October 21, 2005

'UR Home' allows Purdue residents to trade spaces

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Two pairs of Shreve Hall residents will try their hand at designing new rooms for their neighbors when they film a new program for Purdue University's Boiler Television.

In a takeoff of TLC's "Trading Spaces" television show, two students will spend Saturday (Oct. 22) designing and redecorating each other's rooms, with just a small budget and their creativity. The program, called "UR Home," will be filmed and aired on Boiler Television, the university's cable system, later next month.

Each pair of roommates has been matched with a student designer from Purdue's Department of Consumer Sciences and Retailing who will help make design decisions and offer strategies when redecorating the room.

"For our students, their rooms in the residence halls are their homes," said Jessica Burger, Hawkins Hall residential life manager who helped organize the program. "This program lets them have a little fun and finish the day with a homey, well-decorated room to live in."

The teams will not be able to paint rooms, but they will be able to decorate in almost any other way they can imagine. They will buy most of their supplies Saturday morning, and Burger said items could include new bedding, closet organizers, posters and pictures, rugs and other similar items.

Each team has a budget of $250.

Boiler Television manager Brian Thompson, who also helped plan "UR Home," said he hopes this weekend's activities are the first of several editions of "UR Home."

"Television shows like 'Trading Spaces' and 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' are very popular right now," Thompson said. "This is a way that we can bring the spirit of those shows to the residence halls and to our students. Not only will these students benefit from reinvigorated living spaces, but also our other residents will have a television program that will provide them with ideas they can use in their own rooms."

Students and designers applied to be part of "UR Home," and they were chosen by a panel of representatives from Housing and Food Services, Purdue Marketing Communications and WLFI.

Writer: Matt Holsapple, (765) 494-2073, mholsapple@purdue.edu

Sources: Jessica Burger, (765) 494-7187, jrburger@purdue.edu

Brian Thompson, (765) 496-6365, bwthompson@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

Note to Journalists: Students will be decorating the rooms from 1-3 p.m. and 4-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22. Journalists are invited to take video and photographs of the students at those times at Shreve Hall.

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