Living in style

With a few touches of personality and creativity, an office can be transformed into a living history of a career, a second story screened-in porch can become a space for relaxation, and a residence hall room can become a home.

Throughout Kirksville, empty residence hall rooms, bland offices and boring apartments have been personalized, reflecting the inhabitants' style and interests. Meet the people who took ordinary spaces and made extraordinary rooms.

Junior Ross Knight moved into Fair Apartments in January. He took advantage of his bought-out apartment by decorating his living room with one of his biggest interests — movies. Knight has a flat screen panel television and a Sony surround sound system set up. The walls of the living room are lined with more than 25 movie posters and shelves storing Knight's collection of more than 700 movies. He's collected films since he was a senior in high school. Knight said his favorites are dramas and mystery thrillers, but he consistently buys movies he doesn't watch so he will have them if his friends want to borrow them.

"I feel like if I'm going to be addicted to buying something it should be something light-hearted like movies," Knight said.

English and linguistics professor Barbara Price has spent the last seven years transforming her office in McClain Hall from a room into an accumulation of her career. While many professors go through pains to sift through the apparent disarray of shelves and boxes they've accumulated, Price seems to know where everything is. She expertly navigates the shelves of her favorite genres that frame her office. She makes sense of the chaos, identifying the stacks of books about teaching literature from those teaching writing, and keeps track of the crate of nontraditional texts that are piled on the floor.

In a tiny room, Price has managed to capture a vast timeline of her life. Pictures of family and various graduation photos are scattered around, and her degrees and awards hang on the walls. There is a framed painting from a trip to Germany, a statue from a colleague and rocks from family vacations tucked within the packed shelves. Price used to work for Hallmark, and she displays framed sheets of the fonts used during her time there, as well as a handcrafted wooden toy she bought at the Missouri Folklore Society Conference. From her Truman years, Price has boxes of old students' work she still presents at conferences.

"I've chosen quirky things that remind me about different parts of my professional life," Price said.

Sophomore Josh Kelly's room in the basement of the Delta Chi house mixes his love for his Irish and Catholic heritage and his bachelor lifestyle.

"It's a place George Clooney would hang out," Kelly said.

On one wall hangs a map of Ireland with the shields of the Irish noble families, including Kelly's family shield, and a Catholic rosary drapes over the map, representing Kelly's religious devotion. Kelly said the map was a gift from his grandfather, and he brought it to school because it represents his interest in history and his family's heritage. His lineage makes St. Patrick's day an important celebration for Kelly, and this year, he bought a new flag just days before the holiday to hang in his room. Kelly said he has swords and other decorations he displays in his room at home, but he still is looking to expand his collection.

"One day, I'd like to get a suit of armor to display," Kelly said. "I think that'd be really cool."

Junior Becky Beitling and her six housemates created an exotic room for relaxation at their house located seven blocks north of campus. Beitling said the idea for the room started when her housemates noticed there were several places hammocks could be hung from in the second story screened-in porch, and hung several up. Friends began to bring their hammocks to the house, for lack of another in place to hang them, and soon the room was filled with hammocks, five in all. The hammocks come from a variety of places, such as Costa Rica and Kenya. Beitling said housemates and friends frequently use the room for a variety of purposes including naps, reading and socializing.

"It's just a good place to socialize too, and just be in a different environment than just sitting in a coffee shop," said Beitling.