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Far East findsQ+A visits with Elizabeth Wilson, owner of

Westwood’s Asiatica, which carries more than just

clothing. | C2

If you think back-to-schoolsupplies are all about pencils,notebooks and backpacks,

then you haven’t been aroundmiddle school girls lately.

The shopping list for11-year-old Lauren Herinckx in-cluded wallpaper, shag rug, shelf,message board, pencil holder,mirror — and the must-haveshowpiece — a motion-sensitive,battery-operated LED chandelier.

She hauled these items in a

plastic bag recently to decorateher first “home away from home”— a 46-inch-high metal locker atLakewood Middle School inOverland Park. Her mother, Ani-ta Herinckx, estimated the totalcost at approximately $25 afterusing coupons and browsing thesales at a local craft store.

“It’s a nice thing to do for thattransition between elementaryschool and middle school,” shesays. “I don’t figure I’m going tobe doing it for very long.”

There’s nothing new about kidstaping up a favorite poster or pic-tures of their friends inside theseskinny, metal storage bins. Butduring the last several years,locker decorating has exploded

from a homemade undertakinginto a commercial industrywhere products like slam-resist-ant pink pencil cups, beadedlighting fixtures and “curtains” ofsparkly plastic flowers are soldwidely at discount and officesupply stores, specialty storesand card shops.

Two moms in Dallas, ChristiSterling and JoAnn Brewer, arecredited with starting the firstline of mix-and-match locker ac-cessories after discovering thatexisting items were functionalbut not pretty and fun. In 2010,they developed a product linecalled LockerLookz “that took offlike wildfire,” according to com-pany spokeswoman Lisa Orman.

LockerLookz partnered withcraft company Darice in 2013,and now their products are soldin all 50 states, Canada and Aus-tralia. Orman says the new line isso eagerly anticipated each sum-mer that preteens sometimesgrab items out of shipping boxesbefore store clerks can put themon display.

Schools frown on tape andglue, so nearly everything attach-es with magnets, including pre-cut “wallpaper” panels withpunch-out spaces to accommo-date locker hardware. Thesecome in a variety of patterns: flo-

By JILL DRAPERSpecial to The Star

SEE LOCKERS | C3

SCHOOL LOCKERS | Kids find just the right combination of decorative frills

Middle school lockersnow have shag rugsand mirrors (and, ifthere’s room … books).

The school locker of sixth-grader Lauren Herinckx certainly reflects her decorating tastes. In fact, that’s Lauren reflected in a mirror in her locker, whichalso boasts pink wallpaper and a battery-operated mini-chandelier. She attends Lakewood Middle School in Overland Park.

SUSAN PFANNMULLER | SPECIAL TO THE STAR

THE PERSONAL TOUCH

For college kids whomove off-campus, learn-ing to accommodate thestyles and needs ofhousemates is good prac-tice for life after school.

Take Erica Weidrickand Caitrin Curtis, up-perclassmen at the Uni-versity of North Caroli-

na, who are moving intoa town house with a thirdfriend. While they’d allbeen living together for ayear already in a dorm,they wanted organizationand style help with thisnew arrangement.

Here are typicalproblem areas, with ad-vice from two designerson how to solve them.

Front door dump

“We all come in and just

drop our stuff in a pile,and sometimes mail getslost or keys disappear —usually when we’re late,”Weidrick says.

Veronica Valencia, aLos Angeles-based de-signer and stylist, sug-

Designers offer tips to

roommates looking to

merge belongings.

By KIM COOKThe Associated Press

Trunks and bins are perfectfor keeping stuff neat andorganized in the commonareas of shared off-campushomes.

PB TEEN

APARTMENT LIVING

SEE OFF-CAMPUS | C3

Bring style to off-campus housing

ral, leopard-print, zebra-stripedand geometric.

“I’m totally all for it,” says DeniseMuir, who admits to taping aShaun Cassidy poster inside herlocker when growing up. “Middleschool isn’t always very fun, andit’s nice to open your locker andsee all your stuff. I think thatmakes a difference in your day.”

As the mother of girls in sixthand eighth grade at Aubry BendMiddle School in Overland Park,Muir sprang for blue rugs, green-and white-trimmed mirrors withmatching pencil holders, vinyl-coated wire shelves and chande-liers.

The older daughter, however,declined an offer of wallpaper.“She had a polka-dot print last yearthat looked really pretty, but it gotripped by her books,” Muir says.

Despite the abundance of ready-made products, plenty of do-it-yourself decor was being orga-nized in the hallways of LakewoodMiddle School during CougarConnection Day on Aug. 8, whenstudents received their locker as-signments, picked up pre-orderedsupplies and had photo IDs taken.One mom was helping her daugh-ter position a package of stripedcake doilies inside a locker, whileanother trimmed a piece of holo-graphic silver foam board to fit.

“We bought it all the first year,”Kim Comeau says. But now hereighth-grade daughter, Avery, ishandcrafting many items: a gar-land of scrapbook-papered circleson a string, spray-painted jumboclothespins with magnets glued tothe back, and an old mirror coatedwith chalkboard paint for mes-sages.

Beyond wallpaper and mirrors,dry erase boards are one of themost popular items. Becausewhere else would you scrawl inspi-rational expressions like, “Hi! Wazup?” or “Normal people are soweird.”

“They put a lot of themselves in-to it,” observes Lakewood MiddleSchool Principal Scott Currier,who says siblings probably aremore competitive than classmates.It’s mostly a girl thing, he says, andjudging by the clusters of girlsdrifting from one locker to thenext, it’s also a social thing.

“The girls were having as muchfun checking out what all theirfriends had done as decoratingtheir own lockers,” Herinckx says.

The phenomenon is not limited

to Johnson County schools. AtNotre Dame de Sion in KansasCity, students are allowed to deco-rate, and they do. “Yes, the wholeshebang,”says Emily Taylor, com-munications director.

At Antioch Middle School inGladstone, Principal StephanieSchnoebelen says, “We do havequite a bit — the mirrors, theshelving, the personal touches —they’re pretty cute.”

The practice is more subdued atCenter Middle School in KansasCity, where sixth-graders sharelockers. Bailey Calvin, an eighth-grader there, says most of herfriends still put up a little some-thing. Last year she had wallpaper,and this year she’s “probably” add-ing a chandelier and a messageboard. And her seventh-gradebrother?

“I don’t really use my locker allthat much,” says Gabe Calvin, ex-plaining there are only a few min-utes between classes, and he keepsmost of his stuff in a book bag. Asfor his friends? “Maybe they havesomething useful like a mirror,” hesays, “but I never particularly lookat what other guys put in theirlockers.”

Heads up, boys! That attitude isabout to be challenged. Having de-veloped nearly every possible inchof locker real estate (did we men-tion glitter-coated picture framesand wall sconces?), companies likeLockerLookz are now eyeing theopposite sex for a future gender-neutral line.

At Lakewood Middle School, Su-san Mulvaney is already on top ofit. As the mother of twin sixth-graders, she bought a pink fun rugand black and white wallpaper forher daughter’s rainbow-themedlocker, and she’s outfitting herson’s with a University of Kansastheme: a red furry rug; red andblue wrapping paper for the insidewalls; and KU sports magnets.

Adults who use lockers are an-other possible market. “We’veheard anecdotally that some wo-men who are nurses or have healthclub memberships use our prod-ucts just for fun,” Orman says.“Some of the items are sophisticat-ed enough.”

And while decorating the insidesof lockers might make the middlegrades an easier experience, mostschools have rules against decorat-ing the outside. Therein lies an un-solved problem. The hard part, ob-serves one tween, is rememberingwhich locker is yours.

FROM C1

LOCKERS: Decorations are now serious business

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WWW.KANSASCITY.COM SUNDAY, AUGUST 31, 2014 C3THE KANSAS CITY STAR.

LOCKERLOOKZ

Sixth-grader Lauren Herinckx was one of several girls who personalized her locker atLakewood Middle School in Overland Park this month.

SUSAN PFANNMULLER | SPECIAL TO THE STAR

LockerLookz’sGem LockerLamp, $18.99,attaches bymagnets to thelocker ceilingand has amotion sensorthat turns it onwhen the lockerdoor opens.

LockerLookzaccessories areso hot amongpreteens thatthey sometimesgrab items outof shippingboxes beforestore clerks canput them ondisplay.

gests setting up a bin foreach housemate and not al-lowing any overflow.

“It’s true, we hit the frontdoor, and everything we’vebeen hauling all day falls tothe floor,” says Valencia,who blogs at DesignHunter-LA.com.

“If it doesn’t fit in the bin,you have to put it away im-mediately,” she says. “I lovefabric bins or wood crates.If you have an entry table,consider fabric-wrappedmagazine boxes, one foreach person.”

Weidrick and Curtis alsoliked a wall shelf with hooks

and small baskets for keysand mail.

Common-area clutter

“The living room is achallenge because that’swhere we spend most of ourtime, so it’s where most ofour junk ends up. It’s hard tokeep a shared space orga-nized when everyone iscoming and going at differ-ent times,” Curtis says.

What they need is stylishstorage where the cluttercan hide when companycomes.

Valencia’s fix: “Twowords: storage ottomans!”

Consider an ottoman infaux leather or suede, with a

flip-top tray that can beused as a resting place forTV remotes, phones andsnack dishes. Clutter can bescooped inside when theneed arises, and, voila! Theottoman provides extraseating.

M. Elodie Froment, PBTeen’s vice president forproduct development, sug-gests using a pair of trunks.“They’re great because youcan store extra blankets andother essentials.”

Trunks come in a varietyof finishes that can appealto guys and girls.

Space to socialize

“We all want our sharedspace to be warm and re-laxed, like our bedrooms,”Curtis says. “But the livingroom and kitchen are sup-posed to be social spots, andit’s nice to be able to changethe atmosphere from ‘justchilling’ to ‘hosting a par-ty.’ ”

Valencia’s answer is to“think in terms of movableand modular. Add floor pil-lows so your coffee tablecan accommodate a studygroup, and poufs for extraseating on movie night.”

She suggests sharing Pin-terest inspirations and find-ing styles and patterns thatall the housemates can livewith. Your own room iswhere you’ll be able to putyour personal stamp.

For common areas, Fro-ment says, “Pick a neutralcolor scheme for the largerfurniture items, and addsplashes of personality withdecorative pillows, art anddecor. If you’re not planningon painting your walls,identify one to decoratewith removable wallpaperor decals.”

If floors are bare, add asturdy nylon rug in a boldgeometric or floral. If you

can’t afford or agree on art-work, the rugs bring patternto the floor and give roomsa finished feel that’s a littlemore grown-up.

Weidrick and Curtis likeambient lighting that willturn down the stresses ofschool.

Froment suggests a funfloor lamp, perhaps pairingit with a playful wall light.“Accent with string lightsfor a soft glow,” she says.

Bedroom space

In bedrooms, Valenciafollows the “3H” rule of or-ganizing: “hamper, hooksand a hanging closet orga-nizer.”

FROM C1

OFF-CAMPUS: Trunks help control clutter

Baskets and bins in metal and fabric can help keep asmall study area organized, while a teal blue filecabinet and striped rug add extra pops of color.

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