chest of drawers specifically because I have been thinking of how to better organise my smaller lolita bits. Right now I have them separated by type, which works for the amount of space I have to work with, but means I’m constantly going from one end of the room to the other to pick out what I need. The idea of organising all smaller bits – hair accessories, jewellery, wrist cuffs and socks – by colour is really growing on me, but with the amount of socks I own, I’m not sure those IKEA boxes would cut it. Hence the chest of drawers. Being able to dedicate a drawer or even a half to all of that, with the help of some dividers, would keep everything neat, tidy and in one easily accessible place. At the same time, having more space to begin with would allow me to start off with displaying things so that everything is pretty well visible and avoid worrying of running out of space like I would with a box. The drawers don’t need to be deep for that, as long as they’re wide, and depending on how wide they’d be I might even be able to dedicate some of them to other pieces (bags? petticoats? wigs? coats off season?).

Being able to see all my accessories at a glance, without getting annoyed at things obstructing my way, is a dream right now. Hopefully one day it will come true.
Picture from Pinterest.

Flooring

This is an area I’m still a little hazy about. Given that almost all UK houses have carpets everywhere, a carpet is probably an obvious choice. Ideally a light and neutral one, so as to not detract from either the dark furniture or the floral walls. Having said this, as anyone else with long hair knows, there’s no way to stop yourself from shedding and carpets love to cling onto long hairs. Hardwood floors might be better, as they’re overall pretty easy to maintain (and I love the sound of heels on hardwood floors), but this is more of an ‘if I have that kind of money’ option.

Other

A dress form is the first thing that comes to mind. I realise that it’s by no means necessary and having more horizontal space would allow me to improve my flatlay photography. However, there is something so nice about dress forms and being able to see your coords come together in 3D. They’re not even particularly expensive to get, just take up a fair bit of space, so only if I can.

Yes, I'd still be paranoid about sun damage to my dresses. But at least on a dress form I could control how long they're on it for better than with an exposed clothes rack.
Picture by Lindsay Hamilton (@misslindsayxoxo), taken via Imgrumweb.com

Depending on how large that space would be, I would also love to have some soft seating in there. A chaise lounge or at least a big armchair would be great when putting on shoes, when filming and maybe even for some coord pictures. And some shelves to keep all my magazines and lolita books would be great too! Add a lamp, maybe a small table and you have everything you need for a reading/relaxing corner for when you want to engage with the lifestyle lolita in you.

And of course, the room would not be complete without a full body mirror! It’s no good when you can only see your upper half, being able to see your entire coordinate is important as sometimes different socks or shoes can really transform the whole look.

Do you have a dedicated lolita room? How have you decorated yours? And if you don’t, would you like to have one? Have you thought about what it’d look like?