A new group of residents are officially moved into Colby Hall, and to start off the new school year, Housing & Residence Life gave them the tools to paint their rooms on Saturday morning.

The event allowed Colby residents to paint one accent wall in their new rooms in order to add an extra special touch to their living experience, hall director Bianca Newton said.

Residents could choose from one of five different colors to paint their room, and could create any design they liked. The designs ranged from Aztec-inspired zigzags, to TCU purple and white, to sorority letters.

Newton said this year was the first time Colby hosted the painting party, which came forth from an event held in Milton Daniel Hall before its renovation in 2009.

"Housing & Residence Life felt that with Colby being near its renovation time, that [painting the rooms] would be an idea to go ahead and try," she said.

Newton estimated the participation count to be around 50 rooms in the residence hall, with some rooms choosing not to participate in order to catch up on sleep after the first week of classes.

Colby Hall resident Gabrielle Pardue said she was happy to participate in the event in order to add some character to the residence hall and make the room her own.

“We’re painting our big wall because it’s a little dodgy,” she said. “We call it ‘Shabby Chic’ because we have a lot of different carpets in our room that are all different colors, but [the wall] is mainly blue.”

To help the residents complete their rooms, the Physical Plant provided the necessary materials to paint, from paint buckets, to brushes, floor tarps and tape, Physical Plant employee James Griffin said.

Griffin said he was excited to take part in the event, because he enjoyed helping the residents express their personalities and learn about how to create their own decorated rooms.

A large aspect of holding the event was for the residents and employees of Colby to meet other young women in the hall and become accustomed to their new living environment, Newton said.

Housing & Residence Life provided pizza from the newly opened restaurant, Toppers Pizza, on West Berry Street and got to know their new residents by socializing and popping into rooms as the residents decorated.

“I actually met some neighbors I hadn’t even talked to before, so it’s a great experience,” Pardue said.