One is a redhead from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The other is a lanky Seattleite with a propensity for Arizona Iced Tea. Sophomores Ian Hainline and Daniel Heller may have their differences, but their tastes fuse together in cozy 311 Miller Hall to form a blast of style.
"You see that bottle of hot sauce? This room is a bottle of hot sauce," Hainline said. "It is an injection of flavor into a setting that is often all too complacent and boring."
Tufts furnishes each Miller Hall room with standard desks, beds, lighting and closet doors. In order to shake things up, inhabitants have to inject the room with personality. And shake things up they have.
"We just thought we'd had enough of people not having decorations," Heller said, "and thought if we decorated, we'd start a decoration revolution."
The intrigue of the room is born out of the inhabitants' vastly differing preferences. Most noticeable is the difference of the once-identical beds' setup.
"I have this baby on the highest setting," Heller said referring to his bed.
Hainline's bed philosophy contrasts sharply with his roommate's. "Mine doesn't get much lower," he said. "I like to be able to fall into my bed at the end of the night."
The desks are perpendicular to each other. Heller draped a huge banner on the back of his shelving and, as a result, eye contact is at a minimum. Yet each desk is covered in meaningful knickknacks, such as the squirrel statue on the top of Heller's desk.
"I've always been a really big squirrel fan, so for my 18th birthday, my best friend Sam found this squirrel in a park," Heller said. "Evidently, it was there to scare away owls. The week after he stole the squirrel from the park, the park was overrun by owls. It was this small town in Ohio, and so there was this whole newspaper article about the squirrel and how it always defended the town from owls. They had to get a new squirrel, and it was like $50 -- half the town's budget. I don't go to Ohio with this squirrel anymore."
Hainline's love for animals manifests itself in a different way. At the foot of his bed lies a white stuffed animal bear rug.
"I think it gives a more intimate, inviting vibe to the room," Hainline said. "Casual yet sophisticated and yet rustic at the same time ... It's also real soft. You should pet it."
The unlikely duo met when ResLife randomly made them roommates freshman year. They decided they lived well together and chose to extend their time together. Also, they had already bought a refrigerator, chair and rug at JumboDrop.
"That's how we knew we couldn't split up," Heller said, "because we invested $15 in the fridge."
They do come together on some major issues, such as lighting. The overhead light is never on.
"It's all about the ambience," Hainline said. "With the overhead light, you get this really harsh light, and it kills the feng shui. [With our lamp] it feels warmer, closer, more cozy. It feels like a home as opposed to a dorm room."
Both closet doors are decorated with calendar pages of fruit rearranged to look like animals.
"My sister Deborah is amazing," Heller said. "She knows I have a thing for cute fruit, and she got [me] 17 calendars. They have faces on them."
Hainline was not opposed. "I happen to think the fruit is indeed cute," he said.
Unsatisfied with just decorating the inside of the room, Hainline and Heller expanded their creativity to the hallways both around and across from their door.
A yellow, blue and green hologram spans the width of the door and overflows onto the surrounding wall.
"This thing here is for people to puke on our door," Heller said. "It's called puke tape. I got it off the Internet. It says if you stare at it for more than 12 seconds while swaying back and forth like you're generally drunk, then you'll puke."
The walls also have thick, decorative tape spelling out 311, DANIEL and IAN with patterns of Tiki men, sushi and sausage links respectively.
"We refer to this as sushi tape and meat tape," Hainline said, pointing at the different names. And as to why his name is spelled out in the meat tape: "In the choice of sausage versus Tiki versus sushi, it's pretty obvious."
Across the way, Heller hung a pamphlet given to him by a homeless man and a souvenir from a biking event.
"We wanted to start an organic movement, so when you walk down the halls, you wouldn't just see doors and walls, you'd see souls; you'd see people's personalities," Heller said.
Heller hangs his passions on his wall. Over his bed, he has a bumper sticker that says, "I <3 MANATEES."
"My friend Jaqueshia was on a family trip to the Everglades, and she got me this bumper sticker," Heller said. "It was actually the best gift I've ever received ... I [also] have a manatee. His name is Floyd and he lives in the Everglades. I got him for my bar mitzvah. I give him $25 every year so he'll stay my manatee."
The water mammals don't stop there. An inflatable killer whale pool toy hangs upside down from the ceiling.
"We saw this whale suspended from the ceiling of a sports store," Heller said. "[We thought] if they can have this whale hanging from their ceiling, we can too."
Over his bed, Hainline has a retro record entitled "Songs of Tufts" (1958).
"Turns out the Goodwill in Davis Square has an amazing collection of old records," Hainline said.
Overall, the boys have adapted a boring cubicle into their own space.
"It's kinda like an herb salad," Heller said. "A usual room is like iceberg lettuce and some ranch dressing ... it's decent. It'll sustain you ... I'd say this room is kind of like some leafy greens with a little dark purple and some balsamic vinaigrette ... it's a little nicer. It's tasty. It's nourishing. Just a little leafier. Still in the same bowl, one of those Carmichael bowls, but it's just a little tastier."
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If you have or know of a sweet campus crib, email Alison Lisnow at alison.lisnow@tufts.edu.
